foremost also among those who are offering their cooperation in the preparation of such
a corrective broadcast.
Mr. Levitas suggests that the severity of the bias combined with the total
suppression of contradictory information that is evident in the 60 Minutes story is
Bolshevik in style. I would go on to suggest to you that just as the countries of the
former Soviet Union cannot hope to thrive without first throwing off the leaders who
are inherently Communist in outlook, so CBS News cannot hope to thrive under the
leadership of individuals whose attitude toward broadcasting is that it is a tool
placed in their hands for the totalitarian manipulation of mass opinion.
Sincerely yours,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace
WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOW
THE UKRAINIANS AND POLES WHO RESCUED JEWS?
Esteemed Gentlemen! Esteemed program host, Mr. Safer!
It has come to our attention that on October 23, 1994, American television broadcast
a program about events in the city of Lviv and in the Western region of Ukraine. We
have acquainted ourselves with the contents of this program, and have also received
feedback from Jews who recently emigrated from Ukraine to the United States.
Our conclusion: from isolated and insignificant facts you created a broadcast in
which you overwhelmingly crammed distortions and emphasized the negative aspects of
Jewish life, while at the same time hiding the positive aspects which are
considerably more numerous.
Everything that you reported in your broadcast unfortunately exists, but exists only
as isolated events diluted in the normal flow of life in Lviv. By focussing on
these isolated events, you painted an unrelievedly negative picture, and that
constitutes your principal error - unless it wasn't an error at all but rather was
done intentionally.
We are a young democracy, and the unrestrained expression of democratic freedoms may
give birth to untoward manifestations, as is bound to happen in any country,
including the United States - a country of long-standing democracy.
Many bad things, including attitudes toward Jews, have been bequeathed to us from
the past, and it is difficult to wholly eradicate this from the consciousness of the
people.
In your broadcast, you mentioned streets that were renamed after Petliura and
Bandera, but didn't mention that Frunze Street, which before the war was called
Starozhydivska Street ["Ancient Jewish Street"], was also recently renamed
Staroyevreiska Street [also "Ancient Jewish Street" but without the negative
connotation that "zhyd" has in Russian and in Eastern Ukrainian] - and, please note,
not to Starozhydivska Street, in deference to Jewish sensibilities.
You broadcast that contemporary Ukrainians don't know about the Yanivsky
concentration camp. Possibly so - but there has grown up a generation which has
already forgotten about even Auschwitz and Maydanek. But in fact in Ukraine, we do
know about the Yanivsky camp. Our Jewish Council has established a Yanivsky Camp
Foundation. Here in Lviv, we have held conferences dedicated to the memory of this
camp. Where your broadcast shows a woman carrying flowers, a stone memorial has
been erected bearing the Shield of David. I was present at the unveiling of this
memorial. Representatives of the Lviv City Council made presentations at this
ceremony, as did representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic