The column you regularly publish by Profs. Miller and Bahnson has finally reached the point where it can no longer be ignored. While I cannot be labeled a regular reader, I do gaze at it just to see who or what they have decided to flagellate.

It now seems evident that their urge to bash is the dominating factor, supplanting usual considerations in learned works such as accuracy, objectivity and fairness. I have identified articles that I know are inaccurate and have concluded that the professors don't let facts get in the way of the story they want to tell. A case in point involves a column they published a few years back where their chosen target was the American Institute of CPAs. The article contained inaccuracies, demonstrably incorrect statements and misleading assertions that to me, as a past chair of the AICPA Board of Directors and a member of its Governing Council, were simply inexcusable. Since one of the authors, Professor Miller, and I live in Colorado Springs and we know each other, I contacted him to offer my assistance in helping him fill the void in his knowledge about the AICPA. More important, I offered to consult with him if he ever felt moved in the future to write about the AICPA. He did not take me up on my offer; indeed, from that point forward he stopped communicating.

Now fast-forward to the present and the column authored by the professors that appeared in the December 2011 issue of Accounting Today ("Some evidence that the AICPA's management has lost its focus," page 20). This article is riddled with misstatements, inaccuracies and erroneous assertions. To use the current jargon of fact-checkers, some of their claims merit the designation, "Pants on fire." Since the professors have proven that they have no interest in educating themselves about a subject before they write about it, I believe I have no choice now but to do publicly what I previously offered to do privately; hence this letter.

1. The AICPA's mission. The authors assert that, "Without question, the AICPA's justifying mission is serving its members, first, foremost, always and only." Of course the AICPA serves its members, but that is certainly not its singular mission. If the professors had bothered to read the AICPA mission statement, they would have found first and foremost a "strong commitment to serving the public interest." Moreover, if the professors had done their homework, they would have found innumerable examples of the AICPA and its members serving the public interest in countless ways, including an award-winning financial literacy program and serving as non-partisan advisories to Congress on such things as Social Security and Medicare.

2. The obsession with the AICPA's management. Had the professors done their homework, they would have learned that the AICPA is truly a democratic organization in which members and their broad range of representatives have significant input. Indeed, most of their misdirected references to management actions regarded actions that had been approved by members and their representatives in a democratic process, and, in fact, many of them originated at the grassroots of our profession.

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