John Mitchell made a very good point, as follows (one that matches my
experience):

>   In my experience, the one who is most tempted to deliberately distort is a
>freelance journalist. A freelancer has to get noticed by busy assignment
>editors out of a crowd of freelancers. Sometimes these people have to "hard
>hustle," and story ideas get pumped up and overblown. Hopefully,
>professionalism and accuracy will win out, but since the reporter doesn't get
>paid, or doesn't get paid as much if the story isn't published, there is
>strong incentive to deliver what the magazine bought and not what the
>reporting actually revealed.

   Nick Wallingford and Jerry Bromenshenk noted that they had been
pleasantly surprised by appropriate professional treatment in specific
cases.

   Very often I have realized (when dealing with writers) --- after the
fact --- that they already had their story written before contacting me.
Subsequently, they would select a minor adverse item I furnished and
emphasize it all out of proportion, omitting all mention of contrary hard
evidence provided them.

   Newspapers at the local level have provided my best experiences, perhaps
because those reporters know they will likely need "expert" opinion on one
matter or another about insects in the future.

   The most professional experience I had was with a reporter and
photographer from the LOS ANGELES TIMES.  They accompanied me on a 40 mile
round trip by sailboat to Santa Cruz Island and later wrote (and
illustrated) a feature article that I could mail to relatives without fear
of embarassment.  That, despite the fact that the reporter got dreadfully
seasick (and, oddly, is now a travel writer for that paper).  One can read
that article ("Lord of the Gadflies") at the following web site (last
item):

http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm

   Yes, I still agree to interviews with reporters and writers but remain
cautious, largely following Tom Sanford's 10 rules that I posted earlier
(most of which I had learned the hard way, on my own).  Oftentimes I ask
incisive questions of such people before beginning the interview to
determine whether they have an agenda not compatible with objective
reporting.  If so, I become far more cautious about opening up.

                                                                Adrian

Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106  [http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm]

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*
*    "To have one's opinions prefabricated can be a source of great
*   comfort and relief.  It relieves one of the responsibility of
*   choice."
*                                          Murray Levin, 1971
*
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