639 lines
30 KiB
Markdown
639 lines
30 KiB
Markdown
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# CHAPTER XVI
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Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of
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himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does
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is morally indefensible. ¹
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\- Janet Malcom
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L.M. Singhvi... relates the anecdote of an Eastern European
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journalist who said:"... our newspapers, like those of the
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rest of the world, contain truths, half-truths, and lies.
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The truths are found on the sport pages, the half-truths are
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found in the weather forecasts, and the lies are found in
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everything else." ²
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\- La Jornada
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It must be the very first thing you learn in journalism
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school: Why do research when you can make things up? ³
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\- David Gelernter
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At the end of Chapter I we saw how Serge F. Kovaleski and
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Lorraine Adams of the *Washington Post* lied about my
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"hospital experience" by misquoting my mother's Baby Book.
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The *New York Times*, too, lied in its May 26, 1996 article
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about me. The author of the article, Robert D. McFadden,
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wrote that the Unabomber was described by a witness as
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having "reddish-brown hair." ⁴ But the description that the
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FBI obtained from the witness in question stated that the
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Unabomber had reddish-*blond* hair. ⁵ So why did McFadden
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make it reddish-*brown*? Obviously because he found it
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inconvenient that I didn't fit the description of the
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Unabomber. Since the fact that the Unabomber had
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reddish-blond hair had been massively publicized, it is
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scarcely conceivable that McFadden's error could have been
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inadvertent.
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In the very next paragraph McFadden makes another statement
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that has the earmarks of a conscious lie. He states that
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when the Unabomber was spotted by the witness he "panicked"
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and "fled." ⁴ There was no basis for this statement. The
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Unabomber's coolness in leaving the scene had already been
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publicized. ⁶
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Many journalists do not hesitate to lie to individuals in
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order to get material for stories. As an example I quote the
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following from a letter from Sherri Wood, librarian at
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Lincoln, Montana:
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"\[O\]ne day a reporter came in \[to the library\] from the
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Sacramento Bee and asked for an interview and we told him
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no. Then he asked us for just some general information about
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you and the arrest, and the town, just for background
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information. He said that it would be off the record. I said
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ok, and went to file books as we talked. After a while I
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heard Mary ask him why he was writing if this was all off
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record and then he said he had changed his mind and decided
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to put it on record. We both immediately shut up and then
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asked him to leave, after we told him what a rat we thought
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he was. He did then go on to print an article and made it
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sound like I gave him an interview voluntarily. ... I do not
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trust the press ... ." ⁷
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Unmistakably conscious lies about concrete facts are
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relatively infrequent in the media. False statements are
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extremely common, but it is clear that many of them are
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simply the result of negligence, and it is often impossible
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to distinguish the intentional falsehoods from the negligent
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ones.
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In the May 26, 1996 *New York Times* articles about me, I
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counted at least 42 clear errors of fact, in addition to the
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two intentional lies that we cited earlier. To give just a
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few examples: The *Times* states that my father "loved to go
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hunting." ⁸ To my knowledge he hunted once, and only once,
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in his life. The *Times* states that my mother was "familiar
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with science." ⁸ In reality she doesn't know as much science
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as the average fifth-grader. The *Times* states that the car
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I bought in 1967 was used. ⁹ In fact, it was new. The
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*Times* has my father's employment history badly garbled .
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¹⁰ Etc., etc., etc.
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Other national news sources didn't do much better than the
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*New York Times*. Thus *Time Magazine* wrote that I had "an
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outhouse out back" and a root cellar below my cabin, that I
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had volumes of Thackeray, that I sometimes stayed inside for
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weeks at a stretch ¹¹ (all of which are false). . . the
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errors just go on and on and on.
