Distorted Bio   

Will Bunch's article "Disconnected" (August/September) reminds us in newspapers big and small to practice Journalism 101 — get out of the office, pound the pavement, meet new people and make yourself available to sources. I especially liked the former San Jose Mercury News tech writer's comment that newspapers are not an "oracle." Readers often think newspapers are somehow omnipotent, so if something doesn't appear in the paper, then the editors deliberately left it out. The more we engage our readers, rather than alienate them, the more they feel part of the process.

A curious note, though, comes at the end of the eight pages devoted to Bunch's article in a two-sentence biography about him. The second sentence begins, "His book on the distorted legacy of Ronald Reagan..." That's debatable. Conservative readers of AJR, such as myself, would feel alienated by that statement. Rather, it should have read "His latest book argues that the legacy of Ronald Reagan has been distorted..."

Gregory Norfleet

Editor

West Branch Times

West Branch, Iowa