IN THE PRESS: Columbia University's newspaper reports on review of Duranty stories (11/09/03)

IN THE PRESS

Columbia University's newspaper reports on review of Duranty stories

NEW YORK - The Columbia Daily Spectator, the newspaper of Columbia University, on October 30 carried a news story headlined "Columbia Prof Argues to Revoke '32 Pulitzer."

Written by Rachel Zeldin, the article reported on Prof. Mark von Hagen's review of the work of Walter Duranty, The New York Times correspondent who denied the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine and who won the Pulitzer Prize for correspondence in 1932 (for work published in 1931).

As previously reported, the professor of history was commissioned by The New York Times to report on Duranty's work; he concluded that the correspondent's reports were biased in favor of Joseph Stalin, and that this was a disservice to The Times and its readers. Ultimately, Prof. von Hagen recommended that the Pulitzer awarded to Duranty be revoked.

"I think that both for the integrity of the Pulitzer Prize and for the people that might get it in the future and for The New York Times, I think they should take it away from him," Prof. von Hagen told The Columbia Spectator.

Ms. Zeldin reported: "Of particular concern to Von Hagen was Duranty's sympathy for the Soviet Union and his whitewashing of the Five-Year Plan's effects. Despite what he witnessed, Duranty was instrumental in getting the United States to recognize the Soviet Union in 1933 and was present at the official recognition ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin hailed Duranty as the biggest contributor to the recognition effort."

The Spectator also quoted Tamara Gallo, a representative for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, as saying: "We'd like The New York Times to do the right thing and honor the millions of innocent victims by apologizing to their readership, the Ukrainian American community, and most importantly the famine survivors by denouncing Duranty's Pulitzer Prize."

* * *

In related news, Prof. von Hagen appeared on "All Things Considered," the highly acclaimed program on National Public Radio, on October 23 to discuss the ramifications of his report to The New York Times on Duranty's work as the paper's Moscow correspondent in the 1930s. Prof. von Hagen told NPR correspondent Melissa Block that Duranty's Pulitzer should be rescinded.

| Home Page |