Pravda means ‘truth’ in Russian. But I’m afraid you won’t find much in the issue of May 26th.
I did a press conference in Moscow. Six TV channels. Newspapers, magazine, the lot. I’m just sorry that all people know about this is one biased report from a most prejudiced source.
I did not say that the ‘USA is a fascist state.’ I said that Bush had consistently violated the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But America is a constitutional democracy and I had great faith in this document. Bush will not be reelected. And the inherent checks and balances in the US system would cancel out the violations. I am a great believer in the strength of American democracy. In the long run.
Not quite the way Pravda quoted me…
More in sorrow than in anger.
Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison News Blog 
17 June, 2008 at 5:37 pm |
Hi Harry;
I think most of us knew better. Pravda means truth, and Izvestia (the other big ol’ Russian paper) means News. And as the very old Russian saying goes, “There is no Pravda in Izvestia, and there is no Izvestia in Pravda” or in English “There is no truth in News, and there is no news in Truth.
‘Nuff said. Be well.
18 June, 2008 at 7:01 am |
I’m glad to know this. I was taken in by the original story when I saw it. I should have known better than to believe something I read only in Pravda.
18 June, 2008 at 5:46 pm |
I’m a huge Harry fan, so he can express himself as he likes.
Really, the US isn’t fascist (which promotes one type of class) but instead it’s an Aristocracy based on wealth. The founding father, Jefferson especially, never intended for the US to have Paris Hiltons and Donald Trumps who inherit wealth and then pass it down to the next generation. That’s de facto royalty, and royalty is exactly what guys like Franklin couldn’t stand because it suppresses the development of bright but poor people.
It’s my theory that royalists subverted the American ideals before they could even get started.
19 June, 2008 at 1:17 pm |
Harry, I never doubted for an instant that you’d said various reasonable things which were deliberately distorted and manipulated. Slanted journalism is the same everywhere in the world.
Though the Pravda article was a particularly egregious example.
21 June, 2008 at 12:43 am |
“it’s an Aristocracy based on wealth”
Oh for chrissakes, that’s incredibly stupid. And for what it’s worth, Thomas Jefferson (only one of “the founding fathers”) was a plantation owner who also owned slaves, and who though always in debt (because plantations cost a lot of money to run) was considered quite wealthy.
21 June, 2008 at 12:44 am |
That should be an ending parentheses, by the way, not a smiley face. WordPress has these little problems.
1 August, 2008 at 11:24 pm |
Andrea,
You don’t know your history or philosophy.
Tom was rich, but I’m sure he believed he got that way on his own. That’s the point, as opposed to inheriting wealth and being part of a “royal line” which is what the first Americans were against.
Don’t be so quick to react to a subject you know nothing about.
It’s stupid.
4 August, 2008 at 8:04 am |
I’m happy to post anyone’s comments or opinions here – but let’s not start calling each other names, eh?
If anyone else refers to another comment or commenter as ‘stupid’ I’ll just bin the comment…
Take the fights out into the playground, guys.
13 August, 2008 at 6:47 am |
Ultimatly, the only history that matters is written by those that scurry about, collecting tid-bits of solid fact here and there,
In this case, our Mr Harrison is quite right, unfortunately, so are the furor’ers surrounding him, at that point in time, it was “really quite ok” to own other people, but, if you stop and think for a second, what is a wage slave?
Someone who cannot afford not to do a crappy job for crappy $$ per hour,
in effect, they are financial slaves, just as we have economic migrant workers. Perhaps we don’t quite have teleportation yet, but we have the next best thing: travel [for a price] to any point in the world, in a matter of days. and we are free to express our opinions in that part of the world as well.
How, that opinion will be decanted to the masses, however…
21 October, 2011 at 12:01 pm |
[…] Harrison’s Response to the Pravda Piece June 18, 2008 | Posted by Mark Thank goodness – Harry Harrison didn’t mean it after all! It’s all getting a bit cold-war deja vu with Russia […]