Rabbis weigh in on Beck, Fox

[SirSaxa]

Rabbis call on Murdoch to sanction Beck

Excerpts
Ailes ... defended Beck's frequent use of Nazi references to describe his political opponents by attributing outrage over such remarks to "left-wing rabbis who basically don't think that anybody can ever use the word 'Holocaust' on the air."

In the [Wall Street] Journal ad, which is also appearing in the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper, the rabbis write that they are "deeply offended" by Ailes's dismissal of those who object to such language.

"We respectfully request that Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust and that Roger Ailes apologize for his dismissive remarks about rabbis' sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air."

"This is not an issue for liberal or conservative rabbis, but an issue for all," said Mik Moore, chief strategic officer of Jewish Funds for Justice.

The ad is signed by the heads of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements as well as Orthodox rabbis.

Thursday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an observance established by the United Nations in 2005.

[strummer8526]

Eh, if it's ok for priests, ministers, and evangelical blow-hards to be political tools, might as well let rabbis get in on the action.

[TBird41]

Hey, I know! Let's give a guy that LOVES to play the victim card another reason to do so! I'm sure that'll get him and his boss to come around! And let's do so by spending $100K plus! Great plan!

Ready! Break!

[nodak89]

Jan 27, 2011 10:04:03 GMT -5 TBird41 said:

Hey, I know! Let's give a guy that LOVES to play the victim card another reason to do so! I'm sure that'll get him and his boss to come around! And let's do so by spending $100K plus! Great plan!

Ready! Break!

+1

I don't usually agree with TBird on the Blue and Gray board, but that stopped me mid-knee jerk.

[jerseyhoya34]

I don't think it should take a bunch of leaders to convince the Limbaugh/Beck types to refrain from comparing Democrats to Nazis. They should heed their own calls made when that TN Rep. compared Republicans to Goebbels - otherwise, it is hard to take them seriously even while they serve to unite Republicans who refuse to criticize this kind of behavior due to the 11th Commandment.

[rosslynhoya]

Jan 27, 2011 10:46:55 GMT -5 @jerseyhoya34 said:

I don't think it should take a bunch of leaders to convince the Limbaugh/Beck types to refrain from comparing Democrats to Nazis. They should heed their own calls made when that TN Rep. compared Republicans to Goebbels - otherwise, it is hard to take them seriously even while they serve to unite Republicans who refuse to criticize this kind of behavior due to the 11th Commandment.

Have you been seeing Frank the Bunny a lot lately? I personally have no idea how I would cope in a world in which effects always precede their causes.

[jerseyhoya34]

Maybe you could share with us why there has not been criticism from the right of Beck and Limbaugh. Admittedly, I was just guessing there, but I can't say the guess was not informed by observation, including of arguments on this board. Another possibility is that some folks simply don't have the stones to do it. Ideally it should be easy to explain why one is critical of comparing the President of the United States to a Nazi, so indulge us with your thinking.

[rosslynhoya]

Jan 27, 2011 11:44:26 GMT -5 @jerseyhoya34 said:

Maybe you could share with us why there has not been criticism from the right of Beck and Limbaugh. Admittedly, I was just guessing there, but I can't say the guess was not informed by observation, including of arguments on this board. Another possibility is that some folks simply don't have the stones to do it. Ideally it should be easy to explain why one is critical of comparing the President of the United States to a Nazi, so indulge us with your thinking.

I support Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh's use of historical analogies, simile, and metaphor to explain important contemporary issues and hopefully persuade their audiences and the American electorate as a whole of the correctness of those views.

The idea that "Nazi" is a special insult that only Jewish individuals and groups are authorized to use against their opponents is unacceptable.

[jerseyhoya34]

Thank you for your response. Know that I appreciate good satire, so your post drew a hearty chuckle. I did not realize they had computers in the basements of Auschwitz.

[SirSaxa]

So the right wingers who posted in this thread support Beck, Ailes and Fox and all the hate-filled venom the spew. You really think it is appropriate to accuse Americans of being, or acting like, or collaborating with....Nazis?

And Nodak thinks T-bird is right, that we should not confront Beck? Just as many Americans once thought we should not confront Sen. Joe McCarthy (R. WI)?

[TBird41]

Jan 27, 2011 16:55:45 GMT -5 SirSaxa said:

So the right wingers who posted in this thread support Beck, Ailes and Fox and all the hate-filled venom the spew. You really think it is appropriate to accuse Americans of being, or acting like, or collaborating with....Nazis?

And Nodak thinks T-bird is right, that we should not confront Beck? Just as many Americans once thought we should not confront Sen. Joe McCarthy (R. WI)?

They wasted their money. Murdoch's just going to ignore them (and pocket the ad revenue) and Beck is going to use them to further his agenda by acting like he's being persecuted for speaking truth to power.

McCarthy had subpoena power. That's a lot more dangerous than Beck. Beck's only power is his platform (ratings), and the only way he's going to lose it is if he goes off the deep end (well, further off the deep end...) or people stop watching him.

Lisa Simpson said it best--just don't look.

[Boz]

As much as I do not agree with Jon Stewart, he had it right. There's no reason to call anyone Nazis.

And both sides do it.

And really, my only problem with these rabbis is their disingenuousness.

