years ago. And we're not talking about a few nasty editorials in
colonial newspapers. We're talking about a television show with
compelling images that goes instantaneously to forty, fifty million
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
provoked by the Ukrainian language spoken by the Ukrainian children,
which dared to resound even within Ukrainian Crimea. The hatred
mounted to such an irrepressible degree that it provoked the bandits
to the most egregious crime: they constructed an explosive and threw
it into the window of the children's dormitory. Ten or so children
could have been killed by the explosion. But the young Ukrainian
councillor showed no confusion as to his duty. He picked up the
bomb, shielding it with his own body, and jumped out of the
building. Unfortunately, the bomb went off, seriously wounding
Maksym.
The best local surgeons fought for several days to save the boy's
life. Thanks to them, the youth's life was spared. Unfortunately,
it was not possible to save his hands.
No one can accuse the recipient of not having earned his award.
Ukrainian awards, in contrast to Soviet, are fully deserved.
(Ukrainian-language newspaper, Novyi Shliakh (New Pathway) of
7Oct95, based on the earlier report in Ukrains'ke Slovo, (Ukrainian
Word), Kyiv, No. 37, 14Sep95)
The above story of Maksym Tsarenko compels me to ask - not for the first time - who
is in danger in Ukraine? The Western media urge us to accept that it is Jews and
Russians who are in danger, threatened by Ukrainian nationalists. That, for example,
is the conclusion of your infamous 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom of
23Oct94. However, you came back from your brief visit to Ukraine with no data to
substantiate such a claim. Almost a year ago, the Ukrainian Archive has requested
both of you and of Rabbi Bleich the evidence backing your report of violence against
Jews, and neither of you has as yet condescended to reply, strengthening the
suspicion that your story was fabricated.
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. It is the story of Ukrainians
