Niemans

To the editors of the CRIMSON:

The article on the Nieman Fellow by Philip Ardery in the CRIMSON Monday was disappointing.

As former Nieman Fellow Tom Wicker of the New York Times said earlier this year in a speech at Columbia University, "It's the reporter's high duty not just to state facts but to convey understanding."

Mr. Ardery failed in the latter because of misuse of the former.

For example, he concluded from a statement of mine on baby-sitting being a major expense for Nieman Fellows that I am missing out a t Harvard because "He and his wife spend most of their evenings in Belmont" (where I live).

Baby-sitting is indeed a major expense for most of the Niemans who have children because most of us are not spending many evenings at home, but are sampling the offering of both Cambridge and greater Boston with a rich variety of activity that ranges from the Boston Symphony or Loeb Theater to a social gathering at a master's residence of just getting together at another Nieman's home with a specialist in some interesting area of modern society.

This example is but a sample of Mr. Ardery's false conclusions that do nothing to create an understanding of the Nieman program.

As far as Niemans enrolling in "standard Nieman courses," the one course that attracted the largest number of Niemans this year as their course for "credit"--the one in which they do all the work--was Dr. Martha Derthick's course in Urban Politics. This is her first course at Harvard. Three of the 19 Niemans were at of the diversity of the group.

The article contains several misstatements of fact, as well as misleading innuendo.

For example, the statement is made that "most of the Fellows use Harvard as a trade school," a statement that goes unsubstantiated. It is inac- curate except that most Nieman Fellows take some courses that are related to their field, if they happen to be specialists. This year's group contains few concentrators.

The article fails to evaluate the record of the Nieman program and concludes with the somewhat familiar theme that this program, too, can be straightened out with a few suggestions from the CRIMSON.

The purpose of the Nieman program, as outlined in the original grant establishing it, is "to promote and elevate standards of journalism and educate persons deemed especially qualified." Fourteen Pulitizer Prize winners among former Nieman Fellows indicates the program has not been unsuccessful.  Jack Bass  Nieman Fellow