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The errors we've just been citing are probably inadvertent
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ones that resulted merely from excessively sloppy reporting,
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since it isn't clear what motive the media would have for
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lying in these cases. But when false statements are made
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that tend to incriminate me, or tend to make me seem
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repellent or despicable, it is often difficult to tell
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whether the falsehoods are accidental or malicious. For
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example, when *Time* reported that I had "bomb manuals" in
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my cabin ¹² (which is false), were they lying purposely or
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were they just relaying false information that they had
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received from some FBI agent? When *Newsweek* wrote," Ted
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continued to take handouts from his brother - a few thousand
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dollars in money orders over the years," was the falsehood
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intentional or only the result of sloppiness in collecting
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facts? ¹³
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Thus far I have been discussing only false assertions made
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by the media themselves concerning concrete factual matters.
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But there also have been falsehoods of other types. One of
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these types I call the "irresponsible quote." A newspaper or
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magazine protects itself from the accusation of falsehood by
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means of little phases like " Jones said..." or "according
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to Smith... ." For example, the *New York Times* wrote:
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"Butch Gehring . . . said he once heard \[Ted\] complain
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about his costs rising to $300 from $200 a year," ¹⁴ which
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is false. The *Times* also quoted a former neighbor of mine,
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\[Le\] Roy Weinberg, to the effect that as a kid I "didn't
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play," ¹⁵ a statement so implausible on its face that it
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should have aroused any reporter's suspicion. What is much
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more serious, the *Times* quoted irresponsible statements
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that tended to incriminate me: "Stacie Frederickson, a
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Greyhound agent in Butte, remembered ticketing Mr.
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Kaczynski - 'a geeky-looking guy' - about 15 times on
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intercity buses south to Salt Lake City or west to the
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Coast." ¹⁶ Frederickson's statement is false. "At a Burger
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King restaurant next to the bus terminal in Sacramento, Mike
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Singh, the manager, remembered \[Ted\]. He was carrying what
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appeared to be an armful of books. He had a sandwich and a
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cup of coffee and left. Mr. Kaczynski took a room at the
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Royal Hotel, next door to the bus station. A desk clerk,
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Frank Hensley, remembered him because he stayed there
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periodically in recent years, usually in spring or summer,
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for three days to a week at a time. He used the name Conrad
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to sign the registration book... ." ¹⁷ Singh's and Hensley's
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statements also are false. If Frederickson, Singh, and
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Hensley didn't simply invent their stories, then they have
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confused me with someone else. In earlier chapters we
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discussed many other false statements about me that have
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been quoted in the *New York Times* or other national news
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sources, and - it must be emphasized - there have been so
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many others (even in the *New York Times* alone) that it
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would be impractical for me to try to mention all of them. I
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haven't even tried to count them.
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As experienced journalists, the *New York Times's* reporters
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and staff writers are well aware that, especially in highly
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publicized cases, there are a great many people who will
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make statements that are false or grossly distorted, either
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because they are stupid, or because they want to see their
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names in the paper, or for some other reason. Yet the *New
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York Times* and other national and local periodicals have
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quoted the uncorroborated words of any jerk who has taken it
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into his head to talk to the media, and they have done so
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without warning their readers that the quoted material is
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highly unreliable.
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Among the large numbers of unverified statements that are
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available, do the media select for quotation those that give
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a story the slant that the editors want? They probably do,
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though it is difficult to prove it. It is worth noting that
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almost all of the false statements that have been published
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about me in periodicals of national circulation have been
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negative or neutral; only a rare few have been positive.
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There is yet another way in which the media purvey
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falsehood, and in this case there cannot be the slightest
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doubt that intentional slanting is involved. Journalists
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will make negative statements about an individual that are
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so vague that there is no way they can ever be definitely
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proved or disproved, yet by repeating such statements over
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and over again throughout an article they can give their
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readers a decidedly false impression of the individual in
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question.
