MICHELE NORRIS, host:
It's been a few days since we read from your letters, so let's dip into the mailbox.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
Yesterday, we aired a report about how the town of Postville, Iowa, has been affected by an immigration raid at a local meat-processing plant. The company, Agriprocessors, lost about half its workforce after the raid. And we said that hundreds will likely be deported.
NORRIS: Listener Rodney Nilan(ph) of Greenville, South Carolina, was one of several people who wrote to say the story missed an important point. Tim Belay story's fails to mention that those detained and deported are undocumented, illegal workers. This is just another example of a failed immigration policy from both parties.
BLOCK: And Sam Longstreet(ph) of St. Louis wonders why was NPR so sympathetic to Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa? Agriprocessors had to knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Postville schools gladly took the government funding that came with the illegal immigrants' children. What both did was wrong, and they deserve what is coming to them.
BLOCK: And we've got a little catching up to do. Last Friday, we aired a story about...
(Soundbite of music, "The Hockey Theme")
BLOCK: ...the theme to hockey night in Canada.
(Soundbite of music, "The Hockey Theme")
NORRIS: This theme has been heard before games on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for 40 years, and it's so beloved north of the border that it's known as Canada's second national anthem - something akin to "America the Beautiful" here.
BLOCK: In our story, we noted that the anthem's commercial status was endangering its role as a source of civic pride.
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BLOCK: A dispute over the rights to the music and payments to composer Dolores Clayman led the CBC to threaten to stop using the theme.
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NORRIS: Caroline Bright(ph) of St. Albans, Vermont, writes: I am a dual citizen of Canada and the U.S., and I find it unbelievable that the CBC would have the nerve to change the theme song of a true national tradition. It would be like the Boston Red Sox refusing to play "Sweet Caroline." That song was played at Fenway Park in the middle of the eighth inning. ..TEXT: BLOCK: Kathy Rousseau(ph) of Buffalo wrote: We American hockey fans who live in border towns grew up on the theme to hockey night in Canada. Cold Saturday nights in January will just not be the same without it.
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NORRIS: Last night, we learned the latest twist in this tale of profit and patriotism, and we're happy to tell you the music will play on on another network. That's right, CTV, one of Canada's commercial television networks, has seized the song from the country's public broadcaster.
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BLOCK: CTV president Rick Brace called the tune a cherished piece of Canadiana, and he assures fans it will be heard on upcoming hockey broadcasts as well as the network's coverage of the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.
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NORRIS: And we guess that Canadian bands like the Shuffle Demons will be playing their own versions of hockey night for some years to come.
BLOCK: Well, you want to settle the score about something you've heard on ATC? Write to us. Go to npr.org and click on Contact Us at the top of the page. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.