Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________WHY THE TIME/CNN NERVE-GAS DEBACLE WAS INEVITABLE BY TED GUP (07/03/98)

Ted Gup's article on Time/CNN rushing to air the Laos/sarin story without proper fact-checking is timely (given the current inexplicable elevation of Matt Drudge from gossip to journalist), but he chooses the wrong example in his argument. Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" series in the San Jose Mercury News was assiduously fact-checked. His editors cut some of his background from the story to make it move faster. (Mr. Gup would be well-advised to read Mr. Webb's new book, "Dark Alliance," and see what he missed in the San Jose Mercury News.) The retraction printed by the paper was a cowardly caving-in to the national corporate media, who continue to ignore the story, despite further developments. Truth is not the province of the one who shouts loudest. Fact-checking is vitally important, and a story must never be rushed to print; Gary Webb is an excellent exemplar of these journalistic principles.
-- Michael Treece
Ted Gup justly condemns Time and CNN's shameful jettisoning of journalistic standards in their lust for a journalistic coup. He is right to point out similar lapses by the New Republic and other journals. But I am surprised that he did not connect this general debasement of journalistic ethics with the media's enthusiastic publication, particularly in the past several months, of unsubstantiated, dubious and plain false stories about President Clinton. What better example is there of the media's mania for scoops and sales at the expense of truth and reputation?
-- Jim Crutchfield
Norfolk, Va.
Nice to see that CNN, at least, has apologized for erroneous news stories.
I'm still waiting for ABC to apologize for the nonexistent "semen-stained dress" of Monica's. And I'm waiting for Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal (to name the most blatant transgressors) to apologize to President Clinton for being so willing to pursue "hot leads" that they let themselves -- deliberately or otherwise -- be used as part of Ken Starr's persecutorial apparatus.
-- Tamara Baker

_______________HANDS OFF THAT DATA -- I'M EUROPEAN! BY KARLIN LILLINGTON (07/07/98)

I recently moved back to the U.S. after 15 years living in Europe, and Karlin Lillington's article about data privacy pushed all my most hysterical buttons, including my absolute sore point of U.S. residency: the Social Security number.
America is supposed to be the land of the free and all that, but everywhere I go, everything I do, "requires" my SS number. I do not understand the need to produce my retirement number (for that is what it is) in order to get, say, cable television, or a bank account, or a driver's license.
Of course, the system has leaks: My wife is English, and has no SS number (yet). Attempting to get her a credit card recently, the woman at the other end of the phone was asking for details -- name, address, phone, SS number.
"She hasn't got one," I said.
"She hasn't got one?"
"No. She's English. She doesn't have one."
"Oh, but the system won't work without one."
"Well, she hasn't got one. Some people don't."
The sound of brain cells fermenting, then some typing, then: "OK, that worked. I just typed in 123456789 and it accepted it."
The card arrived three days later.
-- Craig Zerouni

_______________ THE ARTIST OF DEATH BY GARY KAMIYA (06/30/98)

In the tag line for his review of Ron Rosenbaum's book "Explaining Hitler: Search for the Origins of His Evil," Gary Kamiya asks: Who was the man who perpetrated the greatest crime in human history?
If the magnitude of the crime is measured by the highest number of his own and other conquered peoples murdered, the answer would be Joseph Stalin, not Adolf Hitler. Not that I would want to have to choose between the two.
-- Jay Karamales
SALON | July 14, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| LINDA TRIPP, THE WHITE HOUSE'S GHOULISH BAD CONSCIENCE BY CAMILLE PAGLIA

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_______________WHY THE TIME/CNN NERVE-GAS DEBACLE WAS INEVITABLE BY TED GUP (07/03/98)
	Ted Gup's article on Time/CNN rushing to air the Laos/sarin story without proper fact-checking is timely (given the current inexplicable elevation of Matt Drudge from gossip to journalist), but he chooses the wrong example in his argument. Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" series in the San Jose Mercury News was assiduously fact-checked. His editors cut some of his background from the story to make it move faster. (Mr. Gup would be well-advised to read Mr. Webb's new book, "Dark Alliance," and see what he missed in the San Jose Mercury News.) The retraction printed by the paper was a cowardly caving-in to the national corporate media, who continue to ignore the story, despite further developments. Truth is not the province of the one who shouts loudest. Fact-checking is vitally important, and a story must never be rushed to print; Gary Webb is an excellent exemplar of these journalistic principles. -- Michael Treece Ted Gup justly condemns Time and CNN's shameful jettisoning of journalistic standards in their lust for a journalistic coup. He is right to point out similar lapses by the New Republic and other journals. But I am surprised that he did not connect this general debasement of journalistic ethics with the media's enthusiastic publication, particularly in the past several months, of unsubstantiated, dubious and plain false stories about President Clinton. What better example is there of the media's mania for scoops and sales at the expense of truth and reputation? -- Jim Crutchfield Norfolk, Va. Nice to see that CNN, at least, has apologized for erroneous news stories. I'm still waiting for ABC to apologize for the nonexistent "semen-stained dress" of Monica's. And I'm waiting for Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal (to name the most blatant transgressors) to apologize to President Clinton for being so willing to pursue "hot leads" that they let themselves -- deliberately or otherwise -- be used as part of Ken Starr's persecutorial apparatus. -- Tamara Baker
_______________HANDS OFF THAT DATA -- I'M EUROPEAN! BY KARLIN LILLINGTON (07/07/98)
	I recently moved back to the U.S. after 15 years living in Europe, and Karlin Lillington's article about data privacy pushed all my most hysterical buttons, including my absolute sore point of U.S. residency: the Social Security number. America is supposed to be the land of the free and all that, but everywhere I go, everything I do, "requires" my SS number. I do not understand the need to produce my retirement number (for that is what it is) in order to get, say, cable television, or a bank account, or a driver's license. Of course, the system has leaks: My wife is English, and has no SS number (yet). Attempting to get her a credit card recently, the woman at the other end of the phone was asking for details -- name, address, phone, SS number. "She hasn't got one," I said. "She hasn't got one?" "No. She's English. She doesn't have one." "Oh, but the system won't work without one." "Well, she hasn't got one. Some people don't." The sound of brain cells fermenting, then some typing, then: "OK, that worked. I just typed in 123456789 and it accepted it." The card arrived three days later. -- Craig Zerouni
_______________ THE ARTIST OF DEATH BY GARY KAMIYA (06/30/98)
	In the tag line for his review of Ron Rosenbaum's book "Explaining Hitler: Search for the Origins of His Evil," Gary Kamiya asks: Who was the man who perpetrated the greatest crime in human history? If the magnitude of the crime is measured by the highest number of his own and other conquered peoples murdered, the answer would be Joseph Stalin, not Adolf Hitler. Not that I would want to have to choose between the two. -- Jay Karamales SALON \| July 14, 1998