Doubt

A professor, a genocide, and NBC's quest for a prime-time hit

Source: The New Republic
Author: Andrew Rice
Publication Date: August 12, 2009

Article Abstract:  Goucher President Sanford J. Ungar discusses the questionable newsgathering tactics NBC producers used while making a failed documentary about alleged war criminals, including a visiting professor of French who formerly taught at the college. The article also covers the difficulty of uncovering what happened in Rwanda during the genocide and who was responsible for the crimes committed there.

Lead:

One Monday last December, a stranger presented himself at the office of Sanford Ungar, the president of Goucher College, located in a suburb of Baltimore. He introduced himself as Charlie Ebersol, a television producer. A handsome, affable, and royally confident young man--he was sometimes pictured in the gossip pages with his girlfriend, the tennis star Maria Sharapova--Ebersol explained his visit by saying he was doing research for a new prime-time show on NBC. Beyond that, he was cryptic, Ungar recalls. "He said, 'We're going to come back tomorrow and tell you about somebody who works here who's done some very, very bad things.'" The meeting, Ungar says, left him totally baffled. Ebersol remembers the encounter somewhat differently. "Literally five minutes into my going into conversation," Ebersol told me, "he said, 'Are you talking about Leopold Munyakazi?'"

Link to Article: http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/doubt
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Article PDF: documents/http___www.tnr.pdf

For More Information Contact:
Kristen Keener
Media Relations Director
kristen.keener@goucher.edu
410-337-6316