6.12.2003
“Malignant Propaganda”
[Posted 3:49 PM by Stefan Beck]
In 1933, New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty rebuffed claims that state-engineered famine had killed 10 million people in the Ukraine. In the Paper of Record’s August 24, 1933 edition, he wrote that “any report of a famine is today an exaggeration of malignant propaganda.” (For more on Duranty, see the June “Notes and Comments.”)
Now Mr. Duranty’s 1932 Pulitzer Prize may be revoked, thanks in part to the efforts of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.
The Times writes: “Duranty’s prize was given for a specific set of stories in 1931, not in 1932 or 1933 when the famine in Ukraine struck with full force.” Good point. Maybe the Times ought to stage a protest against this sort of unfair scrutiny�a hunger strike should do the trick.