entire issue of putting health claims on alcohol bottles for public comment. The
BATF is expected to hold hearings on the topic around the nation this spring.
To date, no U.S. government agency has recommended that Americans drink alcohol to
protect themselves against heart disease.
[...]
The push to put a health benefits label on alcohol bottles is a marketing ploy, pure
and simple.
[...]
David Jernigan directs international programs for The Marin Institute. He is the author of
Thirsting for Markets: The Global Impact of Corporate Alcohol.
Copyright 2000 Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol Other Drug Problems
The original article from which the above excerpts were taken can be found on the
Marin Institute web site at www.marininstitute.org/NL2000a.html.
What you are obligated to do
(1) Retract and correct The French Paradox. You must bring to public attention two
things: that the evidence presented in your two French Paradox broadcasts was
insufficient to justify your conclusions to the effect that drinking wine prolongs life
(as explained in my letter to you of 21Apr99, already cited above); and that broader
scientific evidence than you reported in your broadcasts, or since, contradicts your
conclusions (as illustrated in the Marin Institute excerpts above). Your unwarranted
and false conclusions advocating wine consumption cannot be left to continue inflicting
harm upon the public as they do today. Your obligation to journalism, to 60 Minutes, to
the public, and to your conscience, demands that you issue such a retraction and
correction without reservation and without delay.
(2) Disclose any conflict of interest relating to The French Paradox. Please
disclose any consideration that you may have received, or that 60 Minutes or CBS may
have received, from the wine or alcohol industries for your two French Paradox
broadcasts. In the absence of affirmations on your part that no such consideration has
traded hands, your broadcasts may tend to be viewed less as defective reporting than as
infomercials. Of particular interest would be the nature of any relationship between 60
Minutes and Edgar Bronfman Senior, chairman of liquor giant Seagram.
(3) Retract and correct The Ugly Face of Freedom. Every day, growing numbers of
people become convinced that you owe a similar retraction and correction for your
similarly incorrect and damaging 23Oc94 broadcast, The Ugly Face of Freedom.
(4) Disclose any conflict of interest relating to The Ugly Face of Freedom. Please
disclose the degree to which your broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom was requested by
external sources, who these sources were, and what benefits to 60 Minutes or to CBS
accrued from complying with such external requests. Of particular interest would be any
request originating from the direction of Edgar Bronfman Senior. You need to take some
such step in order to disarm the suspicion that your broadcast was no better than an
eruption of the hatred toward non-Jews, and particularly of the special hatred toward
Ukrainians, which is endemic to Jewish culture.
Lubomyr Prytulak
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE WIESENTHAL 747 hits since 18Jan98
Wiesenthal Letter 14 Sep 4/97 The forgotten Bodnar
September 4, 1997
Simon Wiesenthal
Jewish Documentation Center
Salztorgasse 6
1010 Vienna
Austria
Dear Mr. Wiesenthal:
In your testimony on the 60 Minutes broadcast of October 23, 1994 "The Ugly Face of Freedom" I notice a startling
omission:
MORLEY SAFER: I get the impression from people that the actions of the Ukrainians, if anything,
were worse than the Germans.
SIMON WIESENTHAL: About the civilians, I cannot say this. About the Ukrainian police, yes.
That's all you said! You just left it at that! But in that case, there is something very big missing from your
statement, isn't there Mr. Wiesenthal - something very interesting, very important, very relevant? Something that the
60 Minutes viewer would have found to be quite remarkable? Do you know what it is?
It is the story of the Ukrainian policeman with the surname Bodnar the one who saved your life? Remember him?
Don't you think that this forgotten Bodnar is someone who should have been mentioned in your statement? And doesn't
the story of the forgotten Bodnar somewhat contradict your unqualified statement that the Ukrainian police
collectively were worse than the Germans? And if among what you say is the worst of the Ukrainians (the auxiliary
police) some are saving Jews, then what heroic acts can we expect among the rest of the Ukrainian population?
To refresh your memory about this story which seems so forgettable to you now, I may remind you that you were
about to be executed, but:
The shooting stopped. Ten yards from Wiesenthal.
The next thing he remembers was a brilliant cone of light and behind it a Polish voice: "But
Mr. Wiesenthal, what are you doing here?" Wiesenthal recognized a foreman he used to know, by
the name of Bodnar. He was wearing civilian clothes with the armband of a Ukrainian police
auxiliary. "I've got to get you out of here tonight."
