Re: NPR interview

J Matthew Pearson wrote:

> Sally Caves wrote:
>
> > Thank you, Matt, for a wonderful review of
> > the segment!  How nice of you!  How nice of
> > all of you to write in.  Matt, please remind me
> > of the "New Times" piece on Elvish that you've
> > recently done.  Did you inform me about this?
> > Where can I/we read this?
>
> I no longer have the URL, but the article is available on line.  It was
> published by a free weekly paper in LA called "New Times".  It should be
> easy enough to track down using a simple web search.  The "New Times" site
> is www.newtimesla.com (or something close):  Just go to the site and do a
> search for "Marcus Smith" or "Elvish", and it should pop up.
>
> I'm sorry to hear about all the omissions in the NPR interview, but as you
> yourself said, it's hard to boil down 30 minutes to 6 minutes, especially
> with music and 'sound effects' added.  I'm also sorry that your
> professional affiliation was omitted--that's a Bad Thing.  But at least the
> stuff they chose to include was mostly factual.  I will forever be known to
> the "New Times" readership as Mark Pearson!  :-)
Oops.  I just rechecked the "New Times" site (it *is*
http://www.newtimesla.com, by the way) and discovered that, weeks after the
original article, they finally printed the correction about my name--along with
some other letters which you might find interesting.  It's clear that there are
many many more conlangers and conlanging fans out there than are represented on
this list...

Of course, even in my printed correction, all is not right:  They completely
rephrased the text of my email, making it sound as though I'm blaming the
author of the article for getting my name wrong.  I never made any such
accusation, but instead speculated that the mistake could have crept in either
in the writing process *or* in the editorial process.  Interesting how the
editors removed themselves from blame with a little judicious snipping.  Ah,
the perils of the media...  :-)

Matt.

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