Ms. Barbara Slavin
USA Today
7950 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, VA 22108-0205
Dear Ms. Slavin:
You were among those reporting that one Lynne D. Finney had accused John Bolton of yelling at her more than 20 years ago. You described her simply as a “motivational speaker” when she was a specialist in self-hypnosis and “recovered memories” than can turn out to be false. You didn’t do the basic research into her background that was necessary for readers to understand the context in which her dubious allegations were made. What’s more, you got the story from a partisan source, Senator Barbara Boxer, who was determined to do everything possible to stop his nomination as Ambassador to the U.N. You owe Mr. Bolton an apology.