Why, in their letter, did they not ask for censure of Nancy Pelosi for calling the Tea Party "Brownshirts"? Why did they not ask for a reprimand for Rep. Steve Cohen?

I daresay it's a little worse for our elected officials to be engaging in this kind of talk than it is for a TV/radio host, though it is wrong in both instances.

You want me to take you seriously, rabbis? Show me you can see both sides and you are unilateral in your calls to stop this kind of behavior.

[jerseyhoya34]

The folks who could really put Beck and Limbaugh out of business are their sponsors. That they do not is really something.

Recall the reaction when a 501(3)(c) sponsored an ad contest in which one of the entrants (among what seemed like hundreds) - some private citizen - submitted an ad that compared another president to Hitler.

[rosslynhoya]

Jan 27, 2011 16:55:45 GMT -5 SirSaxa said:

So the right wingers who posted in this thread support Beck, Ailes and Fox and all the hate-filled venom the spew. You really think it is appropriate to accuse Americans of being, or acting like, or collaborating with....Nazis?

And Nodak thinks T-bird is right, that we should not confront Beck? Just as many Americans once thought we should not confront Sen. Joe McCarthy (R. WI)?

Yes, I'll say it again. I support Beck, Ailes, and Fox and all the "hate-filled venom the spew." Primarily because it isn't hate-filled venom, at least nothing worse than Rachel Maddow spews forth on any given day.

If the rabbis want to complain about anything, complain about how the constant Nazi references over the past decade have trivialized the evil of the Holocaust. I know hearing our previous president called "worse than Hitler" on a daily basis for nearly eight years has pretty much taken the sting out of that jibe.

As for McCarthy, our government and particularly the State Department and the Army really were thoroughly penetrated by the Communists. The Venona files proved beyond any doubt that Alger Hiss and all the rest really were on the Soviet Union's payroll. The only thing wrong with McCarthy's tactics is that they were working.

[jerseyhoya34]

I just did a Google of Bush AND "worse than Hitler". 61000 results. Obama and "worse than Hitler" gives you 49000 results in 6 fewer years time. Hitler AND Obama gives you 5.6 million hits. Bush AND Hitler gives you 5.8 million.* But hey, who is counting?

It has been a long 10 years for the conservative diaspora indeed.

* On some of the Bush results, you have to think that some of the hits are false positives for Dubya. Some of them are likely H.W. and Prescott Bush hits, to be fair. Not saying those sources are legitimate/fair either - only making an empirical point.

[TBird41]

Jan 27, 2011 19:47:46 GMT -5 @jerseyhoya34 said:

I just did a Google of Bush AND "worse than Hitler". 61000 results. Obama and "worse than Hitler" gives you 49000 results in 6 fewer years time. Hitler AND Obama gives you 5.6 million hits. Bush AND Hitler gives you 5.8 million.* But hey, who is counting?

It has been a long 10 years for the conservative diaspora indeed.

* On some of the Bush results, you have to think that some of the hits are false positives for Dubya. Some of them are likely H.W. and Prescott Bush hits, to be fair. Not saying those sources are legitimate/fair either - only making an empirical point.

1) Looking at the # of Google results to determine anything? Really? That is so 2006.

2) There are two explanations for the Google results--the first is that the media never really reported on the Bush=Hitler results; the second is that liberals didn't know how to use the internet during Bush's presidency.

Based on the lack of showering in the Code Pink / Burn Bush in effigy crowd, well, I think we know which one is the right answer ;D

[jerseyhoya34]

Bush did not allow the Code Pinkers to shower. They knew what the showers meant. Sorry, it was on the tee for a Glenn Beck parody. His contribution today was to accuse Soros of conspiring with the Nazis.

I mean...if Code Pink/liberal hippies gives the goalposts to the conservative movement/diaspora...wow...

I stand by the use of Google in the absence of something better. My point really is only that the Bush/Obama Hitler frequency is not particularly close. Indeed, the results at this early stage are comparable to an old GU-St. Leo's game.

[The Stig]

I think the Boz Doctrine applies to the Hitler-Obama/Bush comparisons.

But defending Joe McCarthy? That's just absurd. Were there a few Communists in the US government in the early 50s? Yes. Did McCarthy use the right methods to eliminate them? Absolutely not. The Communist problem was akin to a small tumor - something you remove carefully with a scalpel. McCarhty's solution was to use a car bomb. Was Hiss a spy? Maybe - the Venona files are far from conclusive on that issue. But there were many other people McCarthy attacked (with little or no evidence) that were 100% innocent. Had he said the things he said outside the legal protection of his Senate office, he'd have been found guilty of slander many times over.

[hoyawatcher]

We have the rabbis bitching about Beck using Hitler and the holocaust but not complaining about the good Tennessee congressman. And then we have Sharpton claiming total control over the Dr. Martin Luther King memory and blasting the tea party for even thinking about using it.

Why can't we all just get along?

[hoyainspirit]

Jan 27, 2011 19:32:40 GMT -5 rosslynhoya said:

As for McCarthy, our government and particularly the State Department and the Army really were thoroughly penetrated by the Communists. The Venona files proved beyond any doubt that Alger Hiss and all the rest really were on the Soviet Union's payroll. The only thing wrong with McCarthy's tactics is that they were working.

What?