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Topic: Miscellaneous items
Date/Time: 7/13/2005 3:14:56 PM
Title: From one Pioneer Press staffer to another
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Charles Laszewski's e-mail to Pioneer Press editorial page associate editor Mark Yost

From: Laszewski, Charles
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 10:30 AM
To: Yost, Mark
Cc: All News
Subject: Open letter to Mark Yost

Dear Mark,

When I finished reading your column last night, I could only conclude that you weren’t paying attention when our talented and courageous colleague Hannah Allam spoke here in May.

For if you had, you would have heard Hannah relate how she once ran down a street with bullets pinging off the pavement, how she had to throw away her tennis shoes because they had brain matter on them, how as the daughter of an Egyptian army man, she understands the culture and the language but has been unable to move from her hotel room for weeks at a time because security is so precarious. And, of course, you would have heard how her friend and translator lost her husband, son, and mother-in-law when insurgents shot up the family car because her husband also was working with the news media.

If you had paid attention, you also would have heard her extend an invitation to anyone in the room to come work with her in Baghdad for six weeks. Our own Richard Chin stepped up and will be leaving for Iraq at the end of the month. As far as I know, you did not volunteer for the position. That’s a shame. You are denying our paper, Knight Ridder and the American public your superior reportorial skills.

I was baffled by your statement that stories about the families and others here making a difference go largely unreported. We have written thousands of column inches every time a military unit from here or Wisconsin leaves or returns home and how their families feel. We have covered every death involving our fighting men and women and attended most, if not all, of their funerals. We have written stories about a couple who were married by video conference between Stillwater and Iraq. We have a lovely photo hanging in the sixth floor hallway from the story of the teacher who was surprised by her son returning from the war unexpectedly and walking into her classroom. We have run info boxes on what you can do to help. These are just the ones I recall off the top of my head.

But apparently, if we don’t write about your two favorite organizations, we are derelict and that overwhelms the other thousands of inches. That is unsophisticated, biased reporting that borders on outright falsehood. The fact that you think the activities of every VFW and American Legion hall should trump a front page story on plans to finally withdraw our brave men and women from Iraq shows you don’t even grasp the fundamentals of journalism and putting out a newspaper.

There is much more I could say, but let me end it this way. With your column, you have spat on the copy of the brave men and women who are doing their best in terrible conditions. More than 20 reporters have died in Iraq from around the world. You have insulted them and demeaned them, and to a much lesser degree, demeaned the reporters everywhere who have been threatened with bodily harm, who have been screamed at, or denied public records, just because they wanted to present the closest approximation to the truth they could.

I am embarrassed to call you my colleague.

Sincerely,

Chuck Laszewski

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