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Robert D. McFadden's article in the *New York Times*
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provides an excellent example of this technique. The article
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appears under the headline," The Tortured Genius of Theodore
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Kaczynski." ¹⁸ In reality I am neither tortured nor a
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genius. McFadden proceeds to assert that in my Montana
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cabin I "watched dying embers flicker visions of a wretched
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humanity." ¹⁸ I did nothing of the kind. The next paragraph
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states that mathematics was the "sole passion of \[my\]
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life" and that it was "suddenly dead ." ¹⁸ Actually,
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mathematics was never the sole passion of my life, and my
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interest in it declined not suddenly but gradually, over a
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period of years. McFadden then describes my undergraduate
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days at Harvard as "humiliating." ¹⁸ They had their bad
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points, certainly, but I never felt that they were
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humiliating. He describes the lines at the corners of my
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mouth as "obstinate," ¹⁸ but there is no rational evidence
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that they have anything to do with obstinacy. In his fifth
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paragraph, McFadden speaks of my supposed "instabilities",
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"obsessions," and "rigidities" ¹⁸ without presenting any
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rational evidence that I was unstable, obsessed, or rigid,
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and he goes on to say that I "deteriorated" until my family
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"did not recognize" me, ¹⁸ which is sheer fantasy. The
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article rambles along endlessly in the same vein.
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Most of these assertions are so indefinite that it would be
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virtually impossible ever to prove them false. How would one
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prove that one has no "instabilities" or that one has not
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"deteriorated?" The words are just too vague. It might be
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possible to disprove a few of the assertions if one wanted
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to take the trouble; for example, I might be able to
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document that fact that mathematics was never the sole
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passion of my life. But I would have to devote several pages
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to this seemingly trivial point, and in doing so I would
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look ridiculous because I would appear to be making a
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mountain out of a molehill. I would look even more
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ridiculous if I tried to prove that I am not "tortured",
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since the word was never meant to be taken literally anyway;
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it was used only for its emotional impact. Yet emotional
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language and indefinite assertions of the kind used by
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McFadden, when repeated over and over, can quite
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successfully portray an individual as a repellent sicko.
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Needless to say, the *New York Times* is not the only
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periodical that uses this technique. The method is applied
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quite generally in the news media.
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Before my arrest - that is, before I had the opportunity to
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compare what I know to be the truth with what the media say
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\- if someone had told me how dishonest the media are I
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would never have believed it. Since my arrest I have talked
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with a number of lawyers, investigators, jail personnel, and
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law enforcement officers who in their daily work have seen
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the difference between what they have personally experienced
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and what the media report, and they have all told me that
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most journalists have little regard for truth and little
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hesitation about embroidering their stories. As one very
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able lawyer expressed it to me, "These people are animals -
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animals!" See Appendix 7.
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Why do journalists stretch the truth as far as they do? For
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one thing, the news media are supported mainly by
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advertising, and to sell advertising space they need a large
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audience. They know that the public is more attracted by a
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dramatic story that portrays someone as a hero or a villain
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than by a sober, careful, balanced account.
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For another thing, the media are controlled by people who
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are committed to the system because it is from their
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position in the system that they get their power and their
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status. Consequently, the media constitute a kind of
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cheerieading squad for the system and its values.
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Journalists who don't cooperate with the system's propaganda
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line are not hired by major news outlets and that is why the
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news media uniformly support the basic values of the system.
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It is also why they portray as a viilain or a sicko anyone
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who appears to be a threat to those values.
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In my case, the FBI quickly succeeded in convincing the
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media (through dishonest tactics that we will discuss later)
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that I was probably the Unabomber. Journalists must have
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realized that my identification as the Unabomber was
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uncertain, since the FBI is known to have railroaded
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innocent people in the past, but they knew that they could
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attract a bigger audience by jumping on the bandwagon and
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trumpeting to the world the capture of the supposed
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Unabomber than by publishing a sober account that retained
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rational skepticism. ¹⁹ Moreover, the Unabomber had attacked
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the basic values of the system in a strikingly effective
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way; hence, once they had accepted the assumption that I was
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the Unabomber, the media had to maintain the propaganda line
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by depicting me as a repellent sicko.
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During the first months following my arrest I repeatedly
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asked my lawyers about the possibility of suing some of
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these people for libel, but they told me that it probably
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wouldn't be worth the trouble, because the very volume of
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publicity about me had made me into a "public figure," and
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the libel laws concerning "public figures" made it very
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difficult for any such person to win a libel suit.
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The statement I made earlier, that the major news media
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uniformly support the basic values of the system, may be
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questioned by some readers who notice that it is not
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uncommon for the media to criticize various aspects of the
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system. But there is a difference between questioning
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*aspects* and questioning *basic values* of the system. The
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media criticize, for example, corruption, police brutality,
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and racism whenever they appear in the system, but in doing
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so they are not criticizing the system itself or its basic
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values, they are criticizing diseases of the system.
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Corruption, police brutality, and racism are all bad for the
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system, and by criticizing them the media are helping to
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strengthen the system.
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On infrequent occasions the major news media do allow
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*cautious* criticism of some of the system's basic values.
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²⁰ But such criticism is expressed in more-or-less abstract
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terms that keep it remote from the sphere of practical
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action. The attitude is always, "Isn't it too bad that
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such-and-such; but after all we just have to accept it and
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live with it as best we can." No one is ever encouraged to
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do anything that might actually upset the workings of the
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system.
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"' If you mean to tell me,' said an editor to me, 'that
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*Esquire* tries to have articles on important issues and
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treats them in such a way that nothing can come of it - who
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can deny it? '" ²¹ - Paul Goodman, *Growing up Absurd*
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Criticisms of the system that appear in the media constitute
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one of the safety valves that help to relieve the average
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man's resentment; and moreover they provide the illusion of
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independent-minded journalism. Thus they help to deaden the
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impulse to real, substantial, fundamental dissent.
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\*\*\*\*\*\*
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After my arrest on April 3, 1996, FBI agents and officials
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began disclosing to the media massive amounts of information
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concerning the alleged evidence found in my cabin, and other
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supposed evidence against me - though much of the
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"information" was in fact false. Even if all of the
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information had been true, its release would have been
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unethical and contrary to regulations. The government itself
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admitted this:
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"The United States acknowledges that government personnel
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have disclosed to members of the press certain details of
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the search of Kaczynski's cabin and of the government's
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investigation. Although there is no evidence that these
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disclosures were made with the intent to influence legal
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proceedings \[ha!\], such disclosures were improper and
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contrary to Department of Justice policy." ²²
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FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno
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must have known about the massive disclosures to the press
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within a day or so after they began. In fact, Freeh issued
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the following directive on April 4:
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"To protect the integrity of this investigation and
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prosecution, I am reminding you of our 'bright line' policy,
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and there is to be no discussion with the media regarding
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any aspect of this case. It is not only distressing to both
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me and the Attorney General, but to every person who has
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worked so tirelessly on this matter over the last several
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years, to read and hear investigative information in the
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press. It is destructive to provide that information and
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must not continue to happen \[sic\]." ²³
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But the disclosures continued for several days. There cannot
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be the slightest doubt that Louis Freeh and Janet Reno could
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have stopped most of the disclosures immediately if they had
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wanted to, because this was not just a matter of a dribble
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of information leaking out covertly; the disclosures were on
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a massive scale. ²⁴ The lawyer who was then representing me,
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Michael Donahoe, told me that FBI agents involved in the
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search were openly taking items of alleged evidence from the
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cabin, showing them to representatives of the media, and
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explaining (not necessarily truthfully) what they were. ²⁵
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Yet Freeh and Reno allowed the disclosures to go on until,
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on April 17, Freeh issued a statement:
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"I ordered an investigation early this month of whether any
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FBI employees have leaked investigative information from the
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UNABOM case. ... Unauthorized disclosure of investigative
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information or other confidential material will lead to
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immediate firing from the FBI and possible prosecution." ²⁶
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By that time, my attorney Michael Donahoe had already filed
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a motion to dismiss the charges against me on the grounds
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that the publicity had irrevocably destroyed my right to a
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fair trial. ²⁷ In denying this motion, Judge Charles C.
