Why the Globe ran that op-ed piece by a murdering dictator

By adamg on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 11:57am

As Adam Reilly notes, Kevin Cullen can write a great column when he wants to. Today, Cullen dissects America's newest op-ed sensation, Libyan Thug in Chief Muammar Qaddafi, whose musings on Palestine the New York Times ran today, a few weeks after the Globe ran his plea for the U.S. to leave Russia alone.

Cullen does this through the lens of a local resident whose brother Qaddaffi has kept locked up for years for daring to call for free speech in Libya. Along the way, Cullen asked Globe editors why they ran that piece, for which a Washington, D.C. public-relations firm was paid (no doubt quite nicely) to pitch:

... A Globe editor said that after receiving the pitch from the PR firm, the paper called the Libyan embassy in Washington to confirm Khadafy wrote the piece. Satisfied with its authenticity, and with editors believing it was "well reasoned," the paper ran it. ...

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Comments

Payola?

By Marc on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 3:08pm.

I heard that the Libyans "shopped it around" to major US metro papers. Doesn't that mean they had to pay someone to print it?

I know the Boston Globe is near bankruptcy, is this what they are coming to?

Probably not

By adamg on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 3:12pm.

When PR people "shop something around," it just means they try very hard to get the thing printed, not that they are willing to pay for placement.

Are you sure?

By Marc on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 8:37pm.

Why else would the globe print this particular article, from such a despicable author?

I mean, opining on the Gaza situation is one thing. But this guy was actually personally responsible for finishing what Hitler started in his country.

From The Last Jews of Libya:

At the time of Colonel Qaddafi's coup in 1969, some 500 Jews remained in Libya. Qaddafi subsequently confiscated all Jewish property and cancelled all debts owed to Jews. By 1974 there were no more than 20 Jews, and it is believed that the Jewish presence has passed out of existence.

There are plenty of other reasons to hate the Boston Globe and hope they fail, such as their disdain for anything resembling Boston-focused (or Massachusetts-focused) journalism. But this is the last straw for me, that's it.

How could ANY paper publish Qaddafi's op-ed on Israel without mentioning that he had "confiscated all Jewish property" in his own country?

Not to mention Pan Am 103!

By Marc on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 11:32pm.

And wouldn't you know it, Qaddafi was responsible for blowing up Pan Am 103 over Scottland. Of course, he's also the very first terrorist dictator to offer to pay restitution to families of the deceased in order to lift U.N. sanctions, I'm sure that's why the NYGlobe gives him a platform.
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