April 17, 1998
Mr. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger
229 West 43 Street
New York, NY 10036
Dear Mr. Sulzberger:
We await your response regarding the dramatic conclusions
drawn in the April 9 article by Jane Brody STUDY FINDS PERIL
IN TAKING HIGH VITAMIN C SUPPLEMENT. It is a great disservice
to your readers to delay. Of course it would be news if Vitamin
C were harmful, but that same thing can be said of many things
that aren't true. The New York Times should report news, not
make it.
Mr. Sulzberger, are you aware that vitamin C competes with a wide range of pharmaceuticals? If the real value of this vital substance were known, it would harm, and already has harmed various drug companies. Vitamin C is a serious economic threat. We believe that the New York Times, either wittingly or unwillingly, is being used as a tool by interests who can well afford to advertise. These interests are pleased if the public becomes confused about the human need for vitamin C, but this was not the primary objective of the TIMES article. This article, and other like it, are aimed directly at the community of medical doctors.
We all know these stories don't just "happen." These well publicized, but largely unfounded "negative" studies serve a purpose that can hardly be unintended. They keep mainstream medical doctors away from trying alternative techniques in their practice, and they give those doctors who don't want to use alternative therapies an excuse not to.
Now that you are apprised of this matter, please investigate. If this charge can be substantiated, I have confidence that you will remedy the situation. And again, it is the great interest of the health of the readers of the New York Times that The Vitamin C Foundation be given the opportunity to present the other side of the story, perhaps in a Sunday magazine article.
Yours truly,
Owen R. Fonorow Letter #3
Cc: Jane Brody http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/nytime3.htm PO Box 73172
Houston, Texas 77273
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