Paul Miller wrote:
SUBJ: Beware of interviews
When I taught at Indiana University I knew quite a number of professors who
simply refused to talk with the press. Their feeling was that there was
little to gain from the experience ....but a great deal to lose when one is
misquoted. I understand such trepidation. Interviewers don't always "hear"
what we say .... and it gets downright frightening when they put quotation
marks around something. (Thus, as we all know, don't believe everything you
read.)
Paul A. Miller
P.S. As I think about it, I am hoping that Professor Hobbs has an amusing
anecdote to share in this vein.
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(Edward Hobbs here:)
Paul is very kind to recall with sympathy some of my disastrous interviews
with the press. I was extensively quoted and misquoted through the 1960's,
once quoted (along with Isaac Asimov) on the New York Times sports page,
and then I refused interviews---until 1977, when I spoke for two hours on
the phone with John Dart, of the L.A.Times. That front-page article netted
me about 3,000 pieces of hate-mail, threats against my employing schools, and
taught me that I should never again allow myself to be interviewed by the press.
My response to Paul is that I have no AMUSING anecdotes to report! -- only
rather panful ones (except for that interview about the NY Mets winning the
World Series).
Burned many times,
Edward