Sir

In your Opinion article “Media studies for scientists” (Nature 416, 461; 2002), you imply that scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center failed to provide information to The Seattle Times and then cried “bad journalism”. You advise that “Rather than shooting the messengers, scientists should take them to one side and give them the real story”.

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center enjoy a good relationship with the media, frequently spending considerable time discussing and explaining our science to reporters. If you had checked with us you would have discovered that, in this case as well, we logged many hours of one-to-one interviews between researchers at the centre and the reporters for The Seattle Times.

We will continue these efforts to work with the news media on our campaign to inform the general public about the importance of clinical trials. We hope that reporters will invest the time to explore and discuss fully the subject about which they are writing.

It is also noteworthy that the accusation of bad journalism came not from a scientist but from a journalist for The Wall Street Journal.