Subject: News Release of CBS Incident Committee No.3 (Part III & IV)

From: [email-masked] (Xiangdong "Sheldon" Shi)
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 1994 13:40:24 GMT

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

		       Saturday, June 5, 1994   (No. 3)

=============================================================================
 *** Part III. & IV. Summary of Activities and Suggestions ***
=============================================================================
Contents						           # of Lines
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. A summary of current status of the CBS incident.........................47
2. Suggested actions for the next step.....................................48
2. A sample protest letter to CBS..........................................51
4. Where to send your protest letters......................................20
=============================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. A summary of current status of the CBS incident.........................47
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Within the last two weeks, the anger and protests of our Chinese community
have attracted certain attention in media and reached CBS, thanks to efforts
from many volunteers, IFCSS and many other supportive groups. The following
is from CND-US-94-06-04 report:

"On May 26th, World Journal published a detailed report on CSS community's 
angry response to CBS May 19th "Eye on America" program. It cited Xiaolin 
Li's protest letter, IFCSS HQ's inquiry letter and other opinions from 
Internet. CBS released an official statement to World Journal that "there 
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
is nothing wrong with May 19th CBS report and they regret to hear CSS 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
community's outrage response. All its news broadcasting is aimed to be 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
objective". [The quoted sentence was told to CND editor Chengyan Liu by
^^^^^^^^^^
World Journal reporter Mr. John Xie.]

On June 2nd, IFCSS President Lin Changsheng told CND editor Chengyan Liu
that there was a phone call from CBS to acknowledge acceptance of the
inquiry letter [see CND-US May 25th report]. CBS also said to Mr. Lin that
"it is a mistake. the program is based on a book." When Chengyan Liu asked
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Mr. Lin what is a mistake, and on which day from whose office this call was
made, Mr. Lin couldn't remember since he is still in hunger strike and weak.
In the same day, IFCSS Council member Liang Er told Mr. Liu that Silicon
Valley Chinese Engineers Association had located a lawyer to sue CBS for its
May 19th evening news broadcasting.

Today, CND's Chengyan Liu called the office of Ms. Lane Venardos, CBS Vice
President in charge of CBS Evening News brodcasting, try to verify CBS's
phone call to IFCSS HQ. Her secretary made no comment on that regard. The
only thing she told Chengyan Liu is that the reply letter to IFCSS is on its
way, IFCSS HQ should get it in a few days."

Obviously CBS wanted to get rid of its responsibility by argueing the report
was based on the book instead of its own findings. But the transcript of
the program clearly said: "In a special investigation, CBS News found out how
China is grooming agents to keep an Eye on American." Also, the video footage
and the transcript of the program had been constructed in a way far from a
simple reproduction of the book.

This is also unverified report that a Chinese group in Silicon Valley is
preparing law suit against CBS. IFCSS is also investigating possibility
of legal actions. (Editor: Legal actions may lead to the best result when
coordinated.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Suggested actions for the next step.....................................48
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Given CBS's attitude, we need to continue our protests and push CBS further
until it acknowledges its responsibility and gives a full apology. Besides
legal action, many netter have the following suggestions:

a. Protest letters. We can send our protest letters to CBS, NBC, ABC and our
local area stations, to major newspapers and journals, to Chinese consulates,
by fax and letters.
CBS HQ address: 524 West 57th St. New York, NY 10019.
   Attn: Mr. Eric Ober, President, CBS News; Ms. Connie Chung,CBS Evening News;
         Mr. Tom Anderson, Producer, CBS Evening News; Mr. ???, President.
Fax: E. Ober (212)975-9197. C. Chung (212)975-1519.

b. Protest phone calls. Call CBS to voice your protest
  
1)CBS switchboard:  (212) 975-4321.

   At this phone number you can inquire phone numbers of any CBS personnel,
you'll be transfered to the Communication's Department where they will find
the phone numbers for you.

   You can also ask to register your complaint, you will then be transfered
to recording machines to make a recording.

