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FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports
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FAIR Action Alert: Creative Letter Editing at the New York Times
When the New York Times editorialized in support of threatening the use
of military force against Iraq (11/3/98), Seattle reader Jeff Gustafson
thought that some important facts were left out: namely, the toll on the
Iraqi population exacted by the current sanctions.
Gustafson wrote a letter to the Times, citing a 1997 UNICEF report that
found that 90,000 people were dying each year as a result of the
sanctions.
The Times letters department called Gustafson back, asking for a
citation for his figures. He pointed them to a UNICEF website
( ftp://www2.unicef.org/pub/iraqsa , requires Adobe Acrobat Reader), as
well as references to the same reports in various issues of the New York
Times itself.
But when Gustafson's letter appeared in the Times on November 5, it
included words that Gustafson never wrote: "According to Iraqi
officials, half a million children have died since the Persian Gulf war
in 1991 for reasons that are related to the economic sanctions."
Why did the Times alter his letter, changing the source to one that most
readers will find far less credible? Gustafson says one explanation the
New York Times gave was that the "Iraqi official" numbers were more
readily supported by other Times reporting. One might argue that the
Times' letters page should be open to information that the Times hasn't
chosen to report, but in fact the paper has cited UNICEF reports on Iraq
on a number of occasions (10/29/96, 12/10/96,10/20/98, 2/19/98, 1/4/98,
etc.).
Norma Sosa, the editor of the Times' letters section, was unwilling to
discuss the issue with FAIR. Sosa explained that the editing process was
not open to "outside inspection," and said of the letters: "This is a
dead issue."
But the New York Times' letters page is an important forum for public
discussion. If the paper is substantively altering the content of
letters without the permission of writers, that's a matter of concern to
all with a stake in the national debate.
The manipulation of letters has been condemned when it's occurred at
less prestigious news outlets than the New York Times. In fact, in
February, an editor at the New York Post was fired after making
unapproved changes to a writer's letter.
If you'd like to let the Times know your views on whether letters to the
editor should be rewritten, you can write to the letters section at:
===================
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED].
Fax: (212) 556-3622
Letters to the Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036-3959
====================
And if you'd like to see the letters yourself, read them at
http://www.eatthestate.org/03-10/Backtalk.htm .
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