Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 10:47:26 -0500 From: Enrique Diaz-Alvarez <enrique at anise.ee.cornell.edu>
I sent e-mail to the NYT regarding their continues supression of the Cinese embassy bombing story. I got this reply from the foreign editor.
-- Enrique Diaz-Alvarez Office # (607) 255 5034 Electrical Engineering Home # (607) 272 4808 112 Phillips Hall Fax # (607) 255 4565 Cornell University mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu Ithaca, NY 14853 http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 11:00:23 -0500 To: Enrique Diaz-Alvarez <enrique at anise.ee.cornell.edu> From: Andrew Rosenthal <andyr at nytimes.com> Subject: Re: Chinese Embassy bombing and NYT censorship In-Reply-To: <388729BB.8872E7AE at ee.cornell.edu> References: <4.2.0.58.19991026125328.00b3d770 at mailgate.nytimes.com>
<4.2.0.58.19991026174733.00b18100 at mailgate.nytimes.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Mr. Diaz-Alvarez,
Our reporters spent a great deal of time on this. They found nothing to substantiate the Observer's stories. You may notice that neither has any other newspaper that I know of. Some carried the original Observer story, mostly as wire service dispatches, but none found anything there on which to follow up. Must be we're ALL in a conspiracy with the government.
Andrew Rosenthal
At 10:29 AM 1/20/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Mr. Rosenthal,
>
> three weeks after the event, there has been (to my knowledge) still
> no mention
>of the Observer's report in your newspaper. Apparently, either your reporters'
>herculean efforts yielded nothing (i.e., they couldn't find their way to an
>European kiosk to buy a copy of The Oberver or any other European
>newspaper), or
>your paper has decided to add to its impressive record in, how did you put
>it? -oh
>yes! ,"responsible journalism", and protect the American public from
>information
>that may lessen its faith on its government.
>
> In the meantime, The Observer has published an extensive follow-up,
> not only
>standing by its original story, but expanding on it, giving additional
>sources and
>details on the original ones. In case your hard-working reporters failed
>to keep
>you appraised of this development, you can find it at:
>
>http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/observer/focus/story/0,3879,108792,00.html
>
> Sadly, the internet may be jeopardizing your paper's ability to shield
>Americans from troubling information such as The Oberserver's report. Some
>anecdotal evidence: the report and your paper's response to it (or lack
>thereof)
>have circulated quite widely in my Department, and many of my colleagues
>have been
>thoroughly impressed by your journalistic responsibility. In the future,
>not a few
>of them will get their information from, er, less responsible sources.
>
> For your sake, I do hope that, whether you admit it or not, you feel some
>embarrasment over this sordid affair.
>
> Sincerely,
>
>Enrique Diaz-Alvarez
>
>Andrew Rosenthal wrote:
>
> > No, there is a fourth, and accurate reason. It takes one helluva lot more
> > than a week to unearth this sort of information. If I had a reporter who
> > came to me and said, "I just spent two days reporting and I found out the
> > United States bombed an embassy deliberately, let's go with a story," I
> > would have him reassigned. To another newspaper.
> >
> > Thanks again for writing.
> >
> > Andrew Rosenthal
> >
>
>--
>Enrique Diaz-Alvarez Office # (607) 255 5034
>Electrical Engineering Home # (607) 272 4808
>112 Phillips Hall Fax # (607) 255 4565
>Cornell University mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu
>Ithaca, NY 14853 http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique