Letters: Women Presidents, Coots

Copyright © 2008 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

And I'm Michele Norris.

It's time for some clarifications and your comments on the program.

BLOCK: First, a clarification. Last week, we aired a story about a controversy regarding robocalls and the run-up to the presidential primary in North Carolina. That story included an excerpt of a public service announcement put out by the group Women's Voices, Women Vote. It features the actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus walking through a fictional oval office fantasizing about electing a woman president.

(Soundbite of public service announcement)

Ms. JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS (Actress): Come on. Who do you want in here? You decide.

BLOCK: With that we may have left the impression that Ms. Louis-Dreyfus was backing Hillary Clinton.

NORRIS: In the end, the woman president she's fantasizing about is herself. But in the actual non-imaginary election that's going on right now, Ms. Louis-Dreyfus says she's backing Barack Obama.

BLOCK: Now we have this correction. Bird enthusiasts from across North America wrote in to clear up one point. We heard a story on Friday about a banned of coots - the birds, not the people. Some coots migrate to Southern California and one wealthy subdivision wants them gone. You can probably imagine one reason why.

NORRIS: Well, it wasn't the coots that got our listeners going. It was our reference to another group of birds. We referred to Canadian geese. They are, in fact, called the Canada geese, not Canadian geese.

NORRIS: And speaking of geese and coots, J.P. Cabajelly(ph) of Casper, Wyoming had this to say.

BLOCK: This story epitomizes the fact that we Americans have tried so hard to separate ourselves from the planet we live on. If 12 coots make enough poop to bother some people, these folks need to get out of the house more. He continues: There is a beautiful and wonderful world out there beyond the manicured lawn.

NORRIS: If you feel strongly about our program, please let us know. You can write to us by going to the Web site npr.org/contact.

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