The Power of the Media and Truth

Yesterday’s New York Times (December 31, 2006) carried an essay by Public Editor Byron Calame entitled "Truth, Justice, Abortion and the Times Magazine." HERE Mr. Calame’s piece represents a effort by the NYT to address errors appearing in the April 9, 2006 influential NYT Magazine article on El Salvador’s laws prohibiting abortion written by Mr. Jack Hitt. HERE As one familiar with pro-abortion campaigns against the legal regimes of some Latin American and other countries that regulate or prohibit abortion, I viewed the Hitt piece as a contribution to the pro-abortion campaigns to amend or repeal the laws of countries that strictly regulate or prohibit abortion. I do not know what Mr. Hitt’s personal views are on abortion; however, he has written on the topic for the New York Times on other occasions. His article on El Salvador appeared to suggest that the laws of this country dealing with this "sensitive" topic (a word twice-used by Mr. Calame in his discussion of abortion) are in need of re-examination if not revision.

Mr. Calame’s piece was written as a response to the concerns and complaints raised by readers of the New York Times that the Hitt article misrepresented the truth about the conviction for homicide of one of the women discussed by Hitt. Mr. Hitt indicated that this woman had an abortion in the eighteenth week of her pregnancy and was sentenced to a thirty-year prison term for violating Salvadorian law. As Mr. Hitt stated in his article, she "was given 30 years for an abortion that was ruled a homicide." However, as Mr. Calame points out, Mr. Hitt and his editors did not verify the accuracy of this claim by consulting the court records of the legal proceedings involved in this case. As it turns out, the woman gave live birth to her child and then strangled her baby. While Mr. Hitt insisted that the purported abortion was ruled a homicide, he, in fact, had portrayed a homicide as an "abortion." I would hasten to add that any abortion is the wrongful taking of any human life, but I digress.

Mr. Calame points out that Mr. Hitt and the editors associated with the publication of his article had ample opportunity to verify the substance of the court proceedings and why the woman was convicted of homicide. He also points out that Mr. Hitt and his editors relied, instead, on the work of an unpaid translator who also happens to be affiliated with Ipas, an organization that Mr. Calame identifies as "an abortion rights advocacy group." Indeed they are such; however, they are also in the business of selling surgical devices used in abortion procedures. For example, the Ipas website states that one of its commercial products can be considered as "the next generation of life saving reproductive-health technology." HERE This claim is both ironic and flawed, but again I digress. The point I do wish to make is that Mr. Hitt, and, subsequently his editors relied not on the actual court proceedings but on the work of a person associated with an organization that is involved with the effort to change El Salvador’s laws and that has a financial stake in selling and distributing medical instruments used in abortion procedures.

Mr. Calame’s essay focuses on the requirement that reporting, especially of "sensitive" subjects like abortion, must be truthful. He also points out several episodes where something other than the truth about the law of and particular legal proceedings in El Salvador were presented in less than a truthful manner. The excuse offered by one editor associated with this case that the Hitt article was "as accurate as it could have been at the time it was written" is itself inaccurate as Mr. Calame demonstrates. At this point according to Mr. Calame, the New York Times does not appear inclined to do anything further to rectify the falsehoods that were portrayed as truth. He concludes his essay by stating that, "One thing is clear to me… Accuracy and fairness were not pursued with the vigor Times readers have a right to expect." I would add that this assertion should apply not only to Mr. Hitt’s article but any article written for and published by any journal, but especially those having a great influence on public opinion and public policy making. The laws of any jurisdiction, including El Salvador, hold people accountable to known standards of responsibility. If the New York Times concludes that it has a role in this crusade involving the law, it will need to consider that it, too, must be held accountable when it does not meet the standards for which it is responsible to uphold. RJA sj