Not enough media
exposure of Soviet threats and atrocities
[Letter submitted to NBC-TV reporter Jessica Savitch (+1983), 2
December 1981]
Dear Madame:
Every child in Poland knows about two devils, one black and one red. The only difference between them is that the black Nazi devil broke bones, whereas the red Communist devil breaks the spirit....
It is the sad truth that these facts were never fully comprehended by American Presidents, Secretaries of State and Defense, Senators, and Congressmen. And the American public? They do not even dream about such things. For this I blame, at least partially, the news media, which, on this particular subject, seems to be in a conspiracy of silence. That is the reason why I greeted your program on November 29, 1981, on Russian spying as a real service to the American people. I hope that there will be more such programs telling it as it is, and informing the American public about Russian goals and methods.
Last year, TV finally got around to showing a film like Holocaust (in many respects very inaccurate and differing from the truth),* which presented in a very drastic way the activities of the Nazis. I hope that, someday, the American TV will be ready to consider showing the American public what happened in the Katyn forest. I strongly recommend that you read the memoirs of (as far as I know) the only survivor of Katyn, Mr. E.A. Komorowski, published by Avon under the title Night Never Ending. It might give you something to think about.
Keep up the good work; I appreciate it and the American people need it.
Sincerely yours,
Waclaw Bakierowski.
cc: Mr. Robert Moss, Accuracy in Media, Inc.
* Contrary to what was written here, this film, made as a television mini-series, premiered in 1978. No record seems to exist as to how Mr. Bakierowski differed with the portrayal of the Nazi regime in the film; his joining the Polish Underground in 1939 in opposition to the Nazi occupation of the country speaks to his sympathies in that regard. - Webmaster.