I would like to clarify Nicolai Petro's criticism of a New York Times article about news coverage in Russia (Johnson's List, No. 100). He is correct that Rossiya TV's evening news program on Saturday, April 14th - the one broadcast at 8 p.m., that is - did not lead with President Vladimir V. Putin's meeting with Jean-Claude Van Damme. The meeting was, however, reported on Rossiya's broadcast in St. Petersburg at 5:20 p.m. that day. It was also featured on Rossiya's newscasts throughout the day that Sunday, April 15th, including the morning and prime-time editions, not just at the "rather slow time" of 2 p.m., as he wrote.

The Times will correct the statement that the meeting led the newscast on Saturday evening, instead of on Sunday. But it is wrong for Mr. Petro to write that it didn't happen. And it is worse then to use his assertion to insinuate that journalists covering Russia, at The Times or elsewhere, simply conjure facts out of thin air, relying solely on conventional wisdom and unverified sources.

Steven Lee Myers
Moscow Bureau Chief
The New York Times.