2) CBS Evening News:  (212) 975-3691

   Here at Evening News you can talk to a person who takes down the complaint
about the CBS report slandering Chinese.  You might be advised by the person
to write a letter, but since you already called, you should get her to write
down whatever you have to say and pass it to the guilty party.

3) Eric Ober's office:  (212) 975-6581

   Mr. Ober is the president of CBS Evening News, vice president of CBS
and he is responsible to authorize the news program (all news programs)
to air.

4) Connie Chung's office:  (212) 975-7192

   Ms. Connie Chung is not only the person who read the report.  She came
up with the original idea.  She and the Producer Tom Anderson went to China
to meet Premier Li Peng to produce this news piece.  Another Executive
Producer of this program is Eric Sorenson.

c. Boycott CBS and its patrons.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. A sample protest letter................................................51
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following sample letter is from Xiangdong Shi:

Dear CBS President:

As Chinese Nationals having lived in the U.S. for many years, we were outraged 
by "Eye on America" program on the 19th of May, 1994. We are further
disappointed that CBS has so far ignored the reasonable demand from tens of
thousands of Chinese nationals in U.S. who have been falsely accused as
potential spies by the program for a public apology.

We think CBS and its news division have to realize that this particular program
is highly unprofessional and misleading. With phases like "planeloads of
Chinese citizens", "ordinary people", "in the house next door", the program 
which is allegedly based on "a special investigation" of CBS, included every
ordinary Chinese national in U.S. as a espionage suspect. It also hinted to the
American public that Chinese nationals are particularly dangerous when their
jobs are related to technology or informational superhighway. Yet instead of
showing the viewers how many Chinese nationals out of 100,000+ in U.S. have
been arrested for espionage to substantiate the accusation, the CBS news only
reported two instances, one of which is a restaurant owner who came to US from 
either Hong Kong or Taiwan more than twenty years ago and has nothing to do
with those "planeloads of people" and those who work with computers and
technologies. The other is a Chinese national who is allegedly afraid of being
contacted by Chinese intelligence soon. In other words, neither of the two
instances substantiated the general accusation on ordinary Chinese nationals
in U.S. made by CBS news.

The program also misled viewers by claiming that all Chinese students going to
U.S. would be questioned by Chinese Ministry of State Security on their 
potential work in U.S. This is simply a lie. Based on our personal experience
and experience of our friends and families in U.S., none of them have been
questioned by the Ministry.

All these unsubstantiated accusations and false information have misled the
uninformed American public into believing that ordinary Chinese in U.S. are
spy suspects and therefore put 100,000+ Chinese national's potential and
current job in jeopardy. Especially for those who have studied hard for years
in hope of getting into the technology industry, their life-long American
dreams are at stake. Only a full public apology from CBS can neutralize the
negative effect its "Eye on America" program has caused on Chinese nationals in
U.S. Anything less is unacceptable and will prompt us to take legal actions
against CBS.

Sincerely,

Signed

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Where to send your protest letters....................................   20
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Besides the address of CBS provided earlier, here are some addresses and phone
# provided by netters you may send protest letters or voice your protests to:

[email-masked] !NBC Nightly News
[email-masked] !Business Week Magazine
[email-masked] !U.S. News & World Report Magazine

Asian American Journalists Association
1765 Sutter St., Rm. 1000, San Francisco, CA 94115  (415) 346-2051

Media Action Network of Asian Americans
(213) 486-4434

Consulate General of the People's Republic of China at Chicago
104 S. Michigan Avenue,Suit 1200,Chicago, IL 60603

More addresses, fax #s and phone #s will be posted in the future.

[email-masked] and the CBS incident committee have disignated Y. Huang to
collect signatures for protest letters. E-mail [email-masked] if you
would like to co-sign any protest letters.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%   Editor of CBS Incident Committee: Xiangdong Shi         %
%   Sign on/off at [email-masked], with mailbody as:    %
%    sub fcbs-l Firstname Lastname, or signoff fcbs-l       %
%   Post at [email-masked]                                %
%   Anonymous ftp at  ifcss.org:/ifcss/cbs                  %
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%