Letters



February 10, 2001



BROOKE GLADSTONE: Bob and I have been on the program now for 6 weeks; about time to read some of your letters.
BOB GARFIELD: All right. Michael Eisler said our report on Bloody Sunday was a revelation; a dispassionate examination of the media by the media. Another listener who didn't leave his name called our rendition of Oedipus as told in vanity license plates a new low for radio.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:Garfield's piece or more accurately screed on the British celebrity drought prompted this from Mark Nyemark. Alas, the election is finally over. Why not a cheap shot against Britain? What your story came down to was: British celebrities are only celebrities if they are known to Americans. Mr. Nyemark signs off from Paris, France, a celebrity-free zone.
BOB GARFIELD:We'll get to France later. Of Mike Pesca's profile of Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly Anita Hunt of Brooklyn wrote that it was wonderful that Mike Pesca points out that Bill O'Reilly is not an independent as he claims but has registered as a Republican for the past 5 elections. It's helpful to those who watch the news to know the political side from where the reporter comes. Accordingly, she says, she'd love to know the political affiliations of other news people including Katie Couric, Peter Jennings, Bernard Shaw, or for instance, Mike Pesca.
WOMAN: Well actually Mike is saving that revelation for his appearance on The O'Reilly Factor. After the piece aired, O'Reilly claimed he'd never heard of Mike Pesca, despite the fact that Mike interviewed him for over 2 hours; a back and forth ensued, and to make a long story short, mike will appear on The Factor on Valentine's Day, and you can read about his preparations in his O'Reilly Diaries exclusively at onthemedia.org.
BOB GARFIELD:We had quite a few suggestions for our Word Watch segment. Those are the words or phrases that come into season to be used and abused by the media, among them schmooze, gender, notion, paradigm and push-the-envelope. All right -- stay tuned.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:Meanwhile keep pushing letters into your envelopes and send them to us at On the Media, WNYC, 1 Center Street, New York, New York, 10007 or you can e-mail us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. Tell us where you're from and how to pronounce your name; also what you are hearing and seeing and reading and what you think about it all! We actually do want to know!
BOB GARFIELD: Coming up: real people made famous by movies, and a movie great who remains anonymous.