ГУЛаг Палестины

sensitive moment for our company. Adverse publicity may very well

cost us the China sale."

"Yes, it might."

"Suppose that we lost business as a result of their show. If we

can demonstrate that Newsline presented an erroneous view - and we

told them it was erroneous - can we sue them for damages?"

"As a practical matter, no. We would probably have to show they

proceeded with 'reckless disregard' for the facts known to them.

Historically, that has been extremely difficult to prove."

"So Newsline is not liable for damages?"

"No."

"They can say whatever they want, and if they put us out of

business, it's our tough luck?"

"That's correct."

"Is there any restraint at all on what they say?"

"Well." Fuller shifted in his chair. "If they falsely portrayed

the company, they might be liable. But in this instance, we have a

lawsuit brought by an attorney for a passenger on 545. So Newsline

is able to say they're just reporting the facts: that an attorney

made the following accusations about us."

"I understand," Marder said. "But a claim filed in a court has

limited publicity. Newsline is going to present these crazy claims

to forty million viewers. And at the same time, they'll

automatically validate the claims, simply by repeating them on

television. The damage to us comes from their exposure, not from the

original claims."

"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 Co

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 - ca

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

a

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

Vy

During the summer holidays, Maksym was working as a councillor at a

summer camp for young girls near Yevpatoria, Crimea.

Haters of Ukraine, who rush to propose the view that Crimea is not a

peninsula attached to Ukraine, but rather is an island unco

to Ukraine, reacted with hostility to this summer camp, especially

provoked by the Ukrainian language spoken by the Ukrainian children,

which dared to resound even within Ukrainian Crimea. The hatred

mounted to such an irrepressible degree that it provoked the bandits

to the most egregious crime: they constructed an explosive and threw

it into the window of the children's dormitory. Ten or so children

could have been killed by the explosion. But the young Ukrainian