Newsgroups: soc.college Subject: CODOH's paid advertisements: Michigan State (1/4) Summary: Letters to the editor address CODOH's advertisement regarding the Holocaust Memorial museum in Washington, D.C. