Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts

Sunday, September 30, 2007

A Killer Angel


On one hand we have bigots like Ahmadinejad who deny the Holocaust, and then on Tuesday morning we have NPR joining in to exploit the Holocaust. Could there be anything much more revolting than celebrating one of the 20th century's greatest war criminals and mass murderers as a Holocaust hero? Talk about cynicism. We get to hear Kissinger say "There's nothing I'm more proud of, of my service to this country, than having been one of those who had the honor of liberating the Ahlem concentration camp." Ugh...

Steel yourselves for the day Kissinger dies. I'd wager money that when it happens, NPR will give him a glowing send-off.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Safe Indignation

I think it is right for NPR to highlight the grotesque nature of the Holocaust denial conference in Iran. Moral disgust seems appropriate, and that such a conference has been organized by the sitting president of a country is an indictment of that government. On Weekend Edition Saturday Scott Simon weighed in with his usual smarmy, self-righteous overtones, and then on Weekend Edition Sunday Daniel Schorr brought his indignation to the fore. Fair enough, but...how about getting beyond the obvious clear-cut issues and going into the terrain of discomfort? Consider Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory remarks on the media coverage of the conference in which he notes that the media should take sides when established facts demand it -- but not only in risk-free issues like denouncing Holocaust deniers.

When will NPR take a complex look at the full range of cynical manipulations of the Holocaust to further political agendas? What about defenders of the crimes of Israel who use the Holocaust to justify every wrong of the Israeli state and who paint every critic of Israel as an anti-Semite? Consider the lies and distortions offered by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in its campaign against Jimmy Carter's book on Palestine or note the rabid attacks on Carter from the likes of David Horowitz, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck. NPR could do a lot to rectify this situation by giving some airtime on its news broadcasts to Jimmy Carter (I'm still waiting) or dissenters such as Norman Finkelstein who has made the use of the Holocaust his life's work.

Or NPR could continue in "safe mode" with denunciations Holocaust deniers and with its miserable coverage of the injustices being committed by the US and Israel against the Palestinians.