EDITORIAL: We can fight (05/23/99)

EDITORIAL

We can fight

The CBS matter is now behind us. Four and a half years after it all began, petitioners who spoke on behalf of the Ukrainian American community - and by extension for all Ukrainians who felt slandered by "The Ugly Face of Freedom" - have reached a settlement with CBS in accordance with which the network agreed to pay $328,000 to cover the petitioners' legal fees, while the petitioners agreed to end their legal challenges resulting from the controversial "60 Minutes" segment.

Among the questions now being asked are: Was it worth it? Did our community do well in this case? Will there be lasting effects from the petitioners' efforts in this case? The answer to all of the foregoing questions is: yes.

Having been intimately involved with covering this case since day one, we can state with certainty that, unfortunately, the settlement reached was the best we could do given the circumstances, the array of forces on both sides, and the legal protections given the news media in this country. Sure, the community expected more: an apology from CBS, a retraction of the report (possibly a new segment on inter-ethnic relations in Ukraine), promises to do better in the future by consulting with the community and with experts that we might suggest. None of that was forthcoming, however.

That much was clear at the settlement meeting held at CBS headquarters in New York on March 1. The atmosphere was tense, the discussion heated. It appeared that CBS had grudgingly agreed to meet with community representatives. CBS executives, producers and lawyers repeatedly stated that we should "move forward" and "bring this matter to closure." Even though one exec said "some factual statements (in the baordcast) could have been more accurate" and another admitted "two inaccuracies," CBS would not budge and urged our community to not dwell on the past.

But the past was what had so deeply wounded our community: the broadcast more than four years earlier of "The Ugly Face." At the settlement meeting the community pressed its case, underlining that the controversial segment was full of misinformation and rife with distortion, that it presented interviewees' comments so much out of context that their views were misrepresented and used inflammatory words in translations (e.g., translating the word "Zhyd" as "kike"). Add to that the clever non-denial denial: "Ukrainians, despite the allegations, are not genetically anti-Semitic." CBS had sacrificed the truth for sensationalism, for TV ratings. Clearly this was lousy journalism.

The result was a standoff.

Ukrainian Americans continue to believe that CBS was irresponsible and that CBS should have righted the wrong inflicted on Ukrainians. CBS continues to stand by its story, while expressing "regret ... that Ukrainian Americans were offended by ... 'The Ugly Face of Freedom' and saw it as a generalized condemnation of persons of Ukrainian ancestry," as that was not its intent.

Intent. That was the key to the lawsuit. Though it could be proved there were many distortions and errors, how could the Ukrainian petitioners really prove that CBS intended to distort the facts, intended to unjustly portray Ukrainians as anti-Semites? Short of having access to internal CBS documentation, that simply was not possible.

Ultimately, the two sides had to agree to disagree.

Nonetheless, CBS heard our community's voice. And it was heard by other media outlets that were closely watching a crucial case that seriously questioned CBS's integrity and put its reputation on the line. After all, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia had found in August 1998 that there were serious questions about whether CBS intentionally distorted information in "The Ugly Face," that CBS "had no policy against news distortion and indeed that management considered some distortion acceptable."

We have learned from our four and a half years of struggle that we must fight back. We have begun to learn that it is important to develop relationships with the press and that we have to continually present our case.

As a result of our petitioners' tenacity, the communications community was put on notice that we Ukrainians will not stand by and allow someone to slander us. As Arthur Belendiuk put it: "They know we bite."

As Bohdan Vitvitsky explained: "We have to take these things more seriously - these attacks on the community and/or its history." This case, he emphasized, shows "we can fight."

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