LETTERS
LETTERS Credit due In an article regarding Hill and Knowlton and the Kuwaiti babies ["Kuwaitgate," Ted Rowse, September], the author gave direct credit to John R. MacArthur for...
...I reported that Hill and Knowlton's clients included the same governments whose interests stood to be affected by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, of which Lantos was a member...
...Another piece in the same issue, "Lord of the Lies" by Susan Trento, restates my original reporting regarding the aforementioned subject...
...The suggestion that Dr...
...It is this fundamental problem that licensing reform is meant to address...
...My other problem is that the editors at my favorite magazine would assign him to review my book when he has pitched his career on one side of a single narrow dispute about which I had rendered the most offensive judgment of all: that it just wasn't worth getting into...
...Whittle's column was for apple-pie issues, feel-good features were dominant, and substantive matters grazed the surface...
...What I resent is the implication by Trento and Rowse (and MacArthur) that part of the reason Americans didn't know any of these dark secrets was because the working media was asleep or worse...
...Prior to reform, the opportunities for stalling the startup of a nuclear plant were numerous...
...No other technology comes close to the level of regulation imposed on nuclear power, even after licensing reform...
...But it is incredible to me that you would assign my book for review to Crewdson, a journalist who is portrayed in the book at some length as obsessed with one small element of a problem the book tries to take a broad look at...
...Why is such tripe appearing in the Monthly...
...John Silber, president of Boston University, attempted to speak to parents about the schools' financial problems a year ago he was "drowned out by jeers...
...It seems to me that Tennessee Illustrated was about as dull and uncontroversial as The Washington Monthly...
...In fact, the Globe ombudsman was so concerned about the way in which the paper reported the partnership that he recently devoted most of his column to correcting the errors...
...Much of the magazine, a large undertaking, was Jightweight...
...Hillman is vice president for university relations at Boston University...
...It just seems that requiring substantive evidence before forcing enormous financial losses on a public is a very reasonable thing to ask...
...His recession followed a demand by 12 project staffmembers that Delaney "resign from the executive directorship immediately...
...I reported the irony of Lantos' proscribing any questioning of Thomas T. Demery, the HUD official, about the charity Food for Africa...
...First, the Rowse piece mentions that the "big bombshell, however, was a story by Harper's magazine publisher John R. MacArthur, which appeared January 1992 on The New York Times op-ed page," and goes on to repeat MacArthur's "revelations...
...The fact is that when the first superintendent appointed under the partnership resigned to run for mayor of Boston, Greer agreed to take the position for one year while a national search for a new permanent superintendent was conducted...
...Some who signed the letter have also raised questions about the disposition of a $150,000 grant to Project Inform from Burroughs Wellcome, manufacturer of the widely prescribed AIDS drug AZT...
...I looked at the case long enough to recognize it for the bramble bush it is...
...Porter allowed the Congressional Human Rights Foundation, a group they founded in 1985, to be housed in Hill and Knowlton's Washington headquarters...
...Among other things, the staff called for a "thorough accounting" of the project's books...
...Peter Greer, superintendent ad interim of the Chelsea schools and former dean of the Boston University School of Education, "took the hint" and left Chelsea because of parent opposition to the partnership is ludicrous...
...I won't make threats about dropping my subscription— there's nowhere else to go, and the bulk of the magazine (certainly "Tilting at Windmills") remains a joy to read— but I resent the fact that even a miniscule fraction of my subscription check goes to the likes of Peggy Noonan...
...I don't consider myself as having erred by accurately and briefly summarizing each side's argument, as given to me, in a dispute I said I had no intention of trying to resolve...
...The glancing hatchet whacks of Luddite journalists aside, Whittle possesses an abundance of just what his critics say he lacks: dedication, sustained devotion to new ideas, and, above all else, character and integrity...
...Life being short, I am proud not to be one of those seven...
...Second, Crewdson says I "fabricated the direct quotes that give the story much of its narrative force...
...But back in June, you had one rightwinger, Susan Dentzer, plugging the work of another, Robert L. Bartley ["Bull Pulpit...
...Political profiles were generic and the liquor lobbying and tax pieces were short, flattering looks at a liquor lobbyist and a state senator...
