%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Editorial Board of CBS Incident Committee %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Saturday, October 22, 1994 (No. 19) =========================================================================== Table of Contents # of Lines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. A victory and a challenge ........................................... 38 2. Connie Chung's Report ............................................... 39 3. The Letter From CBS-IC Special Delegation ........................... 56 4. The Letter From the President of CBS News ........................... 44 5. New York Times article on the CBS incident (Oct. 23, 1994)........... 56 =========================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. A victory, and a challenge .......................................... 38 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct. 21, 1994 should be remembered by every Chinese who is proud of being a Chinese. It will be remembered by history. No, this is not about a Chinese "Rodney King" beaten by police; nor is it about another "Vincent Chen" murdered by racists in cold blood. It doen't even get noticed in major media, other than a 27 second report from a national evening news. But it is about everyone of us ordinary Chinese in this country--tens of thousands of us --being defamed by a major TV program, CBS evening news, as potential spies. Now, after endless efforts from Chinese communities, and most noticably from ordinarty Chinese among you and me, on Oct. 21, 1994, on the same program and by the same reporter, it is anounced that "that there were more than a tiny percentage of such individuals among the many tens of thousands of legitimate Chinese students, visitors, and immigrants who each year come to the U.S." is an "an incorrect impression", and "we regret". How wonderful! We law-abiding Chinese are no longer labeled as "sleeping spies". And what a sweet victory! After a five-month long battle, our basic demand was finally met. It is sweet, because what we were facing is a multi-billion dollar media giant, and we are merely students and scholars who are still alienated by the majority of this land and have few resources. We cannot sue, because we have no money and they have tons of them, and they have the first amendment. But we still manage to achieve the victory, why? Because we have the conscience of every Chinese: this untrue accusation on the whole Chinese community just cannot stand.We have wonderful people like Lin Huang, Dong Xiao, Ray Wang, CBS-IC members, and many many more ordinary Chinese--again, tens of thousands of them. We also have priceless helps from many Chinese communities and civil right watch-dogs. Although we consist of no more than 0.05% of the population in this country, our voices, if in harmony, can still be heard. While rejoicing over the victory,we thank every one who contributed. In fact, we thank ourselves. It is our own job to seek equality and justice in this society. It can only be ourselves who can eventually save us from inequality and injustice. What will be next? Will there be another CBS incident? Shall we unite only when there is a crisis? Those are questions everyone of us should think about. As a minority and a newcomer, we expect challenges from majorities and old-comers. How do we take the challenge? From the CBS incident, we learned that the power lies in everyone of us, united. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Connie Chung's Report in the CBS Evening News, Oct. 21, 1994......... 39 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *********************** * from closed caption * *********************** Here is the clarification for a story we did last May on the Evening News. Our story concerned documented evidence of efforts by the Chinese government to turn some Chinese coming to the United States into spies. It was not our intention to leave the impression that there were more than a tiny percentage of such individuals among them many tens of thousands of legitimate Chinese students, visitors, and immigrants who each year come to the U.S. If we left an incorrect impression, we apologize. ^^^^^^^^^ *************************************** * She actually read as the following: * *************************************** Here is the clarification for a story we did last May on the Evening News. Our story concerned documented evidence of efforts by the Chinese government to recruit as spies some Chinese people who come to the United States. It was not our intention to leave the impression that there were more than a small number of such individuals among them many tens of thousands of legitimate Chinese students, visitors, and immigrants who come to the U.S. every year. If we left an incorrect impression, we regret. ^^^^^^ ============================================================================= It was obvious that the caption was made before hand, and she just did not want to say "apologize." Well, she learnt a lesson anyway. Her boss, President Eric Ober of CBS News, delivered "apologize" many times during the meeting, and put it down on the paper as well. Giant media seldom apologizes, this is one case scored by you guys! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. The Letter From CBS-IC Special Delegation ........................... 56 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lin Huang Dong Xiao Ray Wang Shuping Lu Yingying Li Special Delegation From CBS Incident Committee to CBS Luncheon of communication Dear Fellow Chinese: On May 19th, CBS aired that notorious news segment which has met with the strongest protest from our and other Asian communities. Tens of thousands of letters, faxes and phone calls poured in to voice one message -- we, the Chinese, in this land enjoy just as much as civil rights as any other ethnic groups and gone are the days when anyone in this country thinks this group can be bullied or humiliated. It was under such circumstances, CBS Incident Committee came into being. It consists of 80 core members and more than 8,000 followers. The committee over a period of five months has coordinated a protest movement with a international scope, contacted relevant government agencies, media, civil rights groups and conducted thorough research on the so-called "spy myth." There were moments of frustration and there were moments of doubts. But what keeps firing us up and what keeps us going is the sense of support we receive from you all. We know that you are all behind us and with perseverance we, together, can make a difference. WE HAVE!!! On October 18th, as a special delegation, we went to the CBS headquarters and forcefully voiced our anger and demand. And the president of CBS News apologized for our hurt feelings and today he told us again in writing and promised on October 21st CBS Evening News, "a very serious effort to set the record straight." Even though we have yet to see what they will say in the program, we believe we have already scored a major victory against a media giant. In the tele-press-conference on October 20th, our victory was viewed as the unprecedented event in the history of Chinese in the United States for justice, and equality. We should be proud of our achievement! WE the Chinese people in the United States! We want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has been actively involved in this arduous fight for justice and dignity, thank those who have either contributed financially or those who volunteered their time or work in any stage of our work. Dear fellow Chinese, even though our fight with CBS might be drawing to a close, we believe our fight for equality in this country has barely started. We hope we can keep our fighting spirits alive and we hope we will continue to receive your support. We know together we can make a difference. Lin Huang Dong Xiao Ray Wang Shuping Lu Yinying Li and all the Members of CBS Incident Committee --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. The Letter From the President of CBS News ........................... 44 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CBS NEWS A Division of CBS Inc., New York, NY 10018 (212)876-8581 Eric W. Ober President October 20, 1994 Dear Ms. Gong: This letter is being written as we are still fresh from Tuesday's luncheon here as CBS, I am speaking for all the people from CBS News who attended the gathering when I say that we were impressed by the depth of the genuine feelings expressed by all of you. We also now appreciate how it is possible to misconstrue or misinterpret the report on efforts by the Chinese government to insinuate spies into the United States. We appreciated how members of the Chinese community felt they were unfairly singled out. We are fully aware that the vast majority of Chinese, Chinese Americans, and other Asian Americans are exactly what they seem to be: legitimate, law-abiding students, visitors, immigrants and citizens, both long and short-term. If our story did not convey that awareness, we fully apologize. After a series of discussions with the people at CBS News who were involved in the broadcast and its preparation, we have decided on a course of action. On this Friday's edition of The CBS Evening News, we will make a very serious effort to set the record straight. I hope you will be watching and will alert other members of the group that attended today's luncheon and the larger constituency they represent. I believe the dialogue we established will go a long way to re- establishing the historically strong relationship between the Chinese and Chinese American communities and CBS News. It is a relationship of which we are quite proud in the decades of service we believe we have performed informing America about developments in this country and all over the world. Sincerely, Eric Ober Ms. Ginny Gong National President Organization of Chinese Americans, Inc. 1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 707 Washington, D.C. 20036 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. New York Times article on the CBS incident (Oct. 23, 1994).......... 56 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CBS Clarifies Chinese Spy Report After Protest October 23, 1994, New York Times, A36, National Section After months of protest from Asian-Americans over CBS News report about Chinese spies in the United States, the network broadcast an unusual "clarification" on its Friday evening newscast. "It was not our intention," said Connie Chung, co-anchor of the CBS Evening News, "to leave the impression that there were more than a small number of such individuals among the many tens of thousands of legitimate Chinese students, visitors, and immigrants who come to the U.S. every year. If we left an incorrect impression, we regret it." The original news report was shown on May 19. In it, Ms. Connie Chung examined the scope of Chinese intelligence operations in America. "Every day, planeloads of Chinese citizens arrive legally in the United States, ordinary people," Ms. Connie Chung said in the report. "But to the Chinese government, some of them may be future spies, who a few year down the road, will be activated to steal America's military and technological secrets, whether they want to or not." The broadcast angered many of the 350,000 recent Chinese immigrants, scholars and students in America. They said the report exaggerated the problem and caused them to be regarded with unwarranted suspicion. A group called the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars demanded an apology on the air and a retraction from CBS. "CBS News wrongly portrayed Chinese-Americans as untrustworthy in front of a television audience of over 12 million people," said Lin Huang, a member of the federation. Powerful Asian-American groups such as the Committee of 100, the Organization of Chinese Americans, and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, quickly joined the protest. Only after four months of requests and a letter from the United States Commission on Civil Rights did officials of CBS News meet with the coalition. That was on Tuesday. In response to the statement broadcast by CBS on Friday, Ginny Gong, national president the Organization of Chinese Americans, commended the network but added, "we'll no longer be the silent minority when negative stereotypes continue to perpetuate the image of Asian-Americans as forever foreign." Several attempts to reach CBS News executives about the statement brought responses that they would not be available until Monday. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % Editor of CBS Incident Committee: Miao Ye, 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/Legal/cbs % % $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ % % $ Please support our common cause by $ % % $ making your contribution payable to $ % % $ IFCSS/CBS Incident Fund, and mail it to $ % % $ Mr. Frank Chen / CBSIC $ % % $ 361 Ogden Avenue, $ % % $ Jersey City, NJ 07307 $ % % $Thank you for your pledge, and we will make a difference!$ % % $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%