{"id":1050,"date":"2005-03-22T09:54:34","date_gmt":"2005-03-22T17:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/03\/free_speech_the_holocaust_and\/"},"modified":"2005-03-22T09:54:34","modified_gmt":"2005-03-22T17:54:34","slug":"free_speech_the_holocaust_and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/03\/free_speech_the_holocaust_and.html","title":{"rendered":"FREE SPEECH, THE HOLOCAUST AND ETHICAL JOURNALISM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taking a cue from ArtsJournal publisher Doug McLellan, who has created a public forum for
\ndebating significant arts issues, herewith a baker’s dozen e-mail comments on free speech, the
\nHolocaust and ethical journalism. They were spurred by Friday’s item, C-SPAN ON TRIAL<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>, about the
\nidea of broadcasting a speech by Holocaust denier David Irving to “balance” a lecture by
\nHolocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt.
\n

<\/P>
\n

Comment 1 by Biff Cappuccino, March 19,
\n01:10 AM
<\/STRONG><\/FONT>Given that Irving is a best-selling author, and given the
\nsignificance of the lawsuit he lost to Deborah Lipstadt, I would love to have seen them discuss
\nissues or at least appear back to back on C-Span. I’ve read some of Irving’s stuff (the first third of
\nhis Hitler biography for example) and he does not strike me as being an admirer of Hitler. Have
\nyou read this book yourself? You can download it free from his website.
\n

On his website he also makes a point of trying to prove that he’s not racist. I say try because I
\ndon’t pretend to speak with any authority as to whether he is racist or not.<\/P>
\n

I may be wrong, and I haven’t read any of Irving’s stuff for several years, but I was under the
\nimpression that Irving is not a Holocaust denier but believes that the monstrous murder of the
\nJews was just one of many monstrosities that took place and that the Jews were machine-gunned
\nand so forth, and not gassed.<\/P>
\n

As to having someone debate slavery from a pro-slave perspective, I would be quite
\ninterested if the person could make an at least superficially persuasive case. All of us have had
\nancestors who were slaves at some point. What is there to be afraid of? You surely don’t believe
\nslavery is going to make a comeback anymore than I do. So why the rush to political
\ncorrectness?<\/P>
\n

C-Span puts up loonies all the time and lets them rant without interruption for the first ten
\nminutes or so. This is a great service to the community because it allows us to form our own
\nopinions about events and personalities. C-Span did a three-hour special on Chomsky though I
\ncan’t imagine Brian Lamb can be anything but contemptuous of the old conspiracy theorist. I
\nwould love to see Ward Churchill on C-Span as well. Ward is as big a fraud as they come (bogus
\nscholarship, art forgery, faked military record, etc), but he has every right to free speech. I
\nwouldn’t dream of writing to C-Span to keep Ward off the air. Why would I be so
\nnarrow-minded? With all due respect, you strike me as far too contemptuous of the average
\nperson’s ability to sensibly form their own judgements.<\/P>
\n

Comment 2 by Henry, March 19, 03:37
\nAM
<\/STRONG><\/FONT>Interesting that nowhere in his magisterial history of the Second
\nWorld War does Winston Churchill mention the “Holocaust” of the Jews. Does that make
\nChurchill a denier?<\/P>
\n

Comment 3 by Scott Fields, March 19, 12:17
\nPM
<\/FONT><\/STRONG>The fundamental kernal of the Holocaust is that a modern
\nindustrial state planned and carried out the mass extermination of a class of people using among
\nthings fixed installation gas chambers.<\/P>
\n

The Holocaust is not merely a period of Jewish suffering or a period when “bad things”
\nhappened to Jews.<\/P>
\n

The evidence that the Holocaust occurred is mountainous. It is as mountainous as the
\nevidence that there was an Apollo moonshot or the Civil War or “the Eisenhower
\nadministration.”<\/P>
\n

David Irving denies that there was any plan to exterminate the Jews or the instruments to
\ncarry that out, namely fixed installation gas chambers at such places as Auschwitz and
\nTreblinka.<\/P>
\n

To Irving, the witnesses are all liars, the confessions of the Nazis were extracted under
\ntorture, the documents and photos are all forged. The British court ruled that he lied and falsified
\nevidence to reach these conclusions.<\/P>
\n

Irving’s position is tantamount to saying there was a man named Dwight Eisenhower, he was
\nimportant during the 1950’s but I deny he was President of the USA.<\/P>
\n

This is not political correctness. It is about providing a valuable public forum to a judicially
\nfound liar, racist and anti-Semite. Moreover, his position is an assault on truth and memory.<\/P>
\n

Irving has his free speech. He has a website. He is not owed a publicly televised forum.<\/P>
\n

Comment 4 by Biff Cappuccino, March 19,
\n12:46 PM
<\/STRONG><\/FONT>I think this is about political correctness. It begins with
\nstatements such as “Falsifiers of history cannot ‘balance’ histories.” Everyone with even a
\nmarginally heterodox view of any aspect or period of history is ipso facto a ‘falsifier of history.’
\nThe statement is so clumsily worded because the authors know that they don’t have to justify their
\nreasoning to the majority of readers. This is just as bad as the right-wing attempts to clamp down
\non Ward Churchill. Keeping Irving off C-Span is surely C-Span’s decision.
\n

You inadvertently play semantic games when you talk about “providing” Irving with a
\nvaluable public forum. C-Span wasn’t providing him with a forum, they were inviting him on for
\npublic interest. They’re not his flacks. Ergo, they’re not providing him with anything.<\/P>
\n

What do you mean by a public forum? A street corner or anywhere people congregate is a
\npublic forum. And who owes him a publicly televised forum? Does anyone at C-Span believe they
\n“owe” him anything.<\/P>
\n

Because you’re not serious about addressing the issue, you let this sort of slippery verbiage
\nand clich\u00e9 do your thinking for you. And you do so I believe because you feel secure that the
\n(moral) majority of the public supports you. You don’t have to express logic clearly, just morally
\ncorrect feelings. In my opinion, you’re high on political correctness.<\/P>
\n

Myself, I would be interested in what Irving has to say about the trial. I’m no more a fan of
\nracists than you are, but as a regular viewer of C-Span I’m happy to let C-Span make it’s own
\ndecisions. They do an excellent job because they steer away from political correctness which they
\ncan do because, ironically, so few people (and even fewer busybodies) watch their shows.<\/P>
\n

Comment 5 by Tom Murphy, March 19, 09:02
\nPM<\/FONT><\/STRONG>
Irving is a man who believes that Jews were killed in great
\nnumber and has documented specific conversations of Germans talking about the shootings.
\nIrving is a man who believes that the Jews died in concentration camps. Irving is a man who
\nbelieve that Nazis not only killed Jews with mass shootings but also killed Jews in concentration
\ncamps.
\n

Now does that sound like a “Holocaust Denier”?<\/P>
\n

If your first reaction to what I am writing is that I must be wrong about what Irving thinks
\nthen you prove my point that using the term “Holocaust Denier” to describe David Irving is
\ngrotesque, manipulative and dishonest. How can anyone think it is not libel?<\/P>
\n

Comment 6 by Gonzo Marx, March 20, 12:22
\nAM
<\/FONT><\/STRONG>Aww c’mon kiddies…
\n

Can you say Zyklon-B?<\/P>
\n

Sure ya can…<\/P>
\n

Now how about the entire meeting transcript of Eichmann and cronies that was taken from an
\nadministration building in Berlin and used as evidence at the Nuremburg trials … The details are
\nall there and a matter of public record … If you hurry … Because they are aging fast and will not
\nbe with us for much longer … You can actually speak to living people that bear the tattoos, and
\nwere actually IN THE CAMPS … Listen to them describe the “showers” …<\/P>
\n

The documentary footage of the Allies arrival in some of the camps, including the empty
\ncannisters of Zyklon-b. … The production records as well as distribution manifest for
\naforementioned cannisters of the gas … And on and on …<\/P>
\n

I am all for placing dissenting OPINIONS in political debate … But this smacks of having
\nsome kook that wants to rebuke the Law of Gravity and debate the validity of Thermodynamics
\n…<\/P>
\n

To those doubters that are young and naive enough to buy into any of the revisionist crap,
\nmight I suggest a trip to the NYC diamond district .?. Ask around … I am certain you will be able
\nto find a few survivors that can educate you …<\/P>
\n

Nuff said?<\/P>
\n

Comment 7 by Scott Fields, March 20, 09:48
\nAM
<\/STRONG><\/FONT>Irving had his day in Court on the question of libel. He lost. No
\nhe was crushed. He was destroyed.
\n

It is a judicially accepted fact that Irving is a liar, manipulator, falsifier, Holocaust denier and
\nanti-Semite. Those were the exact findings of a British court of law.<\/P>
\n

He is the only man in world history who has had a court of law decide these exact issues.<\/P>
\n

As a matter of final public record, he is all of these things.<\/P>
\n

He has lost the libel defense.<\/P>
\n

Comment 8 by Orest Slepokura, March 20,
\n10:50 AM
<\/FONT><\/STRONG>It’s always instructive to observe what self-appointed
\nguardians of the Holocaust will and won’t tolerate. A case in point:
\n

During a 1976 state visit to Israel by South Africa’s then prime minister John Vorster, the late
\nYitzhak Rabin invited Vorster, an old Nazi collaborator, unabashed racist and white supremacist,
\nto Yad Vashem to pay homage to Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Vorster should, of course,
\nhave been tried as a Nazi collaborator; instead he was welcomed by his Jewish hosts.<\/P>
\n

Compared to the usual outcries from Jewish groups who zealously guard the dignity of
\nHolocaust remembrance, no less remarkable was the bland equanimity both Israeli and Diaspora
\nJews also displayed toward the Vorster visit. Vorster left Israel four days later, after forging close
\ncommercial and military ties between the Jewish state and Pretoria’s apartheid regime.<\/P>
\n

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.<\/P>
\n

Comment 9 by Gonzo Marx, March 20, 11:43
\nAM
<\/STRONG><\/FONT>Different incident, don’t ya mean there, Orest?
\n

I fail to see the correlation between the two … Though I do acknowledge the possible
\nhypocrisy you are attempting to point out …<\/P>
\n

It leaves me wondering if you are trying to engage in the discussion or simply pulling a bait
\nand switch to distract from the matter at hand …<\/P>
\n

But thanx for playing … Please come again.<\/P>
\n

Comment 10 by Orest Slepokura, March 20,
\n01:26 PM
<\/FONT><\/STRONG>I merely showed, using an historical example, how Yad
\nVashem welcomed an unreconstructed Nazi to tour its museum and memorial site, one devoted to
\nmemorializing victims of the Nazi Holocaust, and how Israeli law enforcement, normally gung-ho
\nto arrest Nazi war criminals and collaborators, had shown no interest in arresting Vorster. That a
\nNazi diehard was invited to debauch the memory of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust, and did so
\nwith total impunity, to my mind sugggests that so-called Holocaust denial may assume more than
\none form. If Jews could graciously welcome Vorster to Yad Vashem, watching David Irving
\nappear on C-Span for an hour, surely, ought to be far less onerous.
\n

Comment 11 by Gonzo Marx, March
\n20, 01:42 PM
<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/FONT>Duly noted, Orest … and thanx for
\nelucidating yer point …
\n

As for C-SPAN and who they put on … up to them …<\/P>
\n

But to give equal time … which I am all for … It might help to use a historian that has NOT
\nbeen discredited by the British Courts in such a thorough and devastating manner, don’t ya
\nthink?<\/P>
\n

And my point against your anecdote is that the two incidents don’t show any causal
\nrelationship …<\/P>
\n

However, I respect your right to bolster your opinion as you see fit, especially since you have
\nproduced a factual incident …<\/P>
\n

I just disagree with it’s relevance …<\/P>Comment 12 by Fred Bortz, March 20, 02:37 PM
<\/FONT><\/STRONG>After
\nreading some of these comments, it’s no wonder that people still glorify former Nazis who
\nmanaged to cover for their former allegiance by claiming to be “apolitical.” In their case, that
\ntranslated to opportunistic, kissing-up to whomever has political power.
\n

To quote Tom Lehrer’s song “Wernher von Braun” from foggy memory:<\/P>
\n

“Let the rockets go up
Who cares where they come down?
That’s not my
\ndepartment,”
Says Wernher von Braun.
<\/I><\/P>
\n

Two of the reviews on my Science Shelf<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> archive discuss
\nthis issue from different perspectives: “Hitler’s Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil’s Pact”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> by
\nJohn Cornwall and “Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket
\nScience”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> by M. G. Lord<\/P>
\n

Comment 13 by Bill Osborne, March 21, 10:09
\nAM
<\/FONT><\/STRONG>C-Span specializes in giving voice to crackpots. It is part of
\ntheir style. It is often even useful, if not entertaining, to have a look at what the nuts in our society
\nhave to say.<\/P>
\n

This debate about C-Span raises other important questions. What is consensus journalism
\nwhen the norms of society are deeply wrong? What would it have been like, for example, to be a
\njournalist in the 1930s if you were opposed to the Jim Crow laws? How do you speak from the
\nmiddle when the middle is wrong? Will all dissenters be lumped together with odious people like
\nIrving and simply silenced?<\/P>
\n

What does it mean, for example, to be a journalist in a society that has discretely committed
\nor abetted mass murder by death squads and unjustified wars for the last 50 years as a matter of
\nforeign policy, especially in Latin America? Only crackpots charge our government with
\ncommitting or abetting mass murder, but isn’t it true? Has the lack of mainstream journalistic
\ndissent become a serious problem, considering our media’s corporate consolidation and the way it
\nis manipulated by our government?<\/P>
\n

Why is it that someone as sober, rational, and even as popular as Noam Chomsky is so
\ncompletely marginalized by our corporate media? I can certainly sympathize with banishing a
\nmalicious crackpot like Irving from C-Span, but how do we know where to draw the lines when it
\ncomes to unconventional views?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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