...The partnership has tried to involve parents at every level and we recognize that more must be done to encourage participation from the parent population, many of whom are not used to participating in parent/teacher organizations and who have difficulty with English...
...DAVID WILLMAN Huntington Beach, California The editors reply: The clips enclosed with Mr...
...Typically, it is not citizens who ask for hearings on a safety concern, but rather the lawyers for groups who make their living opposing nuclear technology...
...The article fails to recognize the great progress that has been made in the face of financial chaos...
...We also worked hard to raise additional funds from outside sources...
...In fact, when The New York Times published MacArthur's op-ed piece on January 6, 1992, I held my tongue, confident that those who had paid attention would know that one of the points MacArthur appeared to disclose was not his to reveal...
...Contrary to the implication of the review, my book stresses that I wanted to avoid the dispute between Crewdson and Robert Gallo except to show that the dispute itself is now demonstrably interfering with AIDS research...
...Does she wonder why...
...The fact is that the jeers came from a group of firefighters who were protesting that the school budget had not been cut enough...
...Will Edison turn out the same way...
...In spite of this, Boston University chose to stay in Chelsea and work with the receiver to make the best use of the resources that were left...
...Then comes the September Washington Monthly package...
...Tennessee Illustrated is part of Whittie's track record and it shares some characteristics with the Edison Project's hype...
...It didn't matter to people here [in Washington] and it didn't matter to the clients and it didn't matter to the media, because everybody was playing the game...
...The only examples he cites, however, are inconsistencies he says exist between Gallo's statements to me and parts of the endless record of the case, which he himself says that only seven people in North America understand...
...Tennessee irritated Your hatchet job on Chris Whittle ["Whittle, Down to Size," Jon Meacham, October] left me with a splitting headache...
...Willman's letter show that he reported the Lantos and Porter story well before John R. MacArthur's op-ed...
...A kinder, gentler Monthly Have I missed something...
...D. Oak Ridge, Tennessee Dr...
...Lantos and Mr...
...Critical mess In your article on nuclear power radiation ["Power Play," Christopher Georges, September], you appear to want to continue to hobble nuclear energy so that it cannot fairly compete with other forms of electricity production...
...In mid-October, as my review went to press, Martin Delaney, one of Kwitny's two superheros, abruptly stepped down as executive director of the San Francisco-based AIDS organization he founded, Project Inform...
...Eight years of unadulterated lies and mindless garbage spewed out by Ronald Reagan— considerable portions thanks to her—might be part of the answer...
...Interestingly, The Washington Post reviewer praised my reporting but said the dialogue didn't "ring true" because everyone spoke in "the same .. . voice...
...As a reporter for The San Jose Mercury News, I disclosed on April 15, 1990 that the organization headed by Lantos and Porter was receiving free rent from Hill and Knowlton...
...Their job is to find any excuse, big or small, to halt construction or operation of a plant, making it just too costly to bear for the utilities and the public...
...In October, we were treated to Peggy Noonan ["Gettysburg Regress"], the genius who ranked the contras as moral equals to Washington and Jefferson...
...Although I no longer work for Whittle, I served as editor of Tennessee Illustrated, the defunct general-interest magazine Meacham claims avoided "controversy" and "hard-hitting politics" and generally had as much substance as Dolly Parton's hairdo...
...I focused instead on Delaney's substantive battles over issues of national political and scientific concern, and certainly gave vent to his opponents on these issues...
...I thought The Washington Monthly was supposed to be an iconoclastic yet fundamentally liberal forum...
...Considering that nuclear electricity does not create greenhouse gases or affect the ozone layer, the technology is becoming an increasingly attractive option for replacing fossil fuels...
...Crewdson demeans himself by saying I lumped him in with Gina Kolata of The New York Times in my criticism of reporters...
...First, Crewdson throws down the ultimate gauntlet and says, "Kwitny .. makes errors, large and small, that he should have avoided...
...Boo suggests that when Dr...
...Noonan complaining about the emptiness of modern political rhetoric is comparable to Madonna griping about too much sex on MTV...
...The article also questions Whittle's "dedication" and "sustained devotion to any idea...
...Despite the financial crisis that all but closed the schools in 1991, we are making enormous progress and are proud of what we have accomplished...
