CNN Retraction

What really makes the U.S. media look bad is the decision by CNN and Time magazine to retract their story about the Pentagon’s use of nerve gas on U.S. defectors in Laos (July 3). There was no legitimate reason for this retraction or for CNN’s firing of producer April Oliver, who stands by the story. The broadcast resulted from a lengthy investigation and featured multiple military witnesses who corroborated each other’s shocking disclosures. CNN’s retraction smacks of a spineless capitulation to pressure from the Pentagon, which has an obvious interest in squelching stories such as this one.

Those of us who lived through the national nightmare of that war are familiar with the term “credibility gap,” the discrepancy between official denials and the reality they were intended to mask. The fact that the Pentagon has expressed support for the CNN-Time magazine retraction even before its own “investigation” of the issue has concluded shows where that “investigation” is going.

We are always told that in the United States the press is free of government control. What kind of media do we really have? Media that back off when the government demands it?

LAWRENCE TEETER

Los Angeles