Transcript
BOB GARFIELD: And now for a few of your letters. Two weeks ago on this show, author David Goodman recalled the work of New York Times reporter William L. Laurence, handpicked by the War Department during World War II to write pieces praising the atomic bomb and to deny the reality of radiation sickness. For Gerald M. Clark of New York City, that conversation sparked a memory of very different coverage. Quote, "The New Yorker Magazine in 1946 published a whole issue devoted to John Hersey's devastating description of the effects of the bomb as told by survivors. I was especially interested, having just come back from the Navy in the Pacific, when ABC Radio had the article by John Hersey read aloud in primetime on the full network by Madeleine Carroll. Sections ran on several consecutive evenings, as I remember it. You could not fail to tune back. Like everyone who heard it, I was appalled. And just 20 years old, I had to think about my own luck in my two year naval service. I figured that as grotesque as the effects of that bomb were, it had spared my buddies and me from kamikaze and torpedo attacks. It's amazing how fast self interest kicks in to one's moral calculations."
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Several listeners were pretty annoyed after I gave them the ending of the movie Million Dollar Baby last week. Ian Miller writes, "There are few practices as rude as ruining a movie for someone who hasn't seen it. I don't usually associate your program with thoughtlessness, but you certainly were yesterday. You owe your listeners who haven't seen the movie an enormous apology." Likewise this from Michael Baker: "I haven't seen someone destroy a film for me since a friend said after The Crying Game, 'I'm not going to tell you anything about it, but the chick is a guy.'" Thanks, Michael. I haven't seen The Crying Game yet. Actually I have. But here's my question. What's the statute of limitations on this thing? Million Dollar Baby was released last winter. It won the Oscar. It's in video. I mean, how long before it's safe to say, Rosebud was a sled?
BOB GARFIELD: Write in with your complaints about that Rosebud gaffe, about The Crying Game, or the fact that you know that Tony Perkins dressed up as his mother in "Psycho" --to onthemedia@wync.org. And don't forget to tell us where you live and how to pronounce your name. Coming up, reporting on the Gaza pullout from both sides of the barricades, and happy shiny news for happy shiny people.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media from NPR.