Letters
Covering Kabul
We at The Associated Press are dismayed and insulted by the last line in Michael Massing's September/October article "Afghanistan Journal, A Run with the Pack." The writer wrongly insinuates that the AP was silent about the rivalry between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his defense minister Mohammed Fahim until The Washington Post published a story on July 24. This couldn't be further from the truth. AP stories in the months leading up to Afghanistan's loya jirga in June and afterward routinely described the past and current relationships of Afghan warlords as well as the various factions within the Kabul government, including those of Karzai and Fahim. And any reader who has followed the comprehensive stories written by the AP's Kathy Gannon has known about Fahim, in-depth.
Massing went for a two-and-a-half-week trip to a region the AP has covered extensively for many years. CJR and Massing should have known better than to say of the world's largest news organization that "It was not the type of story one wants to leave to the AP." On the contrary, this is exactly the kind of story on which millions of readers and thousands of news outlets worldwide depend on the AP.
Kelly Smith Tunney
The Associated Press
Vice president and director of corporate communications
New York, New York
Michael Massing replies: Sometimes, in coming up with a good tagline, we do not anticipate the collateral damage. Since my article appeared, I've become aware that both the AP and UPI, in covering Afghanistan, have ranged far beyond coups and earthquakes. I regret any implication to the contrary.
Judging Giordano
Your article, "A Drug Reporter's Strange Brew"
(November/December), describes me as "a popular speaker on
college campuses." As far as I know, the only speech I have
given on a college campus in many years was in November 2000 with
Narco News's publisher, Al Giordano, at Boston University.
While this may appear to be a small inaccuracy, it is not the
only error of easily confirmed facts.
As developer of an investment adviser, Solari, I need accurate and factual information to make decisions that affect the finances of my clients, my potential investors, and the well-being of entire communities. Your report inadvertently reveals why I have moved away from corporate media and come to trust the reports of independent journalists like Giordano and Narco News.
Catharine Austin Fitts
Solari, Inc.
Hickory Valley, Tennessee
The editors reply: Fitts is not a regular speaker on college campuses; the drug summit in the story occurred in February, not January, 1999; the full name of the law firm mentioned is Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. We regret the errors.
Unreformed
Contrary to what you wrote in your Laurel to the Brattleboro Reformer (CJR, November/December), the purpose of Vermont Yankee's meeting with the paper last August was not to have Eesha Williams taken off the beat; it was to draw attention to the anticorporate screed that is the central theme of Williams's book Grassroots Journalism. We never asked that he be reassigned. Our question to the Reformer folks was simply this: What assurances can you give us that we will be treated fairly by the author of a book that clearly is a call to journalistic activism, not fair and objective reporting?
Although there clearly were areas of disagreement during the meeting, the tone was generally cordial and professional. We left with assurances that the Reformer would be fair to Vermont Yankee and responsive to legitimate issues we might raise in the future.
In the three months since, my colleague Rob Williams has written numerous e-mails to the paper disputing aspects of the Reformer's coverage of Vermont Yankee and pointing out specific errors in fact and instances he regards as bias clearly based on some of the tactics described in Grassroots Journalism. Not one of these issues has been addressed (or even acknowledged). It is fairly obvious to us that the Reformer is simply blowing off every one of our concerns after giving lip service last August to being responsive and responsible.
Brian Cosgrove
Director of Public Affairs
Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee
Vernon, Vermont
Clarification
In the November/December issue, a Dart was aimed at Village Voice Media and New Times Inc. for a deal in which each of the rival companies killed one of its city weeklies in order to leave the market free of competition from the other. The Dart should not be read as extending to The Village Voice or to New Times's newspapers.
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