New Guinea Tribesman Sue Pulitzer Prize Winner For Defamation

JARED Diamond won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1997 book “Guns, Germs, and Steel.” He is now being sued by two New Guinea tribesmen who seem all too aware of the way things work in the US of A.

Dear, missionary, you have the right to a lawyer. You have the right to have the water in the big pot brought to a cnmfortable temperature…:

Two New Guinea tribesmen have filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit claiming Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond wrote a New Yorker magazine article that falsely accused them of murder and other crimes.

Jared  Diamond’s people stand  by the story:

Henep Isum Mandingo and Hup Daniel Wemp say in a single-page filing in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court that Diamond’s article published April 21, 2008, accused them “of serious criminal activity … including murder.”

The article was titled, “Vengeance Is Ours: What can tribal societies tell us about our need to get even?”

Well its can tell us that like tribes get a lawyer and go to war:

Diamond reports it took three years, 29 lives and the theft of 300 pigs before Wemp and his hired group exacted revenge. And because of the revenge killing, Wemp himself is now a target, Diamond reports.

Diamond says he met Wemp about half a dozen years after these events. He quotes the highlander as saying, “I admit that the New Guinea highland way to solve the problem posed by a killing isn’t good … We are always in effect living on the battlefield.”

Wemp’s claim that Diamond’s report is false is supported by Rhonda Shearer, director of New York’s Art Science Research Lab. Her stinkyjournalism.org Website, which examines media accuracy and ethics, claims to poke holes in Diamond’s story.

Shearer said Wednesday that her researchers in New Guinea reported that Daniel Wemp said he told Diamond bits of several true stories and the writer used them, along with things he simply made up, to create a composite, inaccurate narrative.

Shearer said Wemp, a driver and a mechanic, denied killing anyone…

Forget the headhunters

Anorak

Posted: 23rd, April 2009 | In: Media Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink