HOME / the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

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Re: Bye, Jerry

By Andrew Sullivan
Posted Monday, May 11, 1998, at 4:12 PM ET

Katha,

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I completely agree with you about the atrocities in India. Why, one wonders, is this not an issue on a par with, say, curtailment of religious freedom? It seems to me to be close to serfdom for half the population. One of the few activist groups I have ever given money to is a group called Equality Now, which tries to highlight this kind of barbarism, and treat it seriously as a human rights violation. The fact that it is so easily ignored by our politicians shows, I suppose, how our domestic politics distorts our international perspective. The non-judgmental post-everything left tends to let other cultures be other cultures. And the religious right is very uncomfortable defending women's equality, for obvious reasons. So good for the Times for keeping up with these stories.

The reason I'm a little late in replying is that I just went by the office to see how people were doing. I guess I'm in a state of shock. Steve was my assistant for a year or so, before I quit, and seemed the sweetest, brightest guy imaginable. I can hardly absorb the idea that he was responsible for a whole series of fabrications so elaborate they eluded everyone until now. It's one of those moments when you question everything, especially about the business of journalism. For fact-checkers, apparently, he provided copious notes, with quotes from the various people whose existence is now questionable, together, apparently, with fictitious voice-mail messages, etc., etc. Few people wrote in to challenge his facts, because many of the people he wrote about apparently didn't exist! I guess, as they say, we should wait until all the facts are known. But right now, I'm going through one of those Kubler Ross passages, as is everyone else at TNR. What makes someone do such a thing? And how can we trust anyone? And what could we have done to prevent this?

By the way, I can't imagine he made up the stuff about straight women/gay men having fantasies about UPS men. I have a friend in New York who used to send himself packages twice a day just to catch a sight of those brown shorts. I've even seen an AOL chat room called "UPSmen4men." See what you're missing?

later,
Andrew

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