Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 10:45:12 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Dick Homan Subject: Re: "Mutling" Swans MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I haven't read the Sun story Rik mentions, but, based on 40 years as a reporter and editor, I can say that general assignment reporters are rarely an expert on all the subjects they write about and are no better than the information they receive. The best way to prevent misinformation from being published is for KNOWLEDGEABLE birders to make themselves accessible and helpful to reporters, and for birders whose enthusiasm exceeds their knowledge to have the humility to refer a reporter to a knowledgeable birder like Rik and many others on Osprey. There are, of course, occasional lazy reporters who don't make the effort, and while not much can be done about them, they don't last long. Dick Homan Bethesda, MD HomanRL@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================