Action Alert: New York Post Gets Ethel Rosenberg History Wrong

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg after their arrest on espionage charges.

See Update below.

The New York Post (9/28/15) reported on two proclamations issued by the New York City Council:

Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed with her husband for treason in 1953, was honored Monday by the City Council on what would have been her 100th birthday.

That’s just wrong, and deserves a correction; the Rosenbergs were not charged with treason, but with conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act. A treason charge would have been difficult because the Soviet Union was an ally of the United States, not an enemy, at the time that Rosenberg’s husband Julius passed along low-level atomic secrets.

The story went on to say:

The proclamations also said she was “wrongfully” executed for helping her husband, Julius, pass atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

The phrasing suggests that Ethel Rosenberg’s helping with espionage is uncontested fact, with the debate being over whether she was rightfully executed for it. In fact, there is considerable doubt whether she had any overt involvement with her husband’s intelligence activities. Her brother David Greenglass, whose testimony that Ethel had typed up information to be given to Julius’ Soviet handler was critical to her conviction, later admitted that he had lied on the witness stand (Guardian, 7/15/15).

UPDATE: The New York Post has quietly corrected the article, which now begins, “Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed with her husband for espionage in 1953, was honored Monday by the City Council on what would have been her 100th birthday.” There is nothing to alert the reader that the article ever said anything else–other than the url, which continues to be:

http://nypost.com/2015/09/29/city-council-honors-woman-executed-for-treason-in-1953/

ACTION: Please ask the New York Post to correct its false statement that Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed for treason.

CONTACT:

New York Post
email: letters@nypost.com
Twitter: @NYPost

Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org.