Good dialogue.(Dear Reader)(Editorial)

I'm writing this in mid-March, but by the time you read it, the MTNA conference will be a memory. I hope you found it a time of stimulating dialogue.

Certainly the presentations can be richly informative, the hands-on workshops engaging, but in addition I think there is always something especially penetrating about a good conversation, a dialogue.

We can find ourselves starved for that these days. What passes for political conversation on certain television stations has devolved into simplistic, adversarial shouting. I was once involved in bringing political pundit Susan Estrich to our university campus for a guest speech. She explained wryly that the television producers don't allow you to express a reasonable, balanced or nuanced view. They will only hire you if you stake out an extreme, black-and-white position on an issue, and during the telecast they often prompt you through the earpiece to interrupt the other speakers in order to create friction and "better TV."

The juicy part of our conference often happens between the official sessions. That's when we joke around with friends and may even find ourselves exploring the same topics that the sessions brought up, but in a less public, more frank and confidential way--and we really ...