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Lovell relied in part on the statement of Louis Freeh that
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we have just quoted:
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"Judge Freeh \[Lovell wrote\] has ordered an investigation,
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and he has promised dismissals and prosecution for any
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government officials releasing confidential information." ²⁸
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On August 29, 1996, my attorney Quin Denvir wrote to Robert
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Cleary, Special Attorney to the U.S. Attorney General and
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|
chief prosecutor in my case:
|
||
|
|
||
|
"Dear Mr. Cleary:
|
||
|
|
||
|
"On April 4, 1996 \[sic; should be April 17\], FBI Director
|
||
|
Louis J. Freeh issued a directive stating, *inter al*, that
|
||
|
the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility was
|
||
|
conducting an investigation into the leakage of information
|
||
|
regarding the Unabom case and that 'unauthorized disclosure
|
||
|
of investigative information or other confidential
|
||
|
information will lead to immediate firing from the FBI and
|
||
|
possible prosecution.' In denying Mr. Kaczynski's Montana
|
||
|
motion regarding the leakage of information, the district
|
||
|
court relied upon that statement of Director Freeh. (RT, p.
|
||
|
13.) I am writing to inquire as to whether the FBI Office of
|
||
|
Professional Responsibility has conducted its investigation
|
||
|
in this regard and whether any FBI personnel have been fired
|
||
|
or otherwise disciplined as a result of that investigation."
|
||
|
²⁹
|
||
|
|
||
|
Mr. Denvir has told me that as of mid-October, 1997, he has
|
||
|
received no answer to this letter.
|
||
|
|
||
|
It's obvious that Janet Reno and Louis Freeh never seriously
|
||
|
intended to prevent the unauthorized disclosures or punish
|
||
|
the agents responsible for them. The disclosures were made
|
||
|
with the acquiescence (if not the covert encouragement) of
|
||
|
Reno and Freeh, because the Justice Department knew that the
|
||
|
warrant for the search of my cabin had been issued without
|
||
|
probable cause. By trying me in the media and creating a
|
||
|
public presumption of my guilt, they hoped to make it
|
||
|
difficult for a judge to suppress the alleged evidence
|
||
|
seized from my cabin on the grounds that the warrant was
|
||
|
invalid.
|
||
|
|
||
|
\*\*\*\*\*\*
|
||
|
|
||
|
As long as we are on the subject of the FBI, I can't resist
|
||
|
passing along an anecdote that was recounted to me by a
|
||
|
police officer whom I believe to be intelligent and
|
||
|
reliable, and who told me he was an eyewitness of the
|
||
|
events.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A local police agency located a drug dealer in whom the FBI
|
||
|
was particularly interested and passed the information on to
|
||
|
the Feds. The FBI and the local agency then set up a
|
||
|
stake-out around the hotel where the suspect was living and
|
||
|
waited for him to come out. After they'd waited for several
|
||
|
hours, one of the FBI cars pulled away and drove off. Then
|
||
|
another FBI car left and then another. The local police
|
||
|
lieutenant who was in charge of the stake-out wondered what
|
||
|
was happening, so he took off after the FBI cars, pulled one
|
||
|
of them over, and asked what was going on. The FBI agents
|
||
|
answered that it was five o'clock and they weren't allowed
|
||
|
to work overtime without permission from their supervisor.
|
||
|
So they had just taken off without bothering to notify the
|
||
|
local police involved in the stake-out.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I am not, of course, in a position to vouch for the accuracy
|
||
|
of this account, but I find it easy to believe in view of
|
||
|
other evidence I've seen of the incompetence of the FBI.
|
||
|
I'm told that most local police forces that have worked with
|
||
|
the Feds are contemptuous of them. It seems that the FBI is
|
||
|
good at just one thing, namely, propaganda. It has succeeded
|
||
|
in creating an image of itself as the world's most effective
|
||
|
law-enforcement organization, and, considering the
|
||
|
difference between the image and the reality, this
|
||
|
constitutes a truly brilliant demonstration of the
|
||
|
propagandist's art.
|
||
|
|
||
|
## NOTES TO CHAPTER XVI
|
||
|
|
||
|
1. Janet Malcolm, *The Journalist and the Murderer*, Vintage
|
||
|
Books, Random House, 1990, p. 3.
|
||
|
|
||
|
2. *La Jornada Semanal*, May 18, 1997, p. 7. *La Jornada
|
||
|
Semanal* is a supplement inserted in the Mexican newspaper
|
||
|
*La Jornada*. The passage quoted has, of course, been
|
||
|
translated from Spanish.
|
||
|
|
||
|
3. David Gelernter, *Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber*,
|
||
|
The Free Press, 1997, p. 51.
|
||
|
|
||
|
4. (Ha) *NY Times Nat.*, May 26, 1996, p. 24, column 4.
|
||
|
|
||
|
5. (Pd) Application and Affidavit for Search Warrant, p. 80,
|
||
|
paragraph 154.
|
||
|
|
||
|
6. For example (Hf) *Newsweek*, April 15, 1996, p. 40: "The
|
||
|
woman banged on the window, motioning the man away. He
|
||
|
calmly picked up the bag and left." Media reports of the
|
||
|
Unabomber's calmness are supported by the FBI's reports of
|
||
|
its interviews with the witness. (Nc) Police-FBI Interview
|
||
|
of Tammara Fluehe, February 22, 1987, p. 5: "FLUEHE stated
|
||
|
that the individual never seemed in a hurry, and walked at a
|
||
|
normal pace." (Na) FBI 302 number 12, November 18, 1993, p.
|
||
|
1:"FLUEHE said that when she yelled to GAY the individual
|
||
|
placing the device on the ground looked up at her... he then
|
||
|
slowly stood up, turned around and walked toward 300 East
|
||
|
Street." (Nd) Memorandum of Interview with Tammara Dawn
|
||
|
Fluehe on December 16, 1993:
|
||
|
|
||
|
"FLUEHE stated the individual who placed the device ...
|
||
|
knew he was being observed, but did not appear to be
|
||
|
startled or afraid and the individual slowly turned around
|
||
|
and walked away. ... This individual seemed very confident
|
||
|
and in no hurry when he left the area."
|
||
|
|
||
|
I am not especially trying to defend the Unabomber's
|
||
|
courage. I am concerned only to show that McFadden is a
|
||
|
liar.
|
||
|
|
||
|
7. (Cb) FL Supplementary Item #14, letter from Sherri Wood
|
||
|
to me, February 2, 1998, p. 1. Early in April of 1998 I
|
||
|
asked Jeff Severson, a legal assistant on my defense team,
|
||
|
to call Sherri Wood and ask her if it would be alright for
|
||
|
me to use the quotation to which this footnote refers. She
|
||
|
gave her permission orally. Later she sent Mr. Severson a
|
||
|
letter in which she slightly corrected what she had written
|
||
|
in FL Supplementary Item #14. Instead of saying that the
|
||
|
reporter had "changed his mind and decided to put it on
|
||
|
record," she wrote:" He stated he had decided that it should
|
||
|
be up to his boss if what we were saying should be off the
|
||
|
record or not." See (Cb) FL Supplementary Item #15, letter
|
||
|
from Sherri Wood to Jeff Severson, April 8, 1998. There are
|
||
|
no other discrepancies between these two letters of Sherri
|
||
|
Wood.
|
||
|
|
||
|
8. (Ha) *NY Times Nat.*, May 26, 1996, p. 22, column 3.
|
||
|
|
||
|
9. (Ha) *NY Times Nat.*, May 26, 1996, p. 23, column 3.
