Jewish Ukrainophobia
Mailbag
A Sense of Responsibility
What 60 Minutes Should Do
PostScript
What 60 Minutes Should Do
(1) 60 Minutes owes its viewers a detailed correction, a retraction, an apology. The product
was defective, it is dangerous, it must be recalled.
Acknowledging that Ukrainians are upset or that they are protesting is not a correction, it is
not a retraction, and it is not an apology. Directing attention to Ukrainian feelings is 60
Minutes' way of deflecting attention away from its own negligence.
60 Minutes has valiantly investigated and exposed hundreds of corrupt, or merely erring, people
and institutions - the time has come to turn the focus inwards and to investigate and expose
itself. Of course this can only be done objectively by an external investigator relying on his
or her own independent staff. Inviting such an external investigator to do a 60 Minutes story
is the right thing to do; it will be appreciated and admired; it will raise 60 Minutes'
integrity from its currently lowered position to a new pinnacle. Damage control won't work. If
60 Minutes really wants respect, it should broadcast a story on itself and call it "The Ugly
Face of 60 Minutes."
As the misinformation that was planted in the original twelve-minute segment will take longer
than twelve minutes to uproot, 60 Minutes should devote an entire nominal sixty minutes to its
correction, retraction, and apology - only such a substantial allocation of time can begin to
undo the damage. At the other extreme, a correction, retraction, and apology confined to
Mailbag will be next to worthless.
(2) 60 Minutes should upgrade its research library by acquiring at least the two-volume
Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia, the five-volume Encyclopaedia of Ukraine, Orest Subtelny's
Ukraine: A History, and Raul Hilberg's The Destruction of the European Jews. This seems a
modest investment to plug a huge and dangerous gap in awareness.
(3) But books are nothing if they are sitting on the shelves of biased researchers. Find out
who contributed to the travesty of "The Ugly Face of Freedom" and get rid of them. And don't
worry about their careers - with their special talents, they will be able to get good jobs with
supermarket tabloids writing about sightings of Elvis Presley and UFO landings.
(4) 60 Minutes should examine with a more skeptical eye materials concerning Ukrainians, and
concerning Eastern Europeans generally, that come from biased sources. As a minimal step, 60
Minutes could adopt the rule of thumb that anyone who considers Eastern Europeans to be
sub-human might better be assigned to some other topic.
(5) 60 Minutes should not be afraid to consult sources capable of balancing a biased story.
There are a large number of historians and other academics (some of whom are Ukrainian or East
European, some of whom are Jewish, some of whom are both, some of whom are neither) that could
have told 60 Minutes at a glance that "The Ugly Face of Freedom" was bunkum.
(6) 60 Minutes should rethink its heavy-handed reliance on the gimmick of interviewing by
ambush by means of which the side favored by 60 Minutes is apprised in advance of the nature of
the interview, has a chance to organize his thoughts, and comes out looking good whereas the
side ambushed is misled into believing that the interview will be supportive, but then is hit
with questions that are hostile and for which he is unprepared. The ambushed interviewee is
discomposed, flustered, fumbles in trying to collect his thoughts, the camera zooms in on his
confusion, and he appears duplicitous. It may be a tried-and-true formula, but it doesn't fool
every viewer and constitutes poor journalism in the case where the interviewee is innocent,
where he would have granted the interview even if he hadn't been misled as to its intent, and