Subject: Re: RE: [Leica] Fact checks -- no Leica or Photo content

[Alexey Merz <alexey@webcom.com>]

Bob McEowen wrote:

> IMHO, I could not have made the case FOR showing story 
> subjects a copy of a story any better than this writer 
> did arguing against it.

> I'm sorry, I try to be civil on this board but what 
> ARROGANCE!? We journalist - -- and I do count myself 
> among them -- are so full or ourselves! We forget that
> 99 percent of what we write about rarely rises above 
> our paper's ultimate fate: wrapping fish and lining 
> the bottom of bird cages. We simply don't do that many
> "save the world" kinds of stories. So much of what we do 
> involves ordinary people who, because of us, are 
> experiencing their sole "15 minutes of fame." Don't 
> we owe it to them to get it right? Where we are significant
> is as the recorder of history. Fifty years from now 
> people will look up what we read and expect it to be right. 
> Accuracy checks ensure this. 
[...]
> One last comment: This fella says he worked for the Washington 
> Post and that at that paper reading a subject a story could 
> be a firing offense.

Etc., etc. 

I suspect that B.D. won't point this out himself because he 
hasn't so far, and I'm guessing he's too modest to do so himself. 
He not only worked at the Washington Post and Newsday - he won a
Pulitzer Prize for his reporting. And the stories that he's 
specialized in are EXACTLY the stories about ordinary folks. 
He has covered the medical and biomedical science beats. 
Here are three of the books he's written:

Colen, B. D.. Born at risk /, B.D. Colen ; photos. by Linda 
Wheeler. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin's Press,
c1981. xvi, 212 p., [3] leaves of plates : ill. ; 22 cm.

Colen, B. D.. Hard choices : mixed blessings of modern medical
technology /, B.D. Colen ; foreword by John W. Scanlon. 
New York : Putnam's, c1986. 272 p. ; 23 cm.

Colen, B. D.. Karen Ann Quinlan : dying in the age of eternal life 
/, B. D. Colen. New York : Nash Pub., c1976. 204 p. ; 22 cm.

It looks to me as though B.D. has faced the issues that you raise
and is *well* aware of the problems faced. 

I decided not to let B.D. see this post prior to publication for 
fear that he might convince me not to post it ;-).

- -Alexey Merz