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and the 60 Minutes staff, written by I. M. Levitas, Head of the Jewish Council of

Ukraine as well as of the Nationalities Associations of Ukraine, and published in the

Lviv newspaper Za Vilnu Ukrainu (For a Free Ukraine) on December 2, 1994. In this

letter, Mr. Levitas protests the 60 Minutes broadcast, "The Ugly Face of Freedom."

Mr. Levitas's letter is a cry both of anguish and of outrage, but its more

particular significance to us lies in its bringing to light fresh information

demonstrating the bias of the 60 Minutes broadcast, and as well in showing us that

Ukrainian Jews are foremost among those waiting for a corrective broadcast, and

foremost also among those who are offering their cooperation in the preparation of such

a corrective broadcast.

Mr. Levitas suggests that the severity of the bias combined with the total

suppression of contradictory information that is evident in the 60 Minutes story is

Bolshevik in style. I would go on to suggest to you that just as the countries of the

former Soviet Union cannot hope to thrive without first throwing off the leaders who

are inherently Communist in outlook, so CBS News cannot hope to thrive under the

leadership of individuals whose attitude toward broadcasting is that it is a tool

placed in their hands for the totalitarian manipulation of mass opinion.

Sincerely yours,

Lubomyr Prytulak

cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace

WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOW

THE UKRAINIANS AND POLES WHO RESCUED JEWS?

Esteemed Gentlemen! Esteemed program host, Mr. Safer!

It has come to our attention that on October 23, 1994, American television broadcast

a program about events in the city of Lviv and in the Western region of Ukraine. We

have acquainted ourselves with the contents of this program, and have also received

feedback from Jews who recently emigrated from Ukraine to the United States.

Our conclusion: from isolated and insignificant facts you created a broadcast in

which you overwhelmingly crammed distortions and emphasized the negative aspects of

Jewish life, while at the same time hiding the positive aspects which are

considerably more numerous.

Everything that you reported in your broadcast unfortunately exists, but exists only

as isolated events diluted in the normal flow of life in Lviv. By focussing on

these isolated events, you painted an unrelievedly negative picture, and that

constitutes your principal error - unless it wasn't an error at all but rather was

done intentionally.

We are a young democracy, and the unrestrained expression of democratic freedoms may

give birth to untoward manifestations, as is bound to happen in any country,

including the United States - a country of long-standing democracy.

Many bad things, including attitudes toward Jews, have been bequeathed to us from

the past, and it is difficult to wholly eradicate this from the consciousness of the

people.

In your broadcast, you mentioned streets that were renamed after Petliura and

Bandera, but didn't mention that Frunze Street, which before the war was called

Starozhydivska Street ["Ancient Jewish Street"], was also recently renamed

Staroyevreiska Street [also "Ancient Jewish Street" but without the negative

connotation that "zhyd" has in Russian and in Eastern Ukrainian] - and, please note,

not to Starozhydivska Street, in deference to Jewish sensibilities.

You broadcast that contemporary Ukrainians don't know about the Yanivsky

concentration camp. Possibly so - but there has grown up a generation which has

already forgotten about even Auschwitz and Maydanek. But in fact in Ukraine, we do

know about the Yanivsky camp. Our Jewish Council has established a Yanivsky Camp

Foundation. Here in Lviv, we have held conferences dedicated to the memory of this

camp. Where your broadcast shows a woman carrying flowers, a stone memorial has

been erected bearing the Shield of David. I was present at the unveiling of this

memorial. Representatives of the Lviv City Council made presentations at this

ceremony, as did representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic

Churches. I have in my possession a photograph of this event which I could forward

to you.

Yes, the fence which you showed, and the dogs, unfortunately are there - but these

are remnants of the past. In any case, a decision has been made to get rid of them

and to build a memorial in the same location. You should have reported this. More

to the point, the very first monument in our new Ukraine dedicated to Jewish victims

was erected not far from Lviv, in the town of Chervonohrad. Following that, three

other monuments were erected in our region.

You reported that two Jews were robbed and beaten. This might have happened, but

most likely not because they were Jews. I imagine that in Lviv, Ukrainians are also

robbed (and significantly more often!), and yet nobody draws from this the sort of

conclusions concerning ethnic hostility that you draw from the robbing of these two

Jews.

Our Jewish Council constantly receives news concerning Jews in Ukraine, but during

the past five years, we have received not a single report of anyone being beaten

because he was a Jew. However, it must be admitted that such a thing may have

occurred without it coming to our attention - there are plenty of miscreants in

every country.

Because the facts selected for your broadcast were excessively biased and one-sided,