Dear ETS!,
On November 3, 1998, after reading yet another call to bomb Iraq from the New York Times editorial staff, I quickly penned a "letter to the editor." A day later I arrived at work to find, in my inbox, a message from Mary Drohan at the NY Times urgently requesting a call. Aside from getting some personal information, the purpose of the call was to help verify the statistics I used. I pointed her to a 1996 article in her own paper, as well as a 1997 UNICEF report at http://www2.unicef.org/pub/iraqsa. She then told me she'd send her edit to me for my approval and I thanked her and went on my merry way. That is, until Thursday when I opened the Times to page A24. Below is my letter as I originally wrote it in all its naked glory, followed by the dressed up, sanitized version the NY Times ran. Here's the original:
To the Editor,
In response to your editorial of November 3, 1998, entitled "Iraq's Audacious Defiance":
Iraq's defiance is not nearly as "audacious" as the most comprehensive humanitarian blockade in history which continues to deny the entire population of Iraq adequate food and medicine. According to UNICEF, even with the oil for food program, over 90,000 die every year as a direct result of economic sanctions, over half of which are children under the age of five. How the misuse of the US military to add to this number is supposed to reign in a dictator who cares nothing for his people, escapes all rational thought.
It's no wonder that this economic war the US is waging against the civilian population of Iraq has proven completely ineffective. It's time economic sanctions, the only 'confirmed' weapon of mass destruction left in Iraq, be dismantled.
Sincerely, Jeff Gustafson
Here's the one they printed:
To the Editor:
Re "Iraq's Audacious Defiance" (editorial, Nov. 3):
Iraq's defiance of the United Nations weapons inspectors is not nearly as audacious as the humanitarian blockade that--despite the oil-for-food program--continues to deny adequate food and medicine to the entire population of that country.
According to Iraqi officials, half a million children have died since the Persian Gulf war in 1991 for reasons that are related to the economic sanctions.
It's time the sanctions were dismantled.
Jeff Gustafson Seattle, Nov. 3, 1998
After pointing Ms. Drohan to page 42 of the 1997 Unicef report which clearly reports that sanctions kill over 90,000/year (50,000 of which are children under 5), she completely changed the source of these statistics to "Iraqi officials!" Of all the changes that could be made to my letter, I can think of nothing more effective than this--if the goal is to allow the average American reader to more easily dismiss my words. Add to this the exclusion of my critical thoughts on Saddam and yet another peg is knocked out from under my argument. Furthermore, no one from the NY Times called or attempted to contact me regarding these changes.
I would like to ask Mary Drohan and the New York Times: "Why even bother to radically alter any letters from the public to advance your agenda or to completely undermine an opposing viewpoint? Why not simply manufacture them?"
But whatever you do, don't put my name on it!
--Jeff Gustafson
This was forwarded to us by Sam Husseini: sam@accuracy.org
Institute for Public Accuracy, National Press Building, Washington, DC 20045
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