The court said the FCC misapplied its standard for holding a hearing
because it required Serafyn to demonstrate that CBS intended to distort
the news rather than merely requiring that he "raise a substantial and
material question of fact" - a less demanding test.
CBS attorneys asserted there was no evidence the network intentionally
distorted the segment. In addition, they said the FCC has never revoked
a broadcast license on such grounds.
The broadcast angered some viewers who believed that parts had been
designed to give the impression that all Ukrainians harbor a strongly
negative attitude toward Jews, the court said.
"This is basically an effort on the part of the Ukrainian community,"
said Arthur Belendiuk, Serafyn's attorney. "The case is not so much
about Mr. Serafyn as it is about a community that felt horribly maligned
by what was said."
After the FCC revisits the case, the commission has several options: It
could issue a new order that basically upholds its 1995 order but
provides more details on how the decision was reached; it could order a
hearing on the matter; or it could ask interested parties to comment and
then it could issue a new order, the FCC attorney said.
Whatever the commission ultimately decides is likely to be appealed by
the losing party, Belendiuk and other attorneys said.
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Rabbi David H. Lincoln Ukrainian Weekly 30October94 A New York rabbi's response
Rabbi David H. Lincoln of the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York was among the first to object to the 60 Minutes
broadcast, The Ugly Face of Freedom of 23Oct94. Rabbi Lincoln has had a longstanding interest in Ukraine, inherited
from his father, as is explained in the discussion of The Ukrainian Question in 1935.
Everything below is from the Ukrainian Weekly.
A New York rabbi's response
Following is the text of a letter sent on October 25 to the CBS program "60 Minutes" by Rabbi David H. Lincoln of
the Park Avenue Synagogue. The letter is reprinted here with the permission of Rabbi Lincoln, who last year traveled
to western Ukraine.
Park Avenue Synagogue
50 East 87 Street
New York, N.Y. 10125
Mr. Jeffrey Fager, Producer
CBS "60 Minutes"
524 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
Dear Sir:
I feel that your program on Lviv and Ukrainians was most unfair.
To show boy scouts and say they are Nazis marching, to translate "Zhyd" as kike (in western Ukraine Zhyd is the
word for Jew), to infer that the word for nation - "natsiya" - might mean Nazi etc., etc. - is most upsetting to many
of us who know today's Ukraine.
It really is time for us to enjoy the resurgence of Jewish life in Ukraine after the horrors of the German
occupation and communism, and to appreciate the heroic efforts of the Ukrainian people and government to assist the
Jewish community in all their endeavors.
The history of Jewish-Ukrainian relations often tragic is a complicated one, but you would have done well to have
informed the public of the better aspects of those contacts. For instance, Ukraine was the sole independent nation
that had complete Jewish national autonomy (1917) and had Yiddish-speaking ministers in the government representing