RAT wildhistory

["David Sinclair" <mal_occhio@hotmail.com>]

in the recent discussion of editorial control over the presentation of 
information, i would like to present this article from salon.com, in full, 
for the consumption of the list.


get off nick's back.

david


Who said "Yes"?
Local reporters have known for months that eyewitnesses disputed the account 
of Cassie Bernall's "martyrdom." So why did the truth take so long to see 
print?


- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Dave Cullen


Sept. 30, 1999 | LITTLETON, Colo. -- Emily Wyant knew from the beginning: 
Columbine "martyr" Cassie Bernall never said "Yes."

Wyant, who survived the Columbine massacre April 20, told the FBI months ago 
that the famous "unlikely martyrdom of Cassie Bernall," immortalized in a 
best-selling book by Cassie's mom, Misty, never happened. She told Misty and 
Brad Bernall, Cassie's parents, the same account, and she also told the 
Rocky Mountain News.

But it wasn't until Sept. 24, one day after Salon News broke the story that 
investigators doubted Bernall's famous gunpoint declaration of faith, that 
the News printed a long story detailing Wyant's account.

How did the paper react so quickly, with a detailed, never-before-public 
account of Bernall's death, a day after the new revelations? Sources at the 
paper confirm that the details weren't actually new at all: They'd been 
sitting on the story for quite some time. The News ran the article nearly 
five months after obtaining the true story from Wyant, and two weeks after 
running news stories promoting the release of "She Said Yes: The Unlikely 
Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall" -- news stories that presented the account of 
Bernall's martyrdom as fact.

The Denver Post didn't get its new Bernall stories into print until 
Saturday. It followed up on Tuesday, after the paper was able to interview 
Valeen Schnurr, the young Columbine student who was asked by one of the 
killers if she believed in God -- after she'd been shot. But the Post had 
been aware of rumors that the Bernall story was not true earlier than that, 
though it had not confirmed them, according to assistant city editor Evan 
Dreyer. "We had heard it; we were working on it," he said.

The belated media outing of the truth about Cassie Bernall raises questions 
about why the story took so long to find its way into print. Misty Bernall's 
book landed on the Publishers Weekly bestseller list at No. 14 this week, 
with 350,000 copies in print and more than 250,000 already sold, according 
to the publisher. In the past three weeks, the Bernalls have appeared on 
Today, 20/20 and Larry King Live, among others. The story has inspired a 
massive surge in Christian youth groups' recruitment around the country and 
overseas.

Emily Wyant watched with disbelief as the Bernall myth mushroomed. "Once she 
started hearing all that, she said, 'That didn't happen. Why are they saying 
that?'" her mother recalls. The girl kept waiting for investigators or news 
reporters to refute the myth, so she would not have to come forward herself.

"She never wanted to ever, ever say anything against it," says her mother, 
who did not want her first name used because of community sensitivity about 
the Bernall controversy. "She just was real frustrated with it, and she just 
kept saying, 'But that never happened. Why are they saying that?' That's the 
thing that bothered her."

Wyant is the only living person who actually witnessed Bernall's death. She 
was hiding beneath a table right beside Cassie when it happened. "Emily was 
right there next to her, and in fact, she was looking right in her eyes, so 
you'd think she would be able to hear that, being right next to her, if 
anything was exchanged. And she can't remember anything being said," Wyant 
explained.

As the Rocky Mountain News reported Sept. 24, Wyant and Bernall were 
studying alone together in the back of the library. After the gunmen rushed 
in, the girls crouched beneath a table together, and Cassie began praying 
aloud: "Dear God. Dear God. Why is this happening? I just want to go home." 
Dylan Klebold suddenly slammed his hand on the table, yelled "Peekaboo," and 
looked underneath. He shot Cassie without exchanging a word. Wyant's mother 
confirmed that the Rocky Mountain News correctly reported the details of her 
daughter's account.

Salon News reported last Thursday that investigators believed the famous 
exchange actually took place between Klebold and Valeen Schnurr, and was 
mistakenly attributed to Bernall. Now Schnurr herself has confirmed that 
story. On Tuesday the Denver Post reported her account, which she also told 
to Salon News:

Schnurr was down on her hands and knees bleeding, already hit by 34 shotgun 
pellets, when one of the killers approached her. She was saying, "Oh, my 
God, oh, my God, don't let me die," and he asked her if she believed in God. 
She said yes; he asked why. "Because I believe and my parents brought me up 
that way," she said. He reloaded, but didn't shoot again. She crawled away.

Schnurr's testimony has been unwavering since the start. After interviewing 
every person who survived the library to unravel discrepancies, 
investigators came to believe her story was accurate, and was probably the 
only such exchange about God with the killers. Investigators have gone 
public with that belief since the Salon story broke last Thursday.

