ГУЛаг Палестины

"I take your point," Fuller said. "But the law doesn't see it

that way. Newsline has the right to report a lawsuit."

"Newsline has no responsibility to independently assess the legal

claims being made, no matter how outrageous? If the lawyers said,

for example, that we employed child molesters, Newsline could still

report that, with no liability to themselves?"

"Correct."

"Let's say we go to trial and win. It's clear that Newsline

presented an erroneous view of our product, based on the attorney's

allegations, which have been thrown out of court. Is Newsline

obligated to retract the statements they made to forty million

viewers?"

"No. They have no such obligation."

"Why not?"

"Newsline can decide what's newsworthy. If they think the

outcome of the trial is not newsworthy, they don't have to report

it. It's their call."

"And meanwhile, the company is bankrupt," Marder said. "Thirty

thousand employees lose their jobs, houses, health benefits, and

start new careers at Burger King. And another fifty thousand lose

their jobs, when our suppliers go belly up in Georgia, Ohio, Texas,

and Connecticut. All those fine people who've devoted their lives

working to design, build, and support the best airframe in the

business get a firm handshake and a swift kick in the butt. Is that

how it works?"

Fuller shrugged. "That's how the system works. Yes."

"I'd say the system sucks."

"The system is the system," Fuller said.

Marder glanced at Casey, then turned back to Fuller. "Now Ed," he

said. "This situation sounds very lopsided. We make a superb

product, and all the objective measures of its performance

demonstrate that it's safe and reliable. We've spent years

developing and testing it. We've got an irrefutable track record.

But you're saying a television crew can come in, hang around a day or

two, and trash our product on national TV. And when they do, they

have no responsibility for their acts, and we have no way to recover

damages."

Fuller nodded.

"Pretty lopsided," Marder said.

Fuller cleared his throat. "Well, it wasn't always that way.

But for the last thirty years, since Sullivan in 1964, the First

Amendment has been invoked in defamation cases. Now the press has a

lot more breathing room."

"Including room for abuse," Marder said.

Fuller shrugged. "Press abuse is an old complaint," he said.

"Just a few years after the First Amendment was passed, Thomas

Jefferson complained about how inaccurate the press was, how unfair

– "

"But Ed," Marder said. "We're not talking about two hundred

years ago. And we're not talking about a few nasty editorials in

colonial newspapers. We're talking about a television show with

compelling images that goes instantaneously to forty, fifty million

people - a sizable percentage of the whole country - and murders our

reputation. Murders it. Unjustifiably. That's the situation we're

talking about here. So," Marder said, "what do you advise us to do,

Ed?"

"Well," Fuller cleared his throat again. "I always advise my

clients to tell the truth."

Of course Michael Crichton's depiction above is fictional, and so may be

exaggerated. However, anyone who is acquainted with 60 Minutes' broadcast The Ugly

Face of Freedom of 23 Oct 1994 - hosted by yourself - cannot help wondering whether

Crichton's depiction might in fact be accurate, at least in occasional instances.

I wonder if you would not at long last care to break your silence and say a word

either of retraction and apology, or if not that, then at least some word in defense

of your broadcast and of your profession?

Yours truly,

Lubomyr Prytulak

cc: Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney, Lesley Stahl,

Mike Wallace.

HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE SAFER 820 hits since 9Apr99

Morley Safer Letter 5 9Apr99 Who blew the hands off Maksym Tsarenko?

The sort of powerful story that neither you nor Rabbi Bleich were able to find is one of

a Russian summer-camp councillor who had his hands blown off by Ukrainian

nationalists for using the Russian language within Ukraine; or one of a Jewish

summer-camp councillor having his hands blown off by Ukrainian nationalists for using

Hebrew or Yiddish within Ukraine. Such things do not happen within Ukraine to either

Russians or to Jews - they happen only to Ukrainians.

April 9, 1999

Morley Safer

60 Minutes, CBS Television

51 W 52nd Street

New York, NY

USA 10019

Morley Safer:

Who Blew The Hands Off

Maksym Tsarenko?

The photograph above shows Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma bestowing the Order of

Yaroslaw the Wise on Maksym Tsarenko. My free translation of the text which explains

the photograph is as follows:

Among the first recipients of the Order, awarded on the fourth

anniversary of the national independence of Ukraine, were leading

Ukrainian workers in the fields of culture, art, and law: O.

Basystiuk, A. Mokrenko, and F. Burchak.

On this same day, the president of Ukraine also bestowed this mark

of distinction, "for valor" upon twenty-year-old student at the