{"id":177356,"date":"2021-01-18T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=177356"},"modified":"2021-01-17T08:05:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T08:05:13","slug":"action-alert-what-can-now-be-told-by-nyt-about-pentagon-papers-isnt-actually-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/01\/action-alert-what-can-now-be-told-by-nyt-about-pentagon-papers-isnt-actually-true\/","title":{"rendered":"ACTION ALERT: What Can \u2018Now Be Told\u2019 by NYT about Pentagon Papers Isn\u2019t Actually True"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Daniel Ellsberg<\/p><\/div>\n

14 Jan 2021 – <\/em>The day New York Times<\/b> journalist Neil Sheehan died, the Times<\/b> ran a story (1\/7\/21<\/a>) with the headline, \u201cNow It Can Be Told: How Neil Sheehan Got the Pentagon Papers.\u201d It purports to be the true story of how the paper obtained the Defense Department\u2019s classified history of the Vietnam War that had been secretly photocopied by former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg<\/a>. Here\u2019s what Sheehan told reporter Janny Scott in 2015, on the condition that it could not be published until after Sheehan\u2019s death:<\/p>\n

Contrary to what is generally believed, Mr. Ellsberg never \u201cgave\u201d the papers to the Times<\/b>, Mr. Sheehan emphatically said. Mr. Ellsberg told Mr. Sheehan that he could read them but not make copies. So Mr. Sheehan smuggled the papers out of the apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Mr. Ellsberg had stashed them; then he copied them illicitly, just as Mr. Ellsberg had done, and took them to the Times<\/b>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Sheehan\u2019s telling, Ellsberg is a fearful neurotic, so afraid of going to prison that he makes foolish mistakes that could lead to getting caught\u2014and so Sheehan had to lie to his source and make his own copy, because he was determined that, as he put it, \u201cthis material is never again going in a government safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The most important claim in the New York Times\u2018 revisionist history of the Pentagon Papers (1\/7\/21) is demonstrably false.<\/p><\/div>\n

When the papers are published and Ellsberg discovers the ruse, Sheehan has Ellsberg say, \u201cSo you stole it, like I did.\u201d To which Sheehan supposedly replied:<\/p>\n

No, Dan, I didn\u2019t steal it\u2026.\u00a0 And neither did you. Those papers are the property of the people of the United States. They paid for them with their national treasure and the blood of their sons, and they have a right to it.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As you can probably tell from that dialogue, Sheehan made himself very much the hero of the story, which is perhaps why he wanted it published only after he was no longer around to be contradicted. There was nothing stopping Scott, though, from calling Ellsberg, who is still quite alive, and asking him for his reaction to Sheehan\u2019s account. She did not do so, but Daniel\u2019s son Robert Ellsberg provided that missing piece in a response to the story on Twitter<\/b> (1\/10\/21<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Robert points out that his father\u2019s actions were not those of someone who feared prison; when he was arraigned, he asked<\/a> reporters, \u201cWould not you go to prison to help end this war?\u201d Rather, Daniel Ellsberg was afraid that he wouldn\u2019t be able to get out the secrets he was risking prison to expose.<\/p>\n

\"AM<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/strong> online story (1\/7\/21<\/a>) on how the Pentagon Papers were published has a photograph of Times<\/strong> managing editor A.M. Rosenthal and other staffers reading the published document in the paper, and another photo (above) of Rosenthal congratulating Neil Sheehan and other staffers\u2014but no image of Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who was actually responsible for bringing the Pentagon Papers to the public.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Daniel has explained\u2014notably in his 2002 memoir Secrets<\/i><\/a>\u2014that he would have given a copy of the Pentagon Papers to Sheehan immediately if only Sheehan had told him that the Times<\/b> was seriously interested in publishing them. They were, but for reasons that aren\u2019t very clear in Sheehan\u2019s account, the reporter was unwilling to tell Ellsberg that. (\u201cHe feared that Mr. Ellsberg\u2019s reaction might inadvertently tip the government off,\u201d is the explanation proffered.) As Robert notes, this meant that Daniel had to keep looking for another publisher\u2014increasing and not decreasing the chances that the government might learn about and seize the copied papers.<\/p>\n

What Daniel Ellsberg remembers telling Sheehan when he found out about the Times<\/b>\u2018 secret copy is, \u201cYou did what I did\u201d\u2014not, \u201cSo you stole it, like I did.\u201d As Robert writes, \u201cMy father never considered that he had stolen anything\u201d\u2014and didn\u2019t need a reminder from Sheehan that the papers belonged to the American people.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s impossible to say which of two versions of a conversation that occurred between two people is correct\u2014even if one version has the strong whiff of something that one person wishes they had said. But there is an important part of the Times<\/b> story that is definitely false, and requires correction\u2014because it\u2019s contradicted later in the same story.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the story reads, \u201cContrary to what is generally believed, Mr. Ellsberg never \u2018gave\u2019 the papers to the Times<\/b>.\u201d In fact, Ellsberg did<\/em> give the papers to Sheehan, as the story gets around to revealing 38 paragraphs later:<\/p>\n

So he told Mr. Ellsberg that he now needed the documents, not just his notes\u2026. This time, when Mr. Sheehan asked, Mr. Ellsberg consented\u2026. He arranged for Mr. Sheehan to pick up a complete copy of the historical study stowed in an Ellsberg family apartment in Manhattan.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the big revisionist revelation in the New York Times<\/b> article turns out to be false. Rather, if you read to the end of this 2,800-word piece, you find that \u201cwhat is generally believed\u201d\u2014is actually true.<\/p>\n

ACTION ALERT:<\/h3>\n

Please tell the New York Times<\/b> to set the historical record straight by correcting its story to note that Daniel Ellsberg did in fact give the Pentagon Papers to the Times<\/b>.<\/p>\n

CONTACT:<\/h3>\n

Letters: letters@nytimes.com<\/a>
\nReaders Center: Feedback<\/a>
\nTwitter<\/b>: @NYTimes<\/a><\/p>\n

Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your communication in the comments thread.<\/i><\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Note from TMS<\/em> editor–For context: The Guardian, <\/em>London’s newspaper, picked up on the misleading NYT<\/em> story:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After 50 Years, the Pentagon Papers Give Up Their Final Secrets<\/a><\/h1>\n

Edward Helmore | The Guardian – TRANSCEND Media Service<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

11 Jan 2021<\/strong> – Journalist behind scoop reveals how he tricked whistleblower to get copies of explosive Vietnam War reports.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*******<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jim Naureckas is the editor of <\/em>FAIR.org, and has edited <\/em>FAIR‘s print publication <\/em>Extra!<\/b> since 1990. He is the co-author of <\/em>The Way Things Aren\u2019t: Rush Limbaugh\u2019s Reign of Error, and co-editor of <\/em>The FAIR Reader. He was an investigative reporter for <\/em>In These Times<\/b> and managing editor of the <\/em>Washington Report on the Hemisphere<\/b>. Born in Libertyville, Illinois, he has a poli sci degree from Stanford. Since 1997 he has been married to Janine Jackson, <\/em>FAIR\u2019s program director.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – fair.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contrary to what is generally believed, Mr. Ellsberg never \u2018gave\u2019 the papers to the Times.\u201d In fact, Ellsberg did give the papers to Sheehan, as the story gets around to revealing 38 paragraphs later: \u201cSo he told Mr. Ellsberg that he now needed the documents, not just his notes\u2026. This time, when Mr. Sheehan asked, Mr. Ellsberg consented\u2026. He arranged for Mr. Sheehan to pick up a complete copy of the historical study stowed in an Ellsberg family apartment in Manhattan.\u201dSo the big revisionist revelation in the New York Times article turns out to be false.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":177358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[2299,2301,1232,2289,2300],"class_list":["post-177356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-daniel-ellsberg","tag-neil-sheehan","tag-new-york-times","tag-pentagon-papers","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}