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Justice at last for critic of Stalinism? (Welsh paper vs New York Times Walter Duranty)
The Western Mail ^ | 6/12/03 | Tomos Livingstone

Posted on 06/12/2003 8:04:30 AM PDT by DPB101

AN infamous apologist for Stalinist Russia, who ridiculed a legendary Welsh journalist's claims that the regime was causing the starvation of millions of people, could be stripped of the Pulitzer Prize he won 70 years ago .

Any move to revoke the award won by Walter Duranty of the New York Times in 1932 would further vindicate Gareth Jones, who first exposed the 1932-33 Ukrainian famine in which millions died - an event Duranty denied had happened.

Campaigners have been bombarding the prize's committee with postcards and e-mails demanding Duranty, who died in 1957, be stripped of the prize, and a review is now reported to be under way.

When Jones, who wrote for The Western Mail, announced at a press conference in Berlin March 29, 1933 that millions were starving in Ukraine as a result of Stalin's five-year-plan, several foreign correspondents rushed to rubbish the story.

The most vocal was Walter Duranty of the New York Times, who had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for his own reports on Stalin's Russia.

He dismissed Jones's eye-witness account as "a big scare story" and insisted there was "no actual starvation".

In May 1932 the New York Times printed Mr Jones's response to the controversy. In a furious attack on the coterie of foreign correspondents, Mr Jones congratulated "the Soviet Foreign Office on its skill in concealing the true situation in the USSR."

Now a campaign organised by Ukrainians worldwide is putting pressure on the board of the Pulitzer Prize to reconsider Duranty's award.

The campaign has been given added momentum by the present-day problems at the New York Times, where the editor and managing editor have been forced to resign over a scandal involving 27-year-old reporter Jayson Blair, who has admitted fabricating dozens of articles for the paper.

The 18-member board which decides the awards, one of the most prestigious in world journalism, is now conducting a secret review of Duranty's award.

Gareth Jones, who was born in Barry in 1905, was regarded as one of the most talented journalists of his generation.

He wrote for The Western Mail, The Times and The Manchester Guardian as well as the Berliner Tageblatt and American newspapers.

He travelled through Russia and Ukraine in the early 1930s and was shocked at the famine conditions he encountered.

An estimated seven to 10 million people died between 1932 and 1933, an event Ukrainians call the Holodomor.

His career survived the controversy over the Ukrainian reports, but his life was tragically cut short when he was murdered by bandits in 1935 while travelling in Inner Mongolia. He was just 29 years old.

Mr Jones's niece Dr Siriol Colley has written a book about her uncle's life, A Manchukuo Incident.

She has been inundated with calls and e-mails from Ukrainian campaign groups keen to set the record straight on what they regard as their biggest national disaster.

She said, "Gareth was a man of integrity. He wanted to promote the fact that Stalin, and his five-year plan, was going badly wrong.

"The revoking of the award is a token and acknowledgement of the terrible famine - the Holodomor - which the world had no idea about - the facts which were suppressed by Stalin, his cohorts and Duranty was the medium to misinform the world press."

Her son Nigel Colley has suggested Gareth Jones should be posthumously awarded the prize.

One of the campaigners for the revocation of the prize is Dr Natalia Pylypiuk , an academic based in Edmonton, Canada.

Her mother, Anna Wlasenko, 12-years-old in 1933, survived the famine, despite being assumed dead and thrown into a mass grave.

In her letter to the Pulitzer committee she wrote, "As my family sits down in October to celebrate her 82nd birthday and to commemorate all those grandparents, uncles, and aunts who did not survive 1933, there could be no greater gift than being able to announce that, finally, Mr Duranty's unworthiness has been acknowledged by the Pulitzer committee."

Writing about Duranty in the 1970s, Guardian correspondent Malcolm Muggeridge, who also reported on the famine - anonymously - at the same time as Jones, said, "He admired Stalin and the regime precisely because they were so strong and ruthless. 'I put my money on Stalin' was one of his favourite sayings."

The Pulitzer board has only ever revoked a prize once, in 1981. Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke's story of an eight-year-old ghetto boy already addicted to heroin was revealed to be a fabrication.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
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Full text archive of Gareth Jones' dispatches from Moscow are here (includes articles by Duranty and Malcolm Muggeridge).
1 posted on 06/12/2003 8:04:30 AM PDT by DPB101
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To: DPB101
Now a campaign organised by Ukrainians worldwide is putting pressure on the board of the Pulitzer Prize to reconsider Duranty's award.

The campaign has been given added momentum by the present-day problems at the New York Times, where the editor and managing editor have been forced to resign over a scandal involving 27-year-old reporter Jayson Blair

A fitting Sultzburg legacy . . .

2 posted on 06/12/2003 8:12:19 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion
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To: DPB101
I can't believe this is happening. Who, actually, is leading the charge and how do they have this kind of clout? Duranty is one of the saints of the NYC commies and has been for 70 years. His work helped recruit anti-American spies for years. The comparisons of Pravda with the NYT (see: Georie Jessel) are based on Duranty's rantings and the ultra-leftward leaning of the NYT, and many other old-timee media oulets, is based on the Moscow directed propaganda of Duranty. Amazing! Long, long overdue, but still amazing!
3 posted on 06/12/2003 8:24:09 AM PDT by Tacis
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
"A fitting Sultzburg legacy . . ."


cIc, you nailed it with your comment above. That was the first thing that came into my old mind when I read this thread.

Lying is not new with the NY Slimes! Under the Sultzburg's, lying has part of the corporate culture of the NY Slimes for 7 decades.
4 posted on 06/12/2003 8:25:09 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Evil Old White Devil Californian Grampa for big Al Sharpton and Nader in primaries!)
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To: DPB101
I hope that in the near future we'll see some articles about the shamelss support that the New York Times has given to Fidel Castro starting in the late 1950's.
5 posted on 06/12/2003 8:33:44 AM PDT by 68skylark
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To: DPB101
Does anyone know where to send a postcard to add to the flood going to Pulitzer?
6 posted on 06/12/2003 8:38:47 AM PDT by Tamzee ( It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into. - J. Swift)
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To: DPB101
Duranty was the most disgraceful American journalist in history. (Goebels wins the worldwide honors)

The sooner the Pulitzer is withdrawn, the sooner the rehabilitation of a corrupted media can begin.

7 posted on 06/12/2003 8:39:20 AM PDT by friendly
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To: Tacis
I can't believe this is happening. Who, actually, is leading the charge and how do they have this kind of clout?

I never thought we would see this either. The Ukrainian Weekly (a tiny paper in NJ) called the Pulitzer committee the end of May and asked if Duranty's Pulitzer was under investigation. Their article was posted on FR June 1st. Worldnetdaily and Newsmax soon followed up. Then the New York Sun and last night the AP carried the story. Went international last night.

All of this was prompted by Ukrainian groups noting the 70th anniversary of the genocide.

Harold Denny, who succeeded Duranty in the Times Moscow bureau, should be next on the hit list. Then there is Herbert Matthews and his dispatches from Cuba...then Anthony Lewis and Sydney Schanberg for their support of Pol Pot... then....then....

Anyone know if The Nation has apologized for its reporting on the Holodomor? Louis Fischer was even worse than Duranty.

8 posted on 06/12/2003 8:40:16 AM PDT by DPB101
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To: DPB101
The Pulitzer board has only ever revoked a prize once, in 1981. Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke's story of an eight-year-old ghetto boy already addicted to heroin was revealed to be a fabrication.

Strictly speaking, this is not accurate. Janet Cooke voluntarily returned her Pulitzer after admitting her fraud, though her prize almost certainly would have been revoked had she not done so.

9 posted on 06/12/2003 8:44:03 AM PDT by blau993 (Labs for love; .357 for Security.)
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To: Tamsey; friendly; ABrit; alnitak; Andy Ross; andy224; Arkle; Bad Dog2; Ben Franklin; Big Bad Bob; ..
'Revoke Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer Prize' - International Protest Campaign:
If you feel that Duranty did not deserve to keep his 1932 Pulitzer Prize and you wish to add your voice to this protest campaign then PRESS HERE, complete the email form that appears and submit it online to the Pulitzer Prize Committee in New York.

10 posted on 06/12/2003 9:02:13 AM PDT by DPB101
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To: DPB101
Her son Nigel Colley has suggested Gareth Jones should be posthumously awarded the prize.

Seems right to me.

11 posted on 06/12/2003 9:33:47 AM PDT by RJL
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To: DPB101
Many thanks! I'll add my voice to all the others :-)
12 posted on 06/12/2003 9:46:42 AM PDT by Tamzee (Liberalism.... the willing suspension of rationality.)
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To: DPB101
She said, "Gareth was a man of integrity. He wanted to promote the fact that Stalin, and his five-year plan, was going badly wrong.

Actually, the plan worked as intended.

13 posted on 06/12/2003 11:33:11 AM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: Grampa Dave
Referring to the Ochs/Sulzbergers as slime is rather an understatement. Their Uptown Daily Worker has consistently covered up for treacherous communists.

In 1939, they hid the fact the Spanish Civil war was caused by Stalin.

In 1940, the NYT printed a glowing eulogy for the woman who instigated the assassination of President McKinley and others.

Even today they claim McCarthy was wrong about communists infiltrating the government.
14 posted on 06/12/2003 11:36:29 AM PDT by HISSKGB
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To: HISSKGB
Have a feeling we are going to see smoke rising from New York Times morgue someday soon. There are so many lies within, the paper cannot stand to have anyone document each one.
15 posted on 06/12/2003 11:40:25 AM PDT by DPB101
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To: HISSKGB
Do you have any data re their early support of Lenin and other early communists. I can remember my Grandfather complaining that the Slimes enabled Lenin to grab and maintain power via their support in the era after WWI? That was in the late 1940's and up to the mid 1950's.

Thanks for these reminders:

In 1939, they hid the fact the Spanish Civil war was caused by Stalin.

In 1940, the NYT printed a glowing eulogy for the woman who instigated the assassination of President McKinley and others.

Even today they claim McCarthy was wrong about communists infiltrating the government.
16 posted on 06/12/2003 11:50:50 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Evil Old White Devil Californian Grampa for big Al Sharpton and Nader in primaries!)
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To: DPB101
Oh they knew what was going on - most journalists lie and manipulate the truth and openly admit it! Trash like Amanpour have said that the news should be objectively reported but that it is the journalist's option as to what and how news gets reported...Our leaders knew what was happening in the Soviet Union but Roosevelt for one believed in separating morality and statecraft.

As for the Pulitzer "prize" - the only value the name has is Lili's fashion house.

17 posted on 06/12/2003 12:11:47 PM PDT by eleni121
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To: Tacis
Who, actually, is leading the charge and how do they have this kind of clout?

Believers tend to die-off. Relatives of the killed tend never to forget.

18 posted on 06/12/2003 12:17:03 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: DPB101
Here's the NY Times fawning obituary of ol' Uncle Joe.
19 posted on 06/12/2003 12:25:41 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (...and Freedom tastes of Reality.)
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To: Grampa Dave; HISSKGB
The University of California at Berkeley has a few New York Times articles from 1917 on Emma Goldman,Alexander Berkman,Morris Becker, Louis Kramer and Judge Julius M. Mayer here.

The site has a page devoted to Goldman for Middle and High School students. She is, of course, portrayed as a heroine.

20 posted on 06/12/2003 12:57:18 PM PDT by DPB101
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