TO AIR OR NOT TO AIR?

December 3, 1998
		Did CBS' "60 Minutes" make the right decision to air the tape of a doctor-assisted suicide? CBS' Mike Wallace and Ned McGrath, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, answer your questions. Return to this forum's introduction.

How do you think the airing of this segment highlights the negatives or the positives of assisted suicide? Didn't the 60 Minutes segment illuminate the public debate by providing information on what actually occurs in euthanasia? Was it really necessary to air the segment up to the point of the patient's death? Given that Dr. Kevorkian told CBS hat he wanted to get arrested to bring the issue into the open, did CBS not do his bidding? Are you doing enough to promote honest, intelligent, informed discussion of difficult issues among your viewers or members (of your Church)?

Daniel Bernheim of New York, NY asks: Given that Dr. Kevorkian told CBS hat he wanted to get arrested to bring the issue into the open, did CBS not do his bidding? Ned McGrath, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, responds: Mike Wallace answered this question on The NewsHour. "Yes," he said, "we were used." While I can't and won't ascribe motives for such a respected newsmagazine to allow itself to be used, I do wonder what this says about the sliding ethical standards at CBS. When this tape came into the possession of 60 Minutes, the producers of that program knew Thomas Youk's death had been ruled a homicide. By broadcasting it, for all intents and purposes, CBS said, "We don't care what the police or medical examiner says... we've got some 'good television' here, and we're going to put it in as Sunday night's lead story and we're going to promote it all weekend long, get our ratings... and then... and then the authorities can have the evidence. No problem." Those who doubt how sophisticated the Kevorkian publicity machine is should look up the May 26th, 1997 edition of "The New Republic" magazine. An article titled "The Selling of Dr. Death" contains background information that is quite pertinent to the Youk case, including the modus operandi of Jack Lessenberry, a Wayne State University professor and part-time columnist, who was pivotal in the Kevorkian tape deal with CBS. Lessenberry, who has been described in Detroit media reports as a "unprincipled apologist" for Kevorkian, is best profiled by the response he recently gave to a letter writer who dared to disagree with his umpteenth column supporting legalized physician-assisted suicide. "Go to hell," Lessenberry wrote. 'Nuf said. Mike Wallace , senior correspondent and co-editor of "60 Minutes", responds: Dr. Kevorkian "used" us, just as Martin Luther King did, and presidential candidates.  We didn't do his bidding, we gave him the chance to trigger a national debate about euthanasia.

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