[Aaus-list] FW: LETTER TO CNN

[Chernetsky, Vitaly A]

Dear Colleagues,

One of our members, George Liber, has asked me to forward the letter he has submitted to CNN and to encourage others in our association to write to them as well.

Our VP, William Risch, who lives and works in Georgia within driving distance of CNN headquarters, has been contacting them repeatedly but has been ignored, which I think is outrageous.

George's letter is reproduced below. The link to contact CNN is:

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/show/?s=generalcomments&hdln=4

Best,
VC

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Vitaly Chernetsky
Associate Professor
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
University of Kansas
2140 Wescoe Hall, 1445 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045-7594
(785) 864-2359
vchernetsky at ku.edu
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________________________________________
From: George O Liber [gliber at uab.edu]
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2014 4:57 AM
To: Chernetsky, Vitaly A
Subject: LETTER TO CNN

Dear Vitaly,
Could you post this letter to CNN on the AAUS list? Many of the list subscribers might be interested and add their comments to Mr. Jeff Zucker at the link below.
Sincerely,
George Liber

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/show/?s=generalcomments&hdln=4




_______________

Mr. Jeff Zucker, President
CNN Worldwide
Atlanta, GA

Dear Mr. Zucker,
Throughout much of Saturday, March 1, 2014, I watched CNN cover the current crisis in Ukraine.

The overwhelming majority of CNN anchors and correspondents made a valiant effort to assess a very complex situation unfolding in Ukraine and Russia in real time. This crisis, as CNN noted, has ramifications not only for Ukraine and Russia, but also for the entire international community. CNN’s live coverage of the Emergency Meeting of the UN Security Council highlighted CNN’s reporting.

But I (a scholar of the history of twentieth century Ukraine) could not help but notice that most of CNN’s anchors and correspondents rarely (if ever) interviewed members of the new (post-February 21) Ukrainian government.

Why this oversight? Are members of the new Ukrainian government incapable of speaking for themselves? Many of them have been trained at leading American universities and can speak English.

And in terms of the CNN interviews with “outside experts”, might not anchors interview scholars at the leading North American centers, such as Harvard University’s Ukrainian Research Institute and the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies? Most of the men and women affiliated with these centers have spent decades studying Ukraine and know this post-Soviet state far better than those who have researched other states and other political institutions.

Sincerely yours,
George O. Liber
Professor of History
University of Alabama at Birmingham
(Ph.D., History, Columbia University)