[Please scroll down for a sample letter.]
U.S. MEDIA CONTACTS
ABC NEWS PROGRAMS
ABC News 20/20
ATTN: Story Editor
147 Columbus Ave
New York, NY 10023
Tel: (212) 456-2020
Click here to email
Nightline
ATTN: Story Ideas
1717 DeSales St. NW
Washington D.C. 20036
Click here to email
Primetime
ATTN: Story Editor
147 Columbus Ave
New York, NY 10023
Click here to email
CBS NEWS PROGRAMS
48 Hours
524 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
Tel: (212) 975-3247
Email: 48hrs@cbsnews.com
60 Minutes
524 West 57th St
New York, NY 10019
Tel: (212) 975-3247
60 Minutes II
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019
Tel: (212) 975-6200
Email: 60II@cbsnews.com
NBC NEWS PROGRAMS
Dateline NBC
ATTN: Story Suggestions
Room 510
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, New York 10112
Email: dateline@nbc.com
CNN NEWS
Click here to email
PBS
Frontline
125 Western Ave
Boston, Mass 02134
ATTN: Executive Producer
Fax: 617-300-1001
Email: frontline@pbs.org
or click here to email
A&E NETWORK
American Justice
A&E
ATTN: American Justice
235 East 45th St
New York, NY 10017
Click here to email
Investigative Reports
A&E
ATTN: Investigative Reports
235 East 45th St
New York, NY 10017
Click here to email
FOX NEWS PROGRAMS
The O'Reilly Factor
Email: oreilly@foxnews.com
Special Report with Brit Hume
Email: special@foxnews.com
Hannity & Colmes
Alan Colmes
Email: colmes@foxnews.com
Sean Hannity
Email: hannity@foxnews.com
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace
Email: FNS@foxnews.com
MSNBC NEWS PROGRAMS
The Abrams Report
Email: abramsreport@msnbc.com
MSNBC Investigates
Email: msnbcinvestigates@msnbc.com
COURTTV PROGRAMS
Catherine Crier Live
Courtroom Television Network LLC
600 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10016
ATTN: Crier Live
Email: crierlive@courttv.com
MAGAZINES
Time Magazine/Time Online
Letters to the Editor of Time Magazine
Email: letters@time.com
US News & World Report
Click here to email
NEWSPAPERS
Baltimore Sun
Click here to email
Chicago Tribune
Click here to email
Chicago Sun-Times
Click here to email
Dallas Morning News
Click here to email
LA Times
Click here to email
New York Post
Click here to email
New York Times
Click here to email
USA Today
Click here to email
CANADIAN MEDIA CONTACTS
[Thanks to Linda G. for compiling this information]
The Passionate Eye
The Passionate Eye, CBC Newsworld
P.O. Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E6
Tel: 416-205-6643
Fax: 416-205-8842
Email: passionateye@toronto.cbc.ca
[This is a documentary program that could conceivably run the "Paradise Lost" movies or, if interested enough, make a documentary of its own. It's perhaps the best known in Canada for taking on harder-edged stories.]
Rough Cuts
Rough Cuts, CBC Newsworld
P.O. Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E6
Tel: 416-205-6643
Fax: 416-205-8842
Email: roughcuts@toronto.cbc.ca
The Fifth Estate
The Fifth Estate
PO Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E6
Tel: 416-205-6663
Fax: 416-205-6668
Email: fifth@toronto.cbc.ca
[One of the best news documentary shows in North America. It's pretty well uncensored so viewers wouldn't get a "sanitized" version of the murders.]
Witness
Email: witness@toronto.cbc.ca
CTV's W-Five
W-FIVE, CTV
P.O. Box 9, Station "O"
Toronto, Ontario
M4A 2M9
Fax: 416-313-2525
Email: W-FIVE@ctv.ca
[A 60 Minutes-type show.]
SAMPLE LETTER
We strongly recommend you write your letters in your own words but if you're having trouble on deciding where to start, try looking at this sample letter for inspiration.
Dear [name here],
Right now in Arkansas, three young men— Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr.— are serving prison sentences for crimes they did not commit. Echols is on death row, Baldwin and Misskelley are serving life sentences, and they have all been imprisoned for eleven years now.
In May of 1993, the bodies of three eight-year-old boys, Michael Moore, Steven Branch and Christopher Byers, were pulled from a creek in West Memphis, Arkansas and the local law enforcement immediately assumed that the crimes were "Satanic human sacrifices." They chose not to pursue any real leads and they ignored, destroyed and lost potentially valuable evidence that would have led to the actual perpetrator. Refusing help from the F.B.I., the local law enforcement targeted all of their efforts on Damien Echols whom they long suspected of being the ringleader of a devil-worshipping cult.
There was no physical evidence linking the teens to the murders— only the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence and a coerced confession by Misskelley, who is mentally handicapped. Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley (also known as The West Memphis Three) were eventually convicted by a jury, already biased by their local media, that only heard only a small portion of the information gathered by the defense teams and their expert witnesses. The judge that presided over their trials also heard, and denied, all of their subsequent appeals.
This is a fascinating and disturbing case, as complicated as it is controversial. Please take the time to review the facts of this case by starting with this website: www.wm3.org. Additional information can be found in two excellent documentary films directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky: PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS and its sequel PARADISE LOST: REVELATIONS and the book DEVIL’S KNOT by Arkansas journalist Mara Leveritt.
This case represents the destructive power of superstitious hysteria when it is allowed into a contemporary American courtroom. I believe that this issue deserves to be carefully examined and fairly reported. It is important for the public to understand how dangerous the "Satanic Panic" phenomenon is and that our judicial system cannot continue to take the tabloid notion of "devil worshipping cults" seriously.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
[your name]
