8/7/10: HuffPost again devalues the Holocaust (Part 2)

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Continued from Part 1: 8/7/10: HuffPost again devalues the Holocaust: Writer stereotypes Jews, insinuates gay marriage opponents are Nazis

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Is this the first time HuffPost has made such a hideously bad decision regarding editorial writers and Jewish affairs? Uh, no.

Here are four examples of editorial decisions HuffPost has made in the past that reflect its willingness to tolerate that for which it claims it has no tolerance:

Holocaust refugees = militant Islamists? Apparently to HuffPost, YES.

On June 7, 2010, HuffPost disguised another editorial screed as a "news" article --- this time, from a well-known anti-Israel propagandist --- who compared the terrorists who ambushed the IDF on the "Flotilla of Terror" to... Holocaust survivors. Excerpt:

ON THE high seas, outside territorial waters, the ship was stopped by the navy. The commandos stormed it. Hundreds of people on the deck resisted, the soldiers used force. Some of the passengers were killed, scores injured. The ship was brought into harbor, the passengers were taken off by force. The world saw them walking on the quay, men and women, young and old, all of them worn out, one after another, each being marched between two soldiers...

The ship was called "Exodus 1947". It left France in the hope of breaking the British blockade, which was imposed to prevent ships loaded with Holocaust survivors from reaching the shores of Palestine. If it had been allowed to reach the country, the illegal immigrants would have come ashore and the British would have sent them to detention camps in Cyprus, as they had done before. Nobody would have taken any notice of the episode for more than two days.

HuffPo Writer: At Least Hitler Meant Well (Via Little Green Footballs)

At the Huffington Post, your one-stop shop for leftist vitriol and deranged hatred, former Washington Post sportswriter and Seinfeld co-producer Peter Mehlman says the Bush administration is far worse than the world’s worst fascist dictators. At least the dictators meant well.

So now we’re six and a half years into Bush and everyone from Helen Thomas on down is declaring him the worst president ever. What no one is saying is the one overarching reason he’s the worst: the Bush administration is the first that doesn’t even mean well. [...]

You could argue that even the world’s worst fascist dictators at least meant well. They honestly thought were doing good things for their countries by suppressing blacks/eliminating Jews/eradicating free enterprise/repressing individual thought/killing off rivals/invading neighbors, etc.

Oh, and by the way --- HuffPost has allowed Mehlman to remain one of its official bloggers .

HuffPost blogger depicts Sen. Lieberman in blackface

On August 2, 2006, in the leadup to the mid-term elections, HuffPost published an article by one of its official resident bloggers, Jane Hamsher, entitled:

“On the Ground with Lamont/Lieberman”

HuffPost also decided to publish the picture that Hamsher included of Sen. Lieberman --- in blackface:

(If you're unfamiliar with the incredible racist insult that "blackface" represents, learn more here)

Oh, and by the way --- HuffPost has allowed Hamsher to remain one of its official bloggers.

Official HuffPost blogger Roseanne Barr dresses up as Hitler, puts "Jews" in oven

On July 30, 2009, in addition to many other conservative blogs, NewsBusters revealed excerpts of a recent photoshoot that HuffPost blogger (and notorious anti-Israel propagandist) Roseanne Barr did with "Heeb" magazine --- in which she dressed up as Hitler, and eats burnt "Jew people cookies" out of an oven:

Oh, and by the way --- HuffPost has allowed Barr to remain one of its official bloggers

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Conclusion: This incident goes way beyond irresponsibility --- and in the context of all preceding ones, dances on the line of anti-Semitism

In Beyond chutzpah: Arianna Huffington objects to PolitiFact claiming she tells "half-truths," HUFF-WATCH exposed why Arianna Huffington's recent meltdown over the "fact-checking" she requested of her statements on ABC's "This Week" backfired on her. Specifically, we documented the fact rather than merely stating "half-truths," as PolitiFact alleged, HuffPost has a long history of publishing outright falsehoods and egregiously misleading statements in its headlines.
But even that expose' doesn't quite cover how deceptive, how untruthful, and how offensive "Rabbi" Michael Lerner's screed actually is.

No one --- except the radical Islamists that HuffPost habitually protects and shills for --- is advocating throwing gays (and Jews) into furnaces, as was done in Nazi Germany.

No one --- except the most extreme religious minorities --- is advocating persecuting gays, or denying them their Constitutional rights.

For HuffPost to not only decide to publish such such an inflammatory allegation, but to disguise it as a "news" item, and position it so prominently on its front page, reeks of something awful.

Is it anti-Semitism, though?

If this were an isolated incident, probably not. But given HuffPost's long history of applying an anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bias to its "news" coverage and comment moderation, and of inciting and tolerating anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hatred, we find it difficult to attribute its actions in this regard as anything but a murky extension of its pathological war against Jews. See:

The Stimulus And The (Approved) Response: Anti-Semitism and Israel-Hatred on Huffington Post

Archive of anti-Israel, ant-Semitic bias, libels and hate at HuffPost

What's especially disturbing about this particular episode, though, is the fact that HuffPost enabled a man who calls himself a "rabbi" to prove the validity of Godwin's Law.


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Why this is so important; how to make your voice known to HuffPost

This all would not be so troubling if it weren't for the fact that HuffPost is now the #1 most-read blog in the world, and a top ten U.S. "news" site. Which has access to presidential news conferences --- and in at least one instance, was given preferential treatment. All of which it has achieved, at least in part, because of its repeated claims that it is a “nonpartisan” source of "news," that seeks “to debunk the left-right way of thinking,” and “to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned.”

Regardless of one's feelings on its qualities or deficiencies, HuffPost is clearly having an impact on public perceptions of important issues --- and it is now making a major push to increase its readership outside the US.

If you're as concerned as we are about HuffPost's blatant, pathological anti-Israel bias, and would like to make your voice known to its management (politely, please), here's how.

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