BROOKE GLADSTONE: We're back with On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone with a few of your letters. Paul Jordan of Flint, Michigan thanked us for our interview with military analyst Bill Arkin who outlined the Pentagon's plans for an information war. Jordan wrote: "Call me a cynic, but it seems to me that a great way to give a patina of truth to a strategically false story would be to plant it overseas where it would inevitably filter back to shape our view of events in the world. It seems to me that it would be easy to do and if the will to do it is present, it will be done." And listener Dale Heltzer weighed in on our piece about the disappearing rock instrumental. "I wonder what OTM gap Frankenstein by Edgar Winter disappeared into. Surely this is an outstanding showpiece for what could be done with the synthesizer. Also, I love the way the dramatic tension built up to an almost unbearable level by not playing Green Onions until the very end of the piece. Green Onions is the absolutely most totally way cool instrumental in the entire 4.5 billion year history of earth!" We interviewed Fortune magazine columnist Adam Lashinsky on a new rule proposed by the New York Stock Exchange that would compel newspapers to disclose the financial interests of the analysts they quote. Lashinsky said the rule acts as a gag order, limiting freedom of the press. But Jeffrey Silverstein of New York City found that position "embarrassingly hypocritical. Holier than all the rest of us, newspaper and magazine authors are what? -honorable enough? smarter than everyone else? - and therefore should be allowed to police themselves after 5 years of admitted collusion with dishonest appraisals of investment opportunities? Please be honest and change your name to 'By and For the Media.'" We were accused of lobbing more softballs by Tom Howe, a self-described Libertarian of North Carolina. In our interview with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, Howe writes: "You lobbed 'Explain why media consolidation is bad.' -- why not just ask him to make a speech? I would have liked to hear him answer 'Why should citizens believe that the greatest of all monopolies -- the government -- would make a better filter for news than any possible combination of businesses?' -- but no, you invited the advocate of the biggest, the only coercive monopoly there is and handled him with kid gloves. Maybe you should call your show 'Stomp on the Media.'" We here at Whatever-You-Want-to-Call-Us do want to hear from you, so send your letters to onthemedia@wnyc.org and please don't forget to tell us where you live and how to pronounce your name. [MUSIC]