http://tinyurl.com/y8w54m ( http://www.fairfieldtoday.com )
Letters to the Editor : Bobby Roth on the Fairfield Story by Thom Krystofiak Last week's article, Sanitizing the Fairfield Story, which described some of the edits that were made to a major Washington Post article on Fairfield before it was widely emailed and posted on InvincibleAmerica.org, inspired a lot of responses. Many people emphasized how important it is to them that stories about our community and the TM movement be presented fully and fairly. Bobby Roth, who has for tireless decades been in the forefront of the movement's press relations and publicity activities, called me from Holland last Thursday ... -about the Sanitizing article within two hours of its publication, and we have since spoken twice. He wanted the community to hear the facts from his point of view, which I will present here simply and without elaboration—other than to say that Bobby reacted to the situation with grace and humility, taking "full personal responsibility" for the edited version having been circulated, and apologizing for the error that led to its release. Bobby told me that the altered version of the Post article was created to be read out to people in other countries, including in Asia and Africa, where it was felt that the names of some of our local shops, the French name of a meal at Le Petit Paris, etc. would not have been particularly meaningful and so were dropped from the text. Other edits were made to correct inaccuracies or to avoid potential confusion. He says that this edited version "was never meant for posting or circulating in the U.S." but was added to the web site and emailed by his mistake. (He sent the wrong file to InvincibleAmerica.org; the MUM website received the correct version.) As for some of the specifics: The headline, "Transcendental Iowa," appeared in the print version of the Washington Post and the change for the email and posting was approved by the Post reporter. Far from having any animus against 21st Century Books and Thymely Solutions (whose names were removed from the article), Bobby says that he personally loves those stores and it was he who specifically arranged for the reporter to visit them. Above all, Bobby says, he had no intention of hiding anything. "Our success on the media team is based on the fact that we are always honest and open with the press. We value our relationship with the Fairfield community, and the trust we share, above everything, and we would never do anything consciously to jeopardize that."
