On Jul 21, 2012, at 9:58 PM, Fernando Cassia wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 8:00 PM, Carl G. Estabrook
> <galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:
>> was not immediately available"
>
> This is an old trick of the trade. The key is the *immediatelly*. You
> write a story but never intend the other side to have his or her voice
> included. But you fake your interest in obtaining it. So the moment
> you have the story fully written and ready to be sent, you dispatch an
> e-mail seeking the other party´s opinion..
I doubt that. Most obits are prepared long in advance. I'm guessing the NYT didn't have one in the can for Alex - they got a metro reporter to write this one - and did this one in a hurry.
Doug