http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=12381
Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko Date/Time: 3/14/2007 12:46:28 PM Title: Nathan: I have never said I libeled anyone Posted By: Jim Romenesko
From DEBBIE NATHAN: Kurt Eichenwald's recent letter denouncing media coverage of his $2,000 check singled me out for special ire. And it warned the press, generically, that anyone publishing anything I write about Eichenwald risks legal action.
Readers may be interested in the timing of that letter. From March 5 to 8, I attended a child pornography trial in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Eichenwald was subpoenaed as a material witness. He testified on March 7 and 8. Several other people also testified who were germane to Eichenwald's December 2005 New York Times article "Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World." One was Justin Berry, recipient of the now famous $2K.
For the past several weeks I have been researching an article examining discrepancies between Eichenwald's 2005 story and documents and testimony that have emerged in criminal cases arising from his reporting. On March 8, I introduced myself to Eichenwald in a courthouse hallway, informed him I was researching my article, and requested a lengthy interview with him. I told him I was working with extensive records.
After he finished testifying that day, he wrote his letter to Romenesko.
By the way, I would like to correct a statement Eichenwald made that I suppose potentially defames me – except that as a journalist I would never sue anyone for defamation, much less a colleague. He claimed in his letter that I've admitted to committing libel against him. I have never said I libeled anyone, and certainly not Eichenwald.
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From KATHA POLLITT: I don't know how terrible it is for Kurt Eichenwald to have given, or lent, Justin Berry $2000. His attacks on Debbie Nathan, however, are inexcusable. Nathan is a brilliant writer and an completely honorable person. Satan's Silence, her book on the "ritual sex abuse" hysteria of the l980s, was a crucial intervention in a national scandal that saw innocent people, men and women both, imprisoned for crimes that never happened. Lots of journalists, including me, went with the conventional wisdom on that one -- "believe the children," "where there's smoke there's fire" etc. Debbie, with her co-author Michael Snedeker, did the hard work of showing how 'the children" came to make bizarre claims of impossible crimes, and how prosecutors and juries came to convict ordinary day care workers, parents, teachers, and others of crimes that not only did not occur, but could not have occurred.
Debbie is a serious and committed journalist, whose work has made the world a less evil and stupid place, and I am proud to count her as a friend.