|
||
|
|
||
|
10. Same, p. 23, column 4. The truth is that my father had
|
||
|
been working for a Chicago company called Cushion-Pak. In or
|
||
|
around 1966, Cushion-Pak sent him to Lisbon, Iowa to start a
|
||
|
small branch that was called Iowa Cushion-Pak. Iowa Cushion-
|
||
|
Pak was doing well when the parent company called my father
|
||
|
back to Chicago. After working for a few years in Chicago
|
||
|
for Cushion-Pak, my father resigned and took a job with Foam
|
||
|
Cutting Engineers because it was much closer to his house in
|
||
|
Lombard. The owners of Foam Cutting Engineers were not the
|
||
|
same as those of Cushion-Pak and Iowa Cushion-Pak. In fact,
|
||
|
Foam Cutting Engineers and Cushion-Pak were competitors.
|
||
|
|
||
|
11. (Hg) *Time*, April 15, 1996, pp. 40, 41. I never had an
|
||
|
outhouse. I did have a root cellar, but it was not
|
||
|
underneath my cabin; it was more than a hundred feet away. I
|
||
|
had no volume of Thackeray. I could not have stayed indoors
|
||
|
for weeks at a stretch even if I had wanted to, because I
|
||
|
had to fetch water, cut firewood, tend my garden, gather
|
||
|
wild greens, hunt for meat and so forth.
|
||
|
|
||
|
12. (Hg) *Time*, April 15, 1996, p. 41 wrote that my home
|
||
|
had "two walls filled floor to ceiling with Shakespeare and
|
||
|
Thackeray and bomb manuals." In reality, no wall of my cabin
|
||
|
had more than a single shelf of books; I had perhaps two or
|
||
|
three volumes of Shakespeare, not more; no Thackeray; and I
|
||
|
had no bomb manuals whatsoever.
|
||
|
|
||
|
13. The quotation is from (Hf) *Newsweek*, April 22, 1996,
|
||
|
p. 32. I accepted "handouts" from my parents. Every one of
|
||
|
them was matched by an equal handout to my brother, except
|
||
|
for the final handouts in 1991, amounting to $7,700. See
|
||
|
Chapter VII, pp. 211, 212 . As to the $7,700, brother could
|
||
|
not have complained that he was getting short-changed, since
|
||
|
at that time I renounced all claim to my share of our
|
||
|
parents' estate, so that the entire amount (a matter of some
|
||
|
hundreds of thousands of dollars) would go to my brother on
|
||
|
our mother's death. See (Ca) FL #461, letter from me to
|
||
|
David Kaczynski, July 20,1991, pp. 8, 9.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I never asked for nor accepted any "handouts" from my
|
||
|
brother. In Chapter IX, pp. 260-262, I described how he
|
||
|
offered me money for medical treatment in case I needed it
|
||
|
and how I declined his offer. In 1985 my brother offered to
|
||
|
give me $200 for bus fare so that I could visit him in
|
||
|
Texas. (Ca) FL#302, letter from David Kaczynski to me, April
|
||
|
or May, 1985, p. 4. I answered," Your offer to give me
|
||
|
$200.00 for bus fare is very generous - but I couldn't
|
||
|
accept it." (Ca) FL#304, letter from me to David Kaczynski,
|
||
|
late spring or summer of 1985, p. 2. In late 1994 I asked my
|
||
|
brother for two loans totalling $3,000. My brother did lend
|
||
|
me this money, but a loan is not a "handout". It is true
|
||
|
that I was unable to repay my brother at the time when I had
|
||
|
told him I hoped to do so, but it is also true that the loan
|
||
|
was well secured, so that he was in no danger of losing his
|
||
|
money. I changed the deed to my land so that it was held by
|
||
|
my brother and me in joint tenancy, and if I had died it
|
||
|
would automatically have become his sole property. I also
|
||
|
sent my brother notes in which I stated that the land was to
|
||
|
become his property if I did not repay the loans by a
|
||
|
specified date. According to a local realtor, the land could
|
||
|
have been sold for about twelve or fifteen thousand dollars.
