Transcript
Letters
March 3, 2001
BOB GARFIELD: Amid all the hubbub about the George W. Bush presidency many people forget that Brook and I have occupied our lofty positions approximately as long as the president has occupied his! Naturally this has generated quite a bit of mail. Pearl Hoenig writes: what happened to this program? For the first time in a long while I listened this morning and I was appalled! The show's too over-chirpy anchors, she said, set my teeth on edge. Brook, you don't think [CHIRPY VOICE] we're over-chirpy do you?!
BROOK GLADSTONE: Nah.
BOB GARFIELD:But Maria Jett from Excelsior, Minnesota wrote that: this show gets better all the time, seemingly exponentially. I enjoyed it from the beginning but it seems to get tighter and spicier. And she singled out our feature on the mysterious movie sound effect "The Wilhelm" for special praise. She wasn't the only one. Lots of people from sound editors to regular movie buffs wrote in to tell us how much they loved Dave Serchuk's piece and how they now hear the Wilhelm everywhere.
BROOK GLADSTONE:Our segment on the coverage of the conflict in Israel also prompted a strong reaction. We began with a piece from the field by veteran Middle East reporter Rick Davis describing the perilous position of journalists there. Then we opened ourselves up for criticism asking two media critics to pick our piece apart. Ellen Conford said she found the approach innovative. While the story was long and the time allotted for reactions kind of short, the two critics conveyed their opinions very clearly and succinctly. It was interesting to hear objections to symmetry and balance as not being necessarily fair, and the lack of historical perspective as not being fair either. David Sprunger from Walla Walla, Washington wrote: I was not aware to what level journalists face danger in covering the story, nor was I aware how both Palestinians and Israelis claim the media's coverage is biased against them. But Vhee Demetridis who identified himself as a mercenary tank driver in the Golan Heights War is neither surprised nor sympathetic: Understand and accept the risks fully of what you do as a vocation, he wrote, for the shirking of this will only foster resentment. It is the highest naivete of reporters to expect otherwise. Your outrage has a hollow sound when you walk into a fire and are shocked that you are burned.
BOB GARFIELD:If you want to tell us what you think about our show, you can write to us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. -- that's one word --onthemedia@wnyc.org. Please include the pronunciation of your name. We want to hear from you, and we can always use more eyes and ears on the media. If you've missed something from the show or you just want to hear something again, you can always tune in to onthemedia.org and listen via the web, and of course there you can also get free transcripts. You think Nightline will give you free transcripts? Think again.