ACTION: Write to NBC News regarding false statements about Pakistan

All,

You are encouraged to write to NBC News and call upon them to issue a retraction for a news story that spreads falsehoods about Pakistan and the Mumbai attacks in 2008. (a transcript of the story, as it aired, is here).

You may use the letter below, or change it as you see fit. Be sure to sign your name, and send it to:

nightly@msnbc.com

You may also send it via postal mail to:

NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112

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ATTN: Brian Williams, Managing Editor; Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent

On July 13, 2011, during a segment discussing the recent attacks in Mumbai, Andrea Mitchell made the following statement on-air:

"This time, India has said in the past that they were restrained three years ago when it was proved that Pakistan was behind the attacks."

This is an inaccurate and inflammatory statement. A Pakistani national, Ajmal Kasab, was convicted of the attacks in an Indian court. To twist this into asserting that Pakistan itself was somehow behind the attacks is, at best, a gross misrepresentation of the facts, and is tantamount to waging propaganda against Pakistan, itself the biggest victim of terrorism.

If NBC News wishes not to report on Indian instigation in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, or on the mass human rights violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir, then it does so on it's prerogative and conscience. However, spreading a fabrication and a lie about world events is not appropriate or acceptable for a news organization.

I urge you to correct the record by issuing a retraction, and apologizing to the viewers of NBC News.

Thank you.

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