Book Three Unit Five

Editors of newspapers and magzines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics, as it did in the case of the journalist who had been
asked by the editor of a well-known magazine to find out the exact number of steps and the height of the wall which surrounded the president's palace in a new African republic. The journalist was instructed by the editor to provide his readers with the figures after the editor had read his article. The journalist at first made no reply. The editor yet sent
him three more faxes, but received no replay. Reluntantly, the editor had to publish the article as it had been originally written. A week later, the journalist at last sent the editor a fax informing that he had been not only arrested but also sent to prison as well. He
added that he had been arrested while counting the 1,084 steps leading to the fifteen-
-foot wall which surrounded the president's palace.