|
||
|
All this is confirmed by my correspondence with my brother,
|
||
|
(Ca) FL#473 through FL#483, and by (Ga) Deed #6.
|
||
|
|
||
|
14. (Ha) *NY Times Nat.*, May 26, 1996, p. 24, column 1.
|
||
|
There was an article (Hd) *Missoulian*, April 3, 1997 (the
|
||
|
*Missoulian* is the newspaper of Missoulia, Montana),
|
||
|
authored by one Mick Holien, that was based on an interview
|
||
|
wit Butch Gehring and his wife Wendy. It Contained the usual
|
||
|
nonsense. It is distressing that a supposedly responsible
|
||
|
newspaper would publish material like this solely on the
|
||
|
word of people whom any experienced journalist should have
|
||
|
recognized as chuckle-headed and unreliable.
|
||
|
|
||
|
15. (Ha) *NY Times Nat.*, May 26, 1996, p. 22, column 3. A
|
||
|
photograph published in (Hg) *Time*, April 15, 1996, p. 46,
|
||
|
shows me playing in sandbox in our back yard in Evergreen
|
||
|
Park in 1954. I very often played in our back yard, and
|
||
|
Leroy Weinberg must frequently have seen me doing so, since
|
||
|
his back yard began only a few feet beyond the point where
|
||
|
our back yard ended.
|
||
|
|
||
|
16. (Ha) *NY Times Nat.*, May 26, 1996, p. 24, column 1.
|
||
|
|
||
|
17. Same, p. 25, column 1.
|
||
|
|
||
|
18. Same, p. 1.
|
||
|
|
||
|
19. The media often inserted little inconspicuous phrases in
|
||
|
their articles that would enable them to claim that they had
|
||
|
not actually said that I was the Unabomber, but it is safe
|
||
|
to say that most readers scarcely noticed these phrases and
|
||
|
received essentially the message that I *was* the Unabomber.
|
||
|
For example, (Hg) *Time*, April 15, 1996, p. 37: "The man
|
||
|
who seems to be the Unabomber was arrested - another example
|
||
|
of the way in which a demon, hitherto concealed, may shrivel
|
||
|
when brought into sunlight. The suspect's family turned him
|
||
|
in because they recognized his writings - a killer betrayed
|
||
|
by his own prose style."
|
||
|
|
||
|
Despite the phrase "seems to be" and the fact that I was
|
||
|
called a "suspect," to all but the most careful readers this
|
||
|
amounted practically to a statement that I was the
|
||
|
Unabomber.
|
||
|
|
||
|
20. See, for example, (Hg) *Time*, August 28, 1995, pp.
|
||
|
50-57, 'The Evolution of Despair," by Robert Wright. The
|
||
|
author does hint at practical action, but none that would be
|
||
|
in conflict with the basic needs and values of the system.
|
||
|
|
||
|
21. Paul Goodman, *Growing up Absurd*, Vintage Books, 1960,
|
||
|
Chapter II, pp. 39-40.
|
||
|
|
||
|
22. (Pb) Government's opposition to Donahoe's motion, p. 4.
|
||
|
|
||
|
23. Same, p. 3.
|
||
|
|
||
|
24. (Pa) Donahoe's memorandum in support of motion to
|
||
|
dismiss, Appendix A and Appendix B.
|
||
|
|
||
|
25. For confirmation see (Cf) Letter from Quin Denvir to
|
||
|
Michael Donahoe.
|
||
|
|
||
|
26. (Pb) Government's opposition to Donahoe's motion,
|
||
|
Exhibit C.
|
||
|
|
||
|
27. (Pa) Donahoe's motion to dismiss.
|
||
|
|
||
|
28. (Pc) Denial of Donahoe's motion, pp. 7, 8.
|
||
|
|
||
|
29. (Ce) Letter from Quin Denvir to Robert Cleary.
|