When they sounded the alarm on E. coli-contaminated spinach last week, using the media to put the word out, the FDA did apparently did not properly include the ethnic press.

Viji Sundaram, health editor of New California Media, inquired to the FDA why these outlets were not used to report the outbreak and received this brusque response before being hung up on: "We did an extensive outreach with the national and local media."

The Korean Daily, Ming Pao, The World Journal, and Sing Tao Daily — all newspapers with large circulations, with the latter two read by hundreds of thousands of Chinese Americans each day — were apparently also not addressed by the FDA, nor were scores of other ethnic media outlets across the country.