NYT's recognition of its flawed reports

In the American society, ethnic Asians, such as Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, are known to have double royalty. This means that they have sense of allegiance to both their home country and their residing nations. So, the ethnic Asians working with the U. S. military and security organizations or research institutes are subject to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s surveillance. This is because they are suspected of delivering important military secrets to their fatherlands. From this standpoint, there are two relevant examples: Ethnic Korean Robert Kim's case, in which he was punished and jailed on charge of leaking classified military information to the Seoul government, and ethnic Chinese Wen Ho Lee, who was recently released from the U. S. prison.

The New York Times reported that Wen Ho Lee, nuclear physicist working with the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was investigated by the FBI on suspicion of delivering U. S. nuclear secrets to China. Consequently, the Justice Department arrested him as the most felonious anti-national security criminal after the Cold War and had him to undergo solitary confinement. Nine months later, the Justice Department staged humiliating bargaining with Lee and indicted him with only one count, revoking 58 out of 59 counts, charging that had downed a cyber-program related to the nuclear development.

There is wide a disparity between liability for negligence of security and espionage. At least a life sentence is in store for the 58 counts for spying. There are growing criticism that ethnic Asians are undergoing "witch hunting" resulting from racial discrimination and prejudice in the course of court trials. Cases involving security negligence are frequently detected, but for ethnic Chinese Lee was uniquely implicated with spying. President Bill Clinton is now all-out to pacify outcries of the ethnic Asians, saying, it is a crime that they have fatherlands.

The New York Times carried a long story addressed to the readers by the editors, admitting that it should have reported negative views on the suspicions surrounding Lee, in order to approach the case with a balanced news coverage. Nonetheless, the paper said that the case needs to be overally reviewed, as there remain many suspicions, adding that it would form a new task force to start news coverage from the origin. The mass media cannot preclude any errors. Wrong news reports take place often due to deadlines of the news, shortage of information or prejudices on the part of reporters and editors sometimes. The New York Times has displayed that the newspaper is the public mechanism with the candid admittance of its errors and with the efforts to regain self-integrity.

Hwang Ho-Taeck hthwang@donga.com