Updated Action Information re: The New York Times

We have received many responses about your email messages to the NY Times editors being returned, which may be the result of a large volume being sent or recipients "blocking" them. Let's not let them off the hook that easily.

The following are revised e-mail addresses to re-send or send your action messages:

publisher@nytimes.com
president@nytimes.com
executive-editor@nytimes.com
managing-editor@nytimes.com
the-arts@nytimes.com

Here is the original information:

New York Times Crossword Puzzle Hypocrisy

SITUATION: As reported in February, StigmaBusters contacted the section editors of the New York Times, about offensive words in the Times Crossword Puzzle which perpetuate prejudice and discrimination against people with mental illnesses. They thanked us for bringing it to the newspaper's attention, and said that it would be corrected internally. They agreed that the examples we provided did not meet New York Times standards, and asked us to let them know if it happened again.

Unfortunately, it did, on April 17, 2002 with the following two items:

• Item # 36: Clue = loony/ Answer = nuts
• Item # 38: Clue = looniness/ Answer = mania

• Item #46: Clue = cuckoo/ Answer = crazy

We again contacted the editors. The response was the same as before, but this time, it's not good enough--especially when the New York Times this past week has been running a three-part, front-page series about the abuse of people with mental illness in adult homes. We commend the newspaper's investigative reporting, but must point out the offensive hypocrisy that exists between the newspaper's front- page and the recurring prejudice of the Crossword Puzzle.

Action Requested:

All StigmaBusters nationally are needed to get the New York Times to take notice! Please send complaints about the crossword puzzles not just to the puzzle editor, but also his supervisors. Also send a separate Letter to the Editor (same address) pointing out the hypocrisy.

The following contact information is no longer valid:
Joseph Lolyveld, Executive Editor
New York Times
229 W. 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036-3959
e-mail: joseph.lolyveld@nytimes.com

John Rockwell, Arts and Leisure Editor e-mail: john.rockwell@nytimes.com

Will Shortz, Crossword Puzzle Editor e-mail: will.shortz@nytimes.com

Message Points:

• Since we received the first complaint, NAMI has followed the puzzles and found a clear a pattern of prejudice and insensitivity. They are contributing to the same cultural attitudes that result in group home abuses. Would the New York Times allow slurs toward any racial or ethnic minority in the Crossword Puzzle?
• People with a mental illness are not "fruitcakes, psychos, sickos, or crazy-as-a-loon." They are human beings struggling with a brain disorder that is as devastating as all other physical illnesses like cancer, diabetes, HIV, stroke, Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's. They deserve respect and dignity, not language that demeans, humiliates and reinforces pervasive public stigma.
• Thousands of words exist in the English language that can be used without cruelly offending anyone.
• The U.S. Surgeon General asked the news and entertainment media, specifically, to help eliminate the stigma of mental illness.

Previous incidents included:

02/02/02: Item # 22: Clue = Fruitcake/ Answer = Loon
10/18/01: Item #37: Clue = Zoo so to speak / Answer = Loony-bin
08/12/99: Item #08: Clue = Candidate for a psych ward / Answer = Sicko

Stella March, Coordinator
NAMI StigmaBusters Email Alert

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We look forward to hearing from you!