[Fwd: Re: Feedback]

[/ dave /]

The response I received from the Friedheim Library at the National Press
Club, and the impetus for their original invitation to Henry Kissinger,
was seemingly generated in a complete vaccuum - absent any
acknowledgement of the real state of affairs (willfully or otherwise)...

--

/  dave  /

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Feedback
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 14:05:30 -0400
From: tglad at npcpress.org (Tom Glad)
To: arouet at winternet.com

I am taking the liberty of answering for Mr. Koonce, since it was
actually 
my organization that was responsible for bringing Dr. Kissinger to the 
ballroom of the National Press Club.

First, some background.  The Eric Friedheim Library is a non-profit 
organization associated with, but distinct from the National Press 
Club.  We do research for reporters (members and non-members of the
Press 
Club) to help them insure their stories are accurate.  We do not,
however, 
receive sufficient funding from the club to complete our mission and
must 
conduct fund-raising events.

To that end, we invited Dr. Kissinger to come and speak about his
current 
book.  We do this with as many as one or two authors per month.  And we
ask 
them all to speak about their books and the craft of writing.   We do
not 
invite them to come and conduct press conferences about any topic, but 
specifically request all of them to focus on their books.

In selecting the questions for Dr. Kissinger, Mr. Koonce was following 
well-established guidelines.

You should also know that none of the reporters who wrote about this
event 
talked to me or my staff about our policies and procedures for these 
fund-raising author events.  You may not agree with our policies, but
Dr. 
Kissinger was not treated any differently than any of the hundreds of 
authors that have helped us raise money to support the activities of the 
library.

At 12:55 PM 6/27/01 -0500, you wrote:
>To Mr. Koonce -
>
>I'm afraid you did the public a disservice and betrayed the precepts of
>the profession of journalism in your effort to avoid discomfiting Mr.
>Kissinger after his speech by deliberately dispensing with questions
>that are profoundly relevant and so *obvious* at the present time as to
>be absurd in their omission - issues that are absolutely central to Mr.
>Kissinger's relation to the world at large. I believe your error in
>judgement will stand out in glaring fashion in due time, and perhaps
>then you'll come to your senses and realize what a tremendous error in
>judgement you've made. To be sure, one National Press Club event does
>not history make or break, and if one were feeling the least bit
>charitable towards you (if one were, say, your mother or father) one
>might secretly hope the incident would be quietly consigned to to the
>endless chain of forgotten events of the past. Unfortunately for you,
>there is a great deal more at stake here for innumerable citizens of the
>world who cannot forget their past, a past undoubtedly shaped in no
>small way by the hand of Mr. Kissinger. You would do well to think of
>your obligations to them and others like them the next time you're given
>a similar opportunity.
>
>--
>
>d.

Thomas Glad
Director
The Eric Friedheim Library
  at the National Press Club