Not everything should be interactive … If Martin Luther put his 95 Theses on the wall and then all the townsfolk sent him their comments, and he had to write back to all of them and clarify what he meant, some of the theses would have gotten all watered down… The LA Times‘ Joel Stein does a great rant on the email address appended to every column he writes.

Stein’s right about the value of interaction. If you’re paying columnists to research and write attention-grabbing copy, how much of that time do you want them to spend answering the mail?

In the UK, five news now puts email addresses for its TV reporters up on-screen – an innovation doubtless welcomed by cyber-stalkers everywhere.

For the most part, though, these email addresses are phoney. Inside most news organizations people have one account for the general public and one account for their friends and colleagues.

If you don’t believe me – email one of them…