Clarifying Some Points

Thanks for the recent upbeat story about California Business (“California Business Magazine Starts on Comeback Trail,” March 31). I’d like, though, to clarify two points: In reporting the events of last year at California Business, an impression may have been left that the previous administration did less than a good job. In fact, under the leadership of my predecessor, Hershel Sinay, California Business won more editorial and creative awards than any regional business publication. The magazine owner, Martin Stone, has said several times that “Hershel Sinay saved this magazine.”

Then, too, the review of my one-time editorship of a weekly newspaper in Los Angeles may have suggested that my newspaper deliberately printed a hoax involving a man posing as airline hijacker D. B. Cooper. The facts are that the man attempting the hoax was arrested, tried and convicted--and the money recovered--because I alerted the FBI.

As to how I presented the story, I told it exactly as it happened, in precise chronological order--a perfectly acceptable journalistic practice. By the time these stories appeared, the press had already reported that the Cooper imposter had been arrested.

Karl Fleming

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

California Business