people - a sizable percentage of the whole country - and murders our
reputation. Murders it. Unjustifiably. That's the situation we're
talking about here. So," Marder said, "what do you advise us to do,
Ed?"
"Well," Fuller cleared his throat again. "I always advise my
clients to tell the truth."
Of course Michael Crichton's depiction above is fictional, and so may be
exaggerated. However, anyone who is acquainted with 60 Minutes' broadcast The Ugly
Face of Freedom of 23 Oct 1994 - hosted by yourself - cannot help wondering whether
Crichton's depiction might in fact be accurate, at least in occasional instances.
I wonder if you would not at long last care to break your silence and say a word
either of retraction and apology, or if not that, then at least some word in defense
of your broadcast and of your profession?
Yours truly,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney, Lesley Stahl,
Mike Wallace.
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE SAFER 820 hits since 9Apr99
Morley Safer Letter 5 9Apr99 Who blew the hands off Maksym Tsarenko?
The sort of powerful story that neither you nor Rabbi Bleich were able to find is one of
a Russian summer-camp councillor who had his hands blown off by Ukrainian
nationalists for using the Russian language within Ukraine; or one of a Jewish
summer-camp councillor having his hands blown off by Ukrainian nationalists for using
Hebrew or Yiddish within Ukraine. Such things do not happen within Ukraine to either
Russians or to Jews - they happen only to Ukrainians.
April 9, 1999
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
Who Blew The Hands Off
Maksym Tsarenko?
The photograph above shows Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma bestowing the Order of
Yaroslaw the Wise on Maksym Tsarenko. My free translation of the text which explains
the photograph is as follows:
Among the first recipients of the Order, awarded on the fourth
anniversary of the national independence of Ukraine, were leading
Ukrainian workers in the fields of culture, art, and law: O.
Basystiuk, A. Mokrenko, and F. Burchak.
On this same day, the president of Ukraine also bestowed this mark
of distinction, "for valor" upon twenty-year-old student at the
Vynnytsia Pedagogical Institute, Maksym Tsarenko.
During the summer holidays, Maksym was working as a councillor at a
summer camp for young girls near Yevpatoria, Crimea.
Haters of Ukraine, who rush to propose the view that Crimea is not a
peninsula attached to Ukraine, but rather is an island unconnected
to Ukraine, reacted with hostility to this summer camp, especially