Thereare101excusesfornotwritingorcallingthemediawhenyouseeunfair,biasedorinaccuratenewscoverage:"Idon'tknowenough";"I'mtoobusy";"Mycomputercrashed."
(25)___(communicate)withjournalistsmakesadifference.Itdoesnothavetobeperfect;notallletterstojournalistsneedtobeforpublication.Even(26)___one-sentence,handwrittennotetoareporter(27)___behelpful.Ifyoutakethetimetotypeasubstantiveletter,sendcopiesofittotwoorthreeplaceswithinthemediaoutlet-perhapstothereporter,hisorhereditor,aswellastotheletters-to-the-editordepartment.
Ifmediaoutletsgetlettersfromadozenpeople(28)___(raise)thesameissue,theywillmostlikelypublishoneortwoofthem.Soevenifyourletter(29)___(notget)intoprint,itmayhelpanotheronewithasimilarpointofviewgetpublished.Surveysofnewspaperreadersshowthattheletterspageisamongthemostcloselyreadpartsofthepaper.It'salsothepagepolicy-makerslooktoasabarometerofpublicopinion.
(30)___youwritetojournalists,befactual,notrhetorical(带修辞色彩的).Donotpersonallyattackthem;that'smorelikelytoconvincethemthatthey'reintheright.Addresstheminthelanguagethatmostjournalists(31)___(train)tounderstand.Callonthemtoberesponsible,professional,balancedandinclusiveofdiversesourcesandviewpoints.
Letters(32)___areintendedforpublicationshouldusuallybedraftedmorecarefully.