Tech News should apologize for ad
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by Peter H. Hansen
Associate Professor of History |
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I was concerned to see advertisements for CODOH, a group well-known for its views denying the Holocaust, in recent issues of Tech News. As a historian who has taught the history of the Holocaust on campus, I think it is important that the WPI community be aware of the nature of these advertisements.
The advertisement in Tech News is part of a national campaign by Bradley R. Smith, a well-known Holocaust denier, to distort the history of the Holocaust by targeting the naive and ignorant editors of college newspapers such as Tech News. The ads send readers to a web site that, according to the Anti-Defamation League, "provides a massive library of Holocaust denial and blatantly anti-Semitic materials. From this site, an internet surfer can link into a grand tour of the hate movement."
The historical evidence regarding the Holocaust is voluminous. Historians vigorously debate why the Holocaust occurred. But on one issue there is apparent unanimity: no serious historian questions that the Nazi state systematically killed millions of Jews, Gypsies, and others. Should anyone on campus wish to learn more about the Holocaust, they might enroll in the course on Europe since World War I, or read Thinking the Unthinkable: Meanings of the Holocaust, edited by Roger Gottlieb, Professor of Philosophy at WPI, or many other works.
The principled rejection of the propaganda of Holocaust deniers is consistent with standards of academic freedom and the First Amendment. The right to freedom of expression protects the right of Holocaust deniers to promote their views on a website in the United States. But a newspaper is under no obligation to disseminate such views in an advertisement. Indeed, most news media rightly refuse to publish ads from CODOH and similar groups. The New York Times, for example, will not publish advertisements that deny recognized historical crimes, such as the Holocaust.
On many college campuses, editors have rejected such advertisements to practice responsible journalism. At yet other campuses, newspapers have published an ad from CODOH on a single occasion, but they also make clear at the same time that they are in no way associated with the views expressed in the ad, and these papers have furthermore donated the fees paid by the advertiser to a charity.
To publish this advertisement once without knowing what was in it, Tech News might appear naive, or perhaps ignorant of the issues at stake. To publish the advertisement repeatedly and without editorial comment, as Tech News has done, is irresponsible, and exposes the paper to more serious allegations.
Tech News owes its readers an explanation and an apology.
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