Letters: Edwards, Hays Code

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MELISSA BLOCK, host:

Now to your comments on Friday's program.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

We got lots of letters from listeners who were unhappy with our coverage of former senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' extramarital affair.

BLOCK: On Friday, Edwards admitted to a past sexual relationship with Rielle Hunter, a woman who worked for his campaign in 2006. Many of you said we shouldn't have covered the story at all.

SIEGEL: Michael Vitello(ph) of Davis, California, sent this: I am disappointed that you are making John Edwards' infidelity a major story. I would've thought that we were past the time when sexual conduct was still news.

BLOCK: And Leo Smith of Portland, Oregon, wrote something similar. No doubt Mr. Edwards' misstep represents a personal and family tragedy, but it is not a story of national importance. It makes me worry about the fate of our nation when one of our best media outlets covers titillating gossip with the same gravitas as the invasion of Georgia by Russian forces. I felt like I was listening to "Entertainment Tonight" rather than National Public Radio.

SIEGEL: And we have one correction. In Friday's feature on the 40th anniversary of the demise of Hollywood's Hays Code, we said that Frank Sinatra got an Oscar nomination from the Motion Picture Association.

BLOCK: That was incorrect. In fact, it's the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that awards Oscar nominations, not the Motion Picture Association.

SIEGEL: We welcome your comments, criticism and corrections. Send them to us at our Web site, NPR.org. Click on Contact Us at the top of the page.

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