...Crewd behavior I suppose when my favorite magazine devotes so many pages to reviewing my new book, Acceptable Risks ["People's Drugs," John Crewdson, October], says so many flattering things about how well written it is and spells my name right, I should take it happily...
...He launched Tennessee Illustrated at the beginning of the worst recession since the thirties and, against the advice of many others in his company, kept it alive for two years because he thought it had a chance of succeeding...
...She should have stopped there, rather than continuing to perpetuate the errors of fact she found in one of her sources, The Boston Globe...
...LETTERS Credit due In an article regarding Hill and Knowlton and the Kuwaiti babies ["Kuwaitgate," Ted Rowse, September], the author gave direct credit to John R. MacArthur for disclosing significant information that I, in fact, reported 21 months earlier...
...Writing this note is not something I relish doing...
...GEORGE SPENCER Knoxville, Tennessee The author replies: Tennessee Illustrated addressed real issues, but that does not make it a provocative magazine...
...I reported that Lantos and Porter's Congressional Human Rights Caucus had failed for years to report its expenditures to the House clerk, in violation of House rules...
...It was their real words, folks...
...JONATHAN KWITNY Cranford, New Jersey The author replies: The best thing about Jonathan Kwitny's new book may be that it was published just in time...
...Besmann is a research group leader at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory...
...CAROL HILLMAN Boston, Massachusetts Ms...
...In September 1991 the governor of Massachusetts placed the city in receivership and appointed a receiver whose mandate was to cut costs...
...She writes, "Rarely has what politicians say been held in such low regard," which is true...
...ROGER KEELING Santa Cruz, California...
...Some of the "dull reading" that Tennessee Illustrated published included articles about such "apple-pie issues" as homelessness, cockfighting, the rural health care crisis, teenage drug addiction, the death penalty, industrial policies for the 21st century, the state's most polluted sites, solid waste management, undercover narcotics work, environmental destruction in the Smokies, the decline of small towns, race relations, liquor and tobacco lobbying in the legislature, how tax policy is made there, as well as profiles of Governor Ned McWherter, Al Gore, and the Connecticut marketers who control TNN...
...Specifically, MacArthur, after beginning his fourth paragraph, "A little reportorial investigation would have done a great service to the democratic process," added four paragraphs later: "In fact, Mr...
...Although Project Inform issued a press release last April saying the money would be used to upgrade its "computer capabilities," the staffmembers say no computer equipment has yet been purchased and that their organization's finances are heavily in arrears...
...My problem is not really with his work at all, but rather that the editors at his newspaper continued to assign him the same narrow story years after its one essential charge was brought to light...
...We are confident that the model for education reform being forged in Chelsea is one that is well worth emulating throughout the United States...
...As my footnotes say repeatedly, I interviewed at great length the people I could find who were part of the recounted conversations, accounting for most of the dialogue in the book and using their actual words as faithfully as if I had been writing a newspaper story...
...The staff's communique complained about "poor long-term planning, poor decisionmaking, no accountability, lack of administrative skills, absentee leadership, and micromanagement," and spiritual crisis...
...Many of those cuts were made at the expense of the Chelsea schools...
...Crewdson also objects to my omission of allegations, which he admits are false, made against my subject, Martin Delaney, by a jealous aspirant to the local gay political leadership...
...In the first three years of the partnership, we raised $5 million from outside sources and donated more than $2 million in university funds and services to the Chelsea schools, while managing the school system on a pro bono basis...
...And so on...
...It grants neither me nor the Mercury News credit—but I can live with that...
...THEODORE M. BESMANN, PH...
...Two specifics really annoyed me...
...I would never say anything like that about Crewdson, who has been an outstanding reporter over the years...
...Kolata's work was knowingly or recklessly inaccurate, as I think I proved...
...Boo, hiss In her article on school reform in the United States ["Reform School Confidential," October], Katherine Boo called the Boston University/Chelsea Partnership "one of the most promising and well-intended reform movements in the country...
...Just listen to Trento's closing lines: "The story is it didn't matter...
...Parents shouted down the jeering firefighters so that Silber could be heard...
Vol. 24 • December 1992 • No. 12