On Saturday, the Denver Post reported sheriff's spokesman Steve Davis going 
on the record to state that a lot of investigators had strong doubts about 
the alleged conversation between Cassie Bernall and Klebold, that they had 
shared those doubts with the Bernalls, and that those doubts had only grown 
since they alerted the Bernalls to their concerns.

Friday, the Rocky Mountain News also cast doubt on the account credited with 
starting the Cassie myth. Division Chief John Kiekbusch said the entire 
story-that the exchange about God had been between Bernall and Klebold -- 
began with survivor Craig Scott.

"[Scott] told investigators he heard the "Yes" comment and recognized the 
voice as Cassie Bernall's," the News reported. "He did not actually see the 
individuals involved ... Investigators said Scott was asked to point out 
where the gunmen were at the time, and he indicated a table where Valeen 
Schnurr -- not Bernall was hiding."

A reporter for the paper said the News was waiting to run a story debunking 
several Columbine myths, including Bernall's, until a few weeks before the 
report was released. It was not until the Salon story broke, he said, that 
Wyant would allow the paper to use her name. News metro editor Steve Myers 
confirmed that the paper had much of the information about the myths Salon 
debunked Sept. 23.

"The things that you reported were not unknown to me," Myers said. He 
abruptly ended the conversation when questioned about the ethics of sitting 
on the Bernall disclosures when the book was released.

But as recently as Sept. 10, the publication day of "She Said Yes," the News 
was running news articles presenting the story as fact. The paper actually 
ran two articles that day, one promoting the book's release and the other 
enthusiastically reporting on the surge in Christian youth recruitment 
inspired by the story. The first story explains early on that the book's 
title refers to 17-year-old Cassie's "final moments before dying." Toward 
the end of the article, it hedges slightly, with the following paragraph:

"According to some fellow students who survived the carnage in the Columbine 
library, one of the two gunmen asked Cassie if she believed in God. 'Yes,' 
she answered. The gunman asked, 'Why?' -- then pulled the trigger."

It offers no reference to dissenting views. The second story was 
unequivocal, repeatedly presenting the story as fact. "Bernall's answer to 
her killer -- 'Yes, I believe in God' -- has helped seed a harvest of 
youthful faith in Colorado and across the country," it reads.

Neither story presented the slightest hint that the paper had long been 
planning to shatter that claim.

Clearly, the story of what really happened to Cassie Bernall is a sensitive 
one in the Columbine community.

The Wyant and Bernall families had dinner together some time after the 
massacre. "Emily just kind of wanted to let them know that she was with her 
when she died," her mother said. She confirmed that Emily told the Bernalls 
the exchange about God between Cassie and her killer never happened. "Yes, 
she did tell them. She didn't volunteer that, they asked her."

But the Bernalls dispute that conversation. Chris Zimmerman, Misty Bernall's 
editor at Plough Publishing, released a statement saying: "[Wyant] was 
interviewed for "She Said Yes" and never disputed the original accounts of 
Cassie's death, as widely reported in the national media. Now, however, she 
says she doesn't believe Cassie ever exchanged words with her killer. Brad 
Bernall, Cassie's father, says, 'We are surprised at Emily's new account. It 
is inconsistent with the one we received from her and her parents earlier.'"

Wyant said Emily was torn for months over the escalating myth, and her 
parents tried to caution her against bearing the entire weight of a 
potential backlash. "She was in a tough position," her mother said. "So we 
were trying to guide her and help her, try and make the best choice. She 
doesn't know the ramifications that could come afterwards. She was just 
thinking about 'I want to tell the truth.'"

Emily expected the ordeal to end once she spoke to the Rocky Mountain News, 
and was surprised and frustrated that it didn't. "It was kind of like 
therapy for her to get it out," her mother said. "And she kept waiting to 
see it, but ..." she trailed off.

Wyant said that a News reporter told her the paper was conducting its own 
thorough investigation, compiling stories from every person in the library, 
putting them together into maps of where everyone in the room was, "to get 
an idea of what really happened."

By contrast, no one from the Denver Post contacted the Wyant family until 
Saturday night, asking for a reaction to the statement from Misty Bernall's 
publisher.

The Post's Evan Dreyer admitted to conflicted feelings about tackling the 
controversy over Bernall's martyrdom. "For a lot of these stories, it comes 
down to: We're the local media," he said. "We have to weigh lots of 
questions of sensitivity, caring and concern for the victims' families, more 
so than a lot of the national media does. "So, as local media, you think 
twice and three times and four times about whether that's a story you want 
to go with. But maybe we are erring too much on the side of concern and 
sympathy, and [Salon News] sort of forced the issue."
salon.com | Sept. 30, 1999


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com