A look at listener mail
TEXT OF STORY
KAI RYSSDAL: You win some and you lose some on a program like ours. This week’s case in point is our story about products for pregnant women and new mothers. We sent Cash Peters to have a look-see at the Mom 2B expo out here in Los Angeles. Lots of you enjoyed his piece. But a whole ‘nother batch was downright offended. Impending motherhood and breastfeeding are nothing to be laughed at, their theory goes.
Angelika Pohl of Atlanta thought we had another thing wrong, too.
Angelika Pohl: You could have sent a mother and allowed her to make fun of products that deserve to be made fun of. She would have had better judgment and better credentials. I do have a sense of humor, but the right person has to tell it the right way.
Carson Daly’s late-night talk show was back on the air last night, the Hollywood writers’ strike notwithstanding. Peter Griffiths wrote to say out coverage of Daly’s decision suggested the strikers’ resolve was weakening.
PETER GRIFFITHS: No one wants to be on strike but they know we are striking for something very, very real. That’s why the strike has bit so hard and so fast because it’s over a very, very real life or death issue.
Gene and Betty Hoots own a little burger joint out in Illinois. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It’s called Burger King. We brought you the backstory of their fight against the chain of the same name last week. Which reminded Andy Bade of Tuscon, Arizona, that he used to stop in after church on Sundays.
ANDY BADE: Your story brought back lots of great memories and has made me hungry for one of their great burgers and some soft serve ice cream.
Charley Williams of Villa Park, Illinois, did think the piece was missing a little something, though.
Charley Williams: I was a little disappointed that your reporter Jeremy Hobson did not capture owner Gene Hoots’ trademark way of calling out customer order numbers. Something like “Thiiiirrrrrty-foooooouuuurrrr!”
Mooooving right on to the Securities and Exchange Commission. (How do you like that for a segue?) Michael Brautigam of Cincinnati had some thoughts about our report on the SEC and its recent decision on shareholder rights.
MICHAEL BRAUTIGAN: As an independent voter with no party allegiance, who is representing my needs as an investor? The division at the SEC along Democratic and Republican lines is an anachronism that no longer meets the needs of the American investor and needs to be radically overhauled.
Finally, Michael Taglieri of New York City was irked with our most recent Conversation From the Corner Office. I sat down with eBay CEO Meg Whitman last week. And Mr. Taglieri wondered why we didn’t address a major concern of many eBay users: Fraud.
Well, we did. But a good chunk of our 45-minute chat wound up on the cutting room floor. Here, all the same, is just a little bit of what she said about fraud.
MEG WHITMAN: We for 10 years have provide toolS and all kinds of efforts — probably, oh, I don’t know, [3,000] or 4,000 people at this company now work in what we call our trust and safety arena to keep the site a safe and well-lit place to do business.
If you like something we’re talking about, and especially if you don’t, let us know. Our website is Marketplace.org. Click on that link that says Contact.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
