Washington Post Backs Out of Pentagon's Sept. 11 Event
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBBH5OCPCE.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Washington Post is withdrawing its offer
of free advertising for an event organized by the Defense Department
to memorialize the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks,
the newspaper announced.
The Post backed out of the agreement after critics said the event,
scheduled to take place four years after the attacks that hit
New York and Washington and resulted in the crash of a commercial
airliner over western Pennsylvania, would have a pro-war slant
and that support of the event by the newspaper would compromise
the Post's journalistic integrity.
"The Post has a code of conduct that says employees should avoid a
conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest,"
said Rick Ehrmann, a local representative for the Washington-Baltimore
Newspaper Guild. "In this case the Post was sponsoring the
Pentagon's Freedom Walk, which ties the attack on September 11 to
the Iraq war, and of course, the Post's reporters have proven ...
that there is no connection between the two, that that link is false."
The paper said instead it will make a donation directly to the
Pentagon Memorial Fund, which is raising money to build a 2-acre
contemplation park in honor of the 184 people who died when a
plane crashed into the Pentagon in 2001. The decision was
reported Aug. 16 in the paper's Style section.
"It is unfortunate that The Washington Post has made this decision
not to support the Freedom Walk, but we welcome their donation to
the Pentagon Memorial Fund," said a Defense Department statement.
"Everyone in America will pay tribute and commemorate this important
day in different ways."
Critics of media support for the event also pointed to the free
concert by Clint Black that is to take place at the end of the
march route.
Black's Web site, features lyrics to his song entitled
"I Raq and I Roll," including "Our troops take out the garbage
for the good old U.S.A."
"If this is the person they're going to have representing American
freedom, I'd say it's a political event," said Eric Hilton of the
pop duo Thievery Corporation, who is part of a coalition that's
organizing an anti-war protest concert on the Mall for later in
September. Hilton said his concert will be political and he does
not expect media sponsorship.
Other organizations scheduled to sponsor the Sept. 11 event
included Stars and Stripes newspaper, Pentagon Federal Credit Union,
Subway, Lockheed Martin, WTOP Radio Network, ABC/WJLA-TV Channel 7
and News Channel 8 and the Washington Convention & Tourism Corporation,
according to the Freedom Walk Web site.
"As things stand right now we are committed to honoring our
agreement to promote the event," said Stan Melton, director
of creative services at WJLA TV and News Channel 8 in Washington.
"If we were to find out that it was meant to be a political event,
we couldn't support it."
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