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than by stating the defects of "The Ugly Face of Freedom" boldly?

Yours truly,

Lubomyr Prytulak

cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Michael Jordan, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace.

Morley Safer Letter 3 24May98 Your name inevitably comes up

If you cannot find instances of unfairness or inaccuracy in the many accusations that

have been leveled against The Ugly Face of Freedom, then I wonder whether your

refusing to retract and apologize satisfies standards of journalistic ethics.

May 24, 1998

Morley Safer

60 Minutes, CBS Television

51 W 52nd Street

New York, NY

USA 10019

Dear Mr. Safer:

I am enclosing a copy of my letter to Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich dated 23May98

asking him to corroborate or to retract certain of his statements broadcast on the 60

Minutes story The Ugly Face of Freedom of 23Oct94. The subject of that letter leads

to further questions that I would like to put to you.

As your broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom was devoid of evidence supporting the

extreme conclusions that you were offering, and as the documentation of the two

attacks on Jews that Rabbi Bleich describes would have begun to provide some such

missing evidence, why did you not get in touch with the two sets of victims, as well

as with law enforcement officials, and interview them for the 60 Minutes broadcast?

In the case of the knife attack on two elderly Jews, Rabbi Bleich describes the

victims as having been left "for dead." Thus, the severity of this attack possibly

resulted in the taking of police and medical photographs, and possibly resulted in

newspaper coverage, and these photographs and newspaper stories, together with any

on-camera testimony of the victims and police officials would have begun to add

substantiation to your broadcast. In fact, if the perpetrators of any of the attacks

had been apprehended, you might have been able to interview them as well. Any of

these steps would have done much to enhance the quality of your work and yet you

seem to have failed to take any of these elementary and obvious steps. I wonder if

you could explain why.

The suspicion that you would be attempting to refute in your answer is that you

did indeed take the obvious steps of attempting to interview the victims and

attempting to confirm the stories with law enforcement officials, discovered that the

stories did not pan out, but finding yourself thin on material, broadcast Rabbi

Bleich's allusions to them anyway.

You will see that in my letter to Rabbi Bleich, I request particulars concerning

the two or more attacks that he refers to. I now put the same request to you: if you

are able to provide confirmatory details, please do so - at a minimum, the names of

the victims, and the locations and dates of the attacks; copies of newspaper

clippings or other documentation if you have it. If you are unable to document Rabbi

Bleich's stories, then it would seem appropriate that you retract them.

A comment on a related point. You must be aware that a number of the defects of

the 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom are discussed on the Ukrainian

Archive web site, particularly in the section at www.ukar.org/60min.shtml, and to a

lesser extent in other places on the larger site at www.ukar.org. Your name

inevitably comes up in these discussions. Using the site's internal search engine to

search for your name reveals that it appears hundreds of times spread over dozens of

documents. I mention this to invite you to examine these many references with the

aim of determining their accuracy and fairness. If you have any comments to make

concerning these references, then I can promise you that these comments will be

reproduced on the Ukrainian Archive complete and unedited, and that any instances of

unfairness or inaccuracy that you bring to my attention will be immediately

corrected.

If you cannot find instances of unfairness or inaccuracy in the many accusations

that have been leveled against The Ugly Face of Freedom, then I wonder whether your

refusing to retract and apologize satisfies standards of journalistic ethics.

Yours truly,

Lubomyr Prytulak

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

Mike Wallace.

HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE SAFER 626 hits since 5Dec98

Morely Safer Letter 4 5Dec98 Press responsibility and accountability

The fairness doctrine, which included the equal-time provision, was scrapped under

Reagan. Television news programs are under no obligation to present all sides of an

issue.

December 5, 1998

Morley Safer

60 Minutes, CBS Television

51 W 52nd Street

New York, NY

USA 10019

Dear Mr. Safer:

The passage below from Michael Crichton's novel Airframe draws a picture of

American television news as irresponsible and lacking accountability:

Edward Fuller was the head of Norton Legal. He was a thin, ungainly

man of forty. He sat uneasily in the chair in Marder's office.

"Edward," Marder said, "we have a problem. Newsline is going to

run a story on the N-22 this weekend on prime-time television, and it

is going to be highly unfavorable."

"How unfavorable?"