Letters: iPhone, CEOs, health reform
TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: We’ll start letters this week with Apple. One a day can keep the doctor away, but losing one in the form of a phone can cause a whole lot of trouble. Last week, we interviewed Gizmodo’s Jason Chen about his acquisition of what looks to be the new iPhone model. Chen bought it from someone who found it in a Silicon Valley bar. Apple was not amused.
And neither was Fraz Ismat of Lawrenceville, N.J.
FRAZ ISMAT: Not cool, Marketplace, not cool at all. You gave a national forum to a party that participated in the theft of a device. If I had “found” your laptop, dissected it, and returned it to you after putting your personal photos online, would I get to be on the radio, too?
Turns out the authorities weren’t amused either. Last Friday police and federal agents raided Chen’s home, seized a bunch of computer equipment and have opened an investigation.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has been grilling Wall Street execs for the past couple of weeks. CEO after CEO claimed they couldn’t have seen the collapse coming.
But Hank Tilbury of Prairie Village, Kan., isn’t buying it.
HANK Tilbury: When I bought my home in 2003, brokers were approving me for mortgages that would have cost 60 percent of my monthly income. I thought they were out of their minds to push something so obviously unsustainable! It is troubling in the extreme to hear our financial geniuses plead ignorance when a humble peasant like me could look at the situation then and see the potential for disaster.
Early last week we heard from a doctor about how he handles patient questions about health care reform. Dr. Winston Capel told us he’s seeing a lot of outrage about the new law. And he’s worried it will create more bureaucracy and affect physician morale. His comments prompted responses from across the health care spectrum.
Kenneth Elliott of Philadelphia echoed what a lot of you had to say.
Kenneth Elliott: I was dumbstruck listening to this infuriatingly one-sided interview. I found it unbelievable and irresponsible that you made no effort to challenge Dr. Capel’s specious arguments.
And finally, last week we spoke to Annetta Cheek, the director for the Center for Plain Language. The center’s mission is to get government and businesses to communicate more clearly. So we asked her to review some of our language.
Annetta Cheek: A little further down you used the word nefarious, which is one of my favorite words, but I might not have used it in a story on the radio.
David Burns of Needham, Mass., stood with us on that one.
DAVID BURNS: Nefarious is an excellent word everyone should know upon reaching the age of 13, or before voting, or enrolling in the armed forces, or submitting a comment to Marketplace.
If you’ve got a comment or a question nefarious in nature, or not, let us know.
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