%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  Editorial Board of CBS Incident Committee  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

                      Saturday, October 22, 1994   (No. 19)

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Table of Contents                                                # of Lines
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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
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1. A victory, and a challenge .......................................... 38
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	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.
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2. Connie Chung's Report in the CBS Evening News, Oct. 21, 1994......... 39
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***********************
* 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!

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3. The Letter From CBS-IC Special Delegation ........................... 56
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                                           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  
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4. The Letter From the President of CBS News ........................... 44
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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
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5. New York Times article on the CBS incident (Oct. 23, 1994).......... 56
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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.

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