Microsoft Encarta's Entries On Genocide

[Guest]

CNN Moneyline Newshour

Monday, August 21, 2000 -- 6:30 p.m.

Host: Willow Bay

 

Willow Bay (Host): Scholars are charging that Microsoft changed an article in its digital encyclopedia to hang on to a key market. The Encarta Encyclopedia calls the death of thousands of Armenians during the late Ottoman Empire the first genocide of the 20th century.

 

Most historians agree. But some authors say that Encarta asked them to consider another point of view, after pressure from the Turkish government.

Steve Young reports.

 

Steve Young (CNN reporter): 1915, the height of World War I. According to most historians, at least 600,000 to 800,000 Armenians were killed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire during massacres, or as the result of forced deportation.

 

Now, in 2000, while most historians call it a genocide, the Turkish government complains to Microsoft about use of the word in describing the Armenian slaughter in Microsoft's Encarta Encyclopedia. The scholars say Encarta asked them to tone down their articles.

 

Prof. Ronald Grigor Suny (Univ. of Chicago): I said "well, what if we don't agree to these revisions?" Then Microsoft said, "Well, we own these articles and we'll just publish it with our revisions and without your name."

 

Prof. Helen Fein (Director of Genocide Institute): What was unacceptable was that they wanted me to insert a counter-story which would make it appear that the Armenian Genocide never occurred; that it's simply a fiction, an allegation of Armenians, which is not the case.

 

Steve Young: Encarta examines hundreds of complaints about its content each year, but Microsoft may have felt a special urgency about this one.

 

Ronald Grigor Suny: They indicated that, in fact, there have been some threats from the Turkish government to arrest Microsoft officials in Turkey and even ban Microsoft products.

 

Steve Young: When we asked, Microsoft denied receiving such threats and the Turkish government denied making them. Gary Alt (Encarta, Editor in Chief): We had a controversy. We looked into it. We investigated it from all sides, and in the end, we worked with our content experts to come up with an agreeable solution that represents the truth fairly and objectively.

 

Steve Young: In the end the revised Encarta still refers to Armenian Genocide, but says that the Turkish government disputes there was one, adding many Western nations have no doubt. The Encarta authors believe their editors were being pressured by Microsoft management.

 

Helen Fein: Oh, definitely, this was a management decision. What's important here is to make clear that staff rebelled when they were convinced that this was improper pressure.

 

Steve Young: Microsoft now proudly points to its latest encyclopedia, claiming some competitors cast more about the nature of the Armenian mass deaths than Encarta does. The authors say Microsoft, unwisely for a time, seemed ready to compromise the integrity of its product. Bottom line: historical revisionism is bad business.