Like many others, I got this e-mail from the Save Darfur Coalition today:
On Thursday we asked you and your fellow Darfur activists to write letters to the editor of the New York Times protesting their decision to take a million dollar advertisement from the Sudanese government - a government the paper's own reporting recognizes as genocidal.
Since Thursday, you and others have sent over 3,600 letters to the editor of the Times!
Yet amazingly, the Times has not run yet a single letter about their decision to profit off of a government that is systematically killing and displacing its own people - either objecting to or defending their decision!
The Times needs to hear from you today. Not only did they make the wrong decision by taking the Sudanese advertisement, but they have ignored all of your letters.
Can you email the New York Times' public editor, Byron Calame, right now?His email address is public@nytimes.com.
The public editor is the readers' representative at the New York Times and is charged with responding to reader queries and complaints - and getting answers!
Email the public editor today. Let him know that you object to the Times' taking blood money from the Sudanese government to run an eight-page advertising insert and that you are shocked that despite the outcry, the New York Times has not run a single letter to the editor about it!
You can reach the public editor, Byron Calame, at public@nytimes.com.
If you hear back from the public editor, or you see your letter in print, please send us a copy at nytresponse@savedarfur.org.
Thank you,
DavRubenstein, Save Darfur Coalition
I sent the following to Mr. Calame at the Times tonight:
I am writing to express my concern that the New York Times, to which I subscribe and trust as the newspaper of record and integrity in this country, has yet to address its decision to accept money from the Sudanese government - which, as the Times has reported, supports if not orchestrates the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Indeed, the advertising supplement in last week's paper would have Times readers believe there is no genocide and that the violence in Sudan is over.
The Boston Globe, owned by the Times, reported this week that Harvard is divesting in a company doing business with Sudan:
A Harvard Corporation statement yesterday said the university was concerned with Sinopec's role in oil production in Sudan.
''Oil is a critical source of revenue and an asset of paramount strategic importance to the Sudanese government, which has been found to be complicit in what the US Congress and US State Department have termed 'genocide' in Darfur," the statement said.
I would have thought that the Times would reject any money from a regime sponsoring genocide.
Moreover, in spite of thousands of letters to the Times - like mine sent earlier this week - expressing outrage over this decision, no letters have been printed in the Times and no mention of the decision has been made in the paper.
Please do whatever is necessary to make sure that this issue is publicly addressed as soon as possible and that the Times makes a statement about its policies regarding accepting money from genocidal regimes.
Thank you for your prompt attention.-- Steve Walker
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