Logic Fails Him
The BBC On This Day widget notes that on this day in 1939 German police were ordered to begin arresting the Roma and shipping them to concentration camps. The Nazis didn’t limit their persecution to a single minority group, but filled the camps with just about every group that didn’t fit their concept of “racial purity”.
At no time was it noted that Dr. Goebbels dismissed a member of the propaganda ministry for making disparaging remarks about an ethnic minority – that was the specific function of entire departments at the ministry.
That’s what makes Fox News chairman Roger Ailes’s denunciation of NPR executives as Nazis over the termination of Juan Williams so weird. Williams’s comments and the Fox News reaction of hiring him immediately is more in line with the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda than what NPR did.
The article notes that Mr. Ailes has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League for his use of the word “Nazi”, but no one at Fox has ever apologized to Muslims for the stereotyping and slurs at the core of this incident. Mr. Ailes also used his apology to cast new slurs at NPR.
6 comments
Most people probably could tell you what “six million Jews” refers to. It’s unfortunate that the other victims of Nazi eliminationist policies have been so overshadowed as to be virtually forgotten. I’ve seen estimates of anywhere from five to twenty million non-Jewish, non-combatant deaths, depending on how one chooses to count.
Then you could go on with Armenia, Cambodia, the Huguenots, etc, etc… the Nazis weren’t all that unique, really. It can seem as if history is just one long list of genocides. I’ve often thought it’s very harmful that the Jewish Holocaust is presented as such an aberration.
As for Juan Williams, he’s just another overblown mediocrity who should have been fired years ago, like Charlie Rose, Mara Liassen… NPR and PBS are full of them, just like the rest of the mainstream media.
They get away with it on NPR/PBS by claiming they are just providing “balance”, as if raw prejudice was on the same plane as facts. The media sucks up to the right hoping to avoid attacks, but that is not an effective way of dealing with bullies.
There are no good records on the number of disabled or mental patients who were executed, or the number of Slavs, most of whom were worked to death as slave labor. When you believe you are creating a “super race”, anyone who varies from the ideal is eliminated.
Oh, yes, genocide is much more common than people admit, and there shouldn’t be a hierarchy among the victims.
I just watched TDS last night and Jon did a great sketch on this! 😀 (He also had a very interesting guest). If anyone haven’t seen it… (You really should!) 😉
TDS November 18, 2010 – Philip K. Howard
And I agree with pj above.
This is one of the people who decide what constitutes “news” in the US. It is little wonder why Americans know so little about what is happening.
Great link, Kryten! Watching the Glen Beck/Soros spoof, I started out thinking “what a perfect example of right-wing psychological projection”, and then by God he went there! What a rare treat & funny as well. If only the nutters were watching that instead of Fox.
Glad you liked it pj! 😀 I watch every episode of TDS. 😀 It’s my daily sanity hit! 😆
Check out the Nov 15 ep (ignore the Jones bit. Who cares?) and the Nov 16 ep (that will make you cry in anger and frustration!)
Cheers! 🙂