The Coaster Correspondence

VANITIES

VANITY FAIR Ciipis Gwm AANAGING £01101

12 January 2004

Dear Gray don.

Though I'm resigned to your and Steve Florio's decision to keep Ed Coaster around, I must say that dealing with Ed month after month is working my nerves, and that if any of our misadventures with him ever go public we'll all be done for. Might I suggest at least one pre-emptive measure, which is that we hire a "public editor," much as The New York limes has with Dan Okrent in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal? It would be most helpful to have someone who exists at a remove from the magazine's daily workings, to act in the readers' interest and to keep us on our toes. I have recently made the acquaintance of a fellow from the Columbia Journalism Review who may be just what we're looking for. His name is W. DeGrofT Hinterhofer. I've taken the liberty of asking him to compose a letter of introduction to you, which I've enclosed here.

L AMERICAS PREMIER MEDIA MONIIOII COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW

W. DeGroff H~nterhOfer En-Ics M)VISER-A11~~~

JanuarY 8, 2004

Mr. Graydon Carter, Editor Vanity Fair 4 Times Square New Yodc. N.Y. 10036-6562

Dear Mr. Carter

Permit me to introduce myself. My name is W. DeGroff Hinterhofer, and for the last SIX years I have served as Ethics Adviser-at-Iarge to the Columbia Journalism Review, while also teaching a seminar on scrupulous expenseaccount oversight at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. I have been made aware that Vanity Fair might be interested in enlisting a public editor to serve as an outside monitor of the magazine's editonal operations. I believe my journalistic background makes me ideally suited for this position. Prior to my time at CiA, I was the ombudsman for CommonweaL the lay-Catholic journal, writing a monthly critique of the magazine's other writers called I Take Strenuous Exception? I have also written regularly for Bicycling and Prevention, both published by Rodale, and am proud to be a charter member of the Foundation for a Smokefree America. I am, in addition, the author of one book, The Movie-Box Pox: How the Increasing.'y Popular

VCR Is Ruining the Minds of Our Children (University of Chicago Press, 1982). Furthermore, I have no interest, to put it mildly, in the trivial, superficial topics that your magazine covers. Unlike you, I have no desire to cozy up to the very subjects from whom I should be maintaining a safe, ethical distance. I am troubled by your Academy Awards after-party and would recommend its discontinuation. I find George Wayne's interviews to be puerile and unprofessional, not funny. I am steadfastly unafraid of confrontation. For example, I am an ardent recycling advocate who has issued mock summonses to my neighbors when I have discovered unseparated bottles and cardboard in their trash. This has proved to be an effective strategy in getting them to follow the sorting and bundling protocols as set forth very clearly by the New York City Department of Sanitation. t would not hesitate to employ similar strategies at Vanity Fair if the situation warranted. Please let me know if you would like to advance this discussion further. I am reachable most evenings at home, though I ask that you not call after 9:35 P.M.

PS: I value discretion as the foremost of virtues. Ergo, no party other than myself, Chris Garrett, and Mrs. Hinterhofer saw the contents of this letter before it was forwarded to you. The latter party reviewed the letter strictly for proofreading purposes, and has sworn never to broach the topic of it again. not even at the family table or in idle moments of `pillow talk.

More of the very expensive words of Edwin John Coaster, contributing editor