AHI Follow-Up Letter To "60 Minutes" Highlights Unfair Coverage

On February 5, 2002, the American Hellenic Institute's (AHI) Executive Director Nick Larigakis sent a follow-up letter to CBS "60 Minutes" Executive Producer Don Hewitt regarding their recent telephone conversation. During this conversation, Mr. Larigakis, Mr. Hewitt and AHI Founder Gene Rossides discussed the program's feature story by co-host Ed Bradley regarding Greece and the terrorist group November 17, aired on January 6, 2002.

Mr. Larigakis' letter summarized several key points raised during the conversation with Mr. Hewitt in order to highlight the pitfalls inherent in the program's unfairly biased coverage. The letter reiterated that "60 Minutes" had fallen short on many levels, including:

1. failing to present testimony from an official for the Athens 2004 Olympics regarding security issues;
2. failing to interview Michalis Chrysochoidis, Greece's Minister of Public Order, who has been at the forefront of combating crime and terrorist activities in Greece; and
3. inaccurately portraying Greece as an unsafe country where terrorist activity is commonplace.

AHI urges the staff of "60 Minutes" to further investigate these areas and, at a minimum, address publicly the reasons for these damaging omissions.

Click here to view AHI's follow-up letter to "60 Minutes." For additional information regarding this issue or the activities of AHI, please contact Chrysoula Economopoulos at (202) 785-8430 or [email protected]. For general information on AHI, see our Web site at https://www.ahiworld.org .