Choosing what to print, revisited

Further to my earlier post about letters that don't make it into print...here's one that made it into the pages of the Globe & Mail so deeply abridged, it bears only a passing resemblance to the original.

This is what Vincent Rigby, Assistant Deputy Minister (Policy) at DND actually wrote:

Amir Attaran’s February 21 article (p. A17 When think tanks produce propaganda) fundamentally distorts the nature and role of DND’s Security and Defence Forum (SDF), an arm’s length organization that has been promoting academic research and debate on defence issues since 1967.

Involving 14 universities across the country, the SDF aims to foster domestic awareness of defence issues and to establish a body of Canadian expertise with an independent capability to analyze defence issues.

Academic freedom and objectivity are at the heart of the Forum’s mandate. A civilian review board of outside experts and academics is appointed by the Minister of National Defence to provide peer-review and ensure the program is managed at arm’s length. It is this board, and not DND officials, that evaluates the performance and funding of academics active at SDF centres.

The only expectation of recipients of SDF funds is to enrich the quality of debate in Canada through sound, independent research and analysis.

The SDF also funds various university conferences, projects, student scholarships and fellowships with the objective of broadening and deepening the dialogue on defence issues.

Mr. Attaran’s claims regarding the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA) are similarly misleading. The CDA is a national, non-political organization established in 1932 that educates and informs Canadians on issues related to national defence. The work of CDA has been supported for decades by successive governments. While they have traditionally been an advocacy group on defence issues, the CDA is not bound to support government policies in any way. In fact, on a number of occasions the CDA has been critical of government policy.

The annual grant to the CDA is no secret. In accordance with the principles of accountability and transparency, full disclosure of the CDA’s funding is publicly available through DND’s website.

While the CDA did receive $500,000 “last year” in funding, Mr. Attaran fails to point out that the grant is to be divided over a five-year period. The funds given to the universities cited in the article are similarly five-year figures.

Security and defence issues are among the most demanding and complex that a country can face. DND welcomes a full debate on these issues, and understands that, in academia, there are no greater values than independent inquiry and debate. Canadians can be proud that DND is helping to encourage that debate from coast to coast.

And this is what they printed:

Amir Attaran (When Think Tanks Produce Propaganda - Feb. 21) fundamentally distorts the nature and role of the Department of National Defence's Security and Defence Forum (SDF), an arm's-length organization that has been promoting academic research and debate on defence issues since 1967.

Involving 14 universities across the country, the SDF aims to foster domestic awareness of defence issues and to establish a body of Canadian expertise with an independent capability to analyze defence issues. The only obligation of recipients of SDF funds is to enrich the quality of debate in Canada through sound, independent research and analysis.

Security and defence issues are among the most demanding and complex a country can face. DND welcomes a full debate on these issues, and understands that, in academia, there are no greater values than independent inquiry and debate. Canadians can be proud that DND is helping to encourage that debate.

Attaran is given 900 words to propagate his misleading and inaccurate tripe. But a correction of the record is deemed by the Globe editors to be too verbose at 400 words?

Attaran's Globe & Mail hatchet-job was entitled "When think tanks produce propaganda." No mention of what to do when newspapers produce it.