The Tribune, one of the two largest dailies in Utah, printed the correction in response to a letter to its editor sent two days earlier by Militant editor Argiris Malapanis.

“The article by Jason Bergreen in your February 18 edition, ‘Judge tosses lawsuit against newspapers,’ reporting on Federal Judge Dee Benson’s decision to dismiss the defamation lawsuit by C.W. Mining Co. against your newspaper and the Deseret Morning News, contains an inaccurate statement,” Malapanis said. “Its final paragraph wrongly states, ‘The judge is considering motions to dismiss by several other defendants, including the Socialist Workers Party and its newspaper, The Militant, and The UMWA.’

“The Socialist Workers Party is not a defendant in the lawsuit,” he continued. “At a hearing on June 14, 2005, Judge Benson instructed the attorneys for C.W. Mining and the International Association of United Workers Union to rewrite their clients’ ‘amorphous’ and ‘vague’ complaint so the defendants would know who was being sued, for what, and which of the plaintiffs were supposedly damaged by alleged defamations. When the plaintiffs filed an amended lawsuit on July 13, 2005, they dropped the Socialist Workers Party as a defendant, along with others.

“It is equally inaccurate to say the Militant is the newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party. This false accusation was contained in the first complaint by C.W. Mining, but abandoned when the lawsuit was rewritten. It should not be resurrected now through inaccurate reporting.”

“Our newspaper is published by the Militant Publishing Association. Neither the SWP nor any other party controls the Militant. As the editor I am solely responsible for the content and viewpoints of the paper.

“The Militant’s masthead states it is a socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people, and that guides our editorial stance. We do not check articles from reporters or other contributors for the author’s organizational affiliation or political ideology.

“This has been our policy since 1940. It remains so today, 66 years later,” Malapanis concluded.

The same correction in the February 23 Tribune also said, “The Kingston family-owned C.W. Mining Co. has said it fired one of its coal miners in 2003 for refusing to sign a form acknowledging a failure to perform his duties adequately.” This was to correct the following statement in the same Tribune article: “The company claims it fired one worker for talking up the UMWA and the rest of the miners left their jobs in sympathy.”
 
 
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