%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Editorial Board of CBS Incident Committee %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Saturday, June 5, 1994 (No. 3) ============================================================================= *** Part III. & IV. Summary of Activities and Suggestions *** ============================================================================= Contents # of Lines ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. A summary of current status of the CBS incident.........................47 2. Suggested actions for the next step.....................................50 2. A sample protest letter to CBS..........................................51 4. Where to send your protest letters......................................20 ============================================================================= --------------------------------------------------- 1. A summary of current status of the CBS incident --------------------------------------------------- Within the last two weeks, the anger and protests of our Chinese community have attracted certain attention in media and reached CBS, thanks to efforts from many volunteers, IFCSS and many other supportive groups. The following is from CND-US-94-06-04 report: "On May 26th, World Journal published a detailed report on CSS community's angry response to CBS May 19th "Eye on America" program. It cited Xiaolin Li's protest letter, IFCSS HQ's inquiry letter and other opinions from Internet. CBS released an official statement to World Journal that "there ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ is nothing wrong with May 19th CBS report and they regret to hear CSS community's outrage response. All its news broadcasting is aimed to be objective". [The quoted sentence was told to CND editor Chengyan Liu by World Journal reporter Mr. John Xie.] On June 2nd, IFCSS President Lin Changsheng told CND editor Chengyan Liu that there was a phone call from CBS to acknowledge acceptance of the inquiry letter [see CND-US May 25th report]. CBS also said to Mr. Lin that "it is a mistake. the program is based on a book." When Chengyan Liu asked Mr. Lin what is a mistake, and on which day from whose office this call was made, Mr. Lin couldn't remember since he is still in hunger strike and weak. In the same day, IFCSS Council member Liang Er told Mr. Liu that Silicon Valley Chinese Engineers Association had located a lawyer to sue CBS for its May 19th evening news broadcasting. Today, CND's Chengyan Liu called the office of Ms. Lane Venardos, CBS Vice President in charge of CBS Evening News brodcasting, try to verify CBS's phone call to IFCSS HQ. Her secretary made no comment on that regard. The only thing she told Chengyan Liu is that the reply letter to IFCSS is on its way, IFCSS HQ should get it in a few days." Obviously CBS wanted to get rid of its responsibility by argueing the report was based on the book instead of its own findings. But the transcript of the program clearly said: "In a special investigation, CBS News found out how China is grooming agents to keep an Eye on American." Also, the video footage and the transcript of the program had been constructed in a way far from a simple reproduction of the book. This is also unverified report that a Chinese group in Silicon Valley is preparing law suit against CBS. IFCSS is also investigating possibility of legal actions. (Editor: Legal actions may lead to the best result when coordinated.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Suggested actions for the next step ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Given CBS's attitude, we need to continue our protests and push CBS further until it acknowledges its responsibility and gives a full apology. Besides legal action, many netter have the following suggestions: a. Protest letters. We can send our protest letters to CBS, NBC, ABC and our local area stations, to major newspapers and journals, to Chinese consulates, by fax and letters. CBS HQ address: 524 West 57th St. New York, NY 10019. Attn: Mr. Eric Ober, President, CBS News; Ms. Connie Chung,CBS Evening News; Mr. Tom Anderson, Producer, CBS Evening News; Mr. ???, President. Fax: E. Ober (212)975-9197. C. Chung (212)975-1519. Fax by e-mail: remote-printer.Connie.Chung/cbs@9.1.5.1.5.7.9.2.1.2.1.tpc.int remote-printer.Eric.Ober/cbs@7.9.1.9.5.7.9.2.1.2.1.tpc.int b. Protest phone calls. Call CBS to voice your protest 1)CBS switchboard: (212) 975-4321. At this phone number you can inquire phone numbers of any CBS personnel, you'll be transfered to the Communication's Department where they will find the phone numbers for you. You can also ask to register your complaint, you will then be transfered to recording machines to make a recording. 2) CBS Evening News: (212) 975-3691 Here at Evening News you can talk to a person who takes down the complaint about the CBS report slandering Chinese. You might be advised by the person to write a letter, but since you already called, you should get her to write down whatever you have to say and pass it to the guilty party. 3) Eric Ober's office: (212) 975-6581 Mr. Ober is the president of CBS Evening News, vice president of CBS and he is responsible to authorize the news program (all news programs) to air. 4) Connie Chung's office: (212) 975-7192 Ms. Connie Chung is not only the person who read the report. She came up with the original idea. She and the Producer Tom Anderson went to China to meet Premier Li Peng to produce this news piece. Another Executive Producer of this program is Eric Sorenson. c. Boycott CBS and its patrons. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. A sample protest letter ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following sample letter is from Xiangdong Shi: Dear CBS President: As Chinese Nationals having lived in the U.S. for many years, we were outraged by "Eye on America" program on the 19th of May, 1994. We are further disappointed that CBS has so far ignored the reasonable demand from tens of thousands of Chinese nationals in U.S. who have been falsely accused as potential spies by the program for a public apology. We think CBS and its news division have to realize that this particular program is highly unprofessional and misleading. With phases like "planeloads of Chinese citizens", "ordinary people", "in the house next door", the program which is allegedly based on "a special investigation" of CBS, included every ordinary Chinese national in U.S. as a espionage suspect. It also hinted to the American public that Chinese nationals are particularly dangerous when their jobs are related to technology or informational superhighway. Yet instead of showing the viewers how many Chinese nationals out of 100,000+ in U.S. have been arrested for espionage to substantiate the accusation, the CBS news only reported two instances, one of which is a restaurant owner who came to US from either Hong Kong or Taiwan more than twenty years ago and has nothing to do with those "planeloads of people" and those who work with computers and technologies. The other is a Chinese national who is allegedly afraid of being contacted by Chinese intelligence soon. In other words, neither of the two instances substantiated the general accusation on ordinary Chinese nationals in U.S. made by CBS news. The program also misled viewers by claiming that all Chinese students going to U.S. would be questioned by Chinese Ministry of State Security on their potential work in U.S. This is simply a lie. Based on our personal experience and experience of our friends and families in U.S., none of them have been questioned by the Ministry. All these unsubstantiated accusations and false information have misled the uninformed American public into believing that ordinary Chinese in U.S. are spy suspects and therefore put 100,000+ Chinese national's potential and current job in jeopardy. Especially for those who have studied hard for years in hope of getting into the technology industry, their life-long American dreams are at stake. Only a full public apology from CBS can neutralize the negative effect its "Eye on America" program has caused on Chinese nationals in U.S. Anything less is unacceptable and will prompt us to take legal actions against CBS. Sincerely, Signed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Where to send your protest letters.................................... 20 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Besides the address of CBS provided earlier, here are some addresses and phone # provided by netters you may send protest letters or voice your protests to: nightly@nbc.com !NBC Nightly News bwreader@mgh.com !Business Week Magazine 71154.1006@compuserve.com !U.S. News & World Report Magazine Asian American Journalists Association 1765 Sutter St., Rm. 1000, San Francisco, CA 94115 (415) 346-2051 Media Action Network of Asian Americans (213) 486-4434 Consulate General of the People's Republic of China at Chicago 104 S. Michigan Avenue,Suit 1200,Chicago, IL 60603 More addresses, fax #s and phone #s will be posted in the future. fcbs-l@ifcss.org and the CBS incident committee have disignated Y. Huang to collect signatures for protest letters. E-mail huangy@sluvca.slu.edu if you would like to co-sign any protest letters. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % Editor of CBS Incident Committee: Xiangdong Shi % % Sign on/off at listserv@ifcss.org, with mailbody as: % % sub fcbs-l Firstname Lastname, or signoff fcbs-l % % Post at fcbs-l@ifcss.org % % Anonymous ftp at ifcss.org:/ifcss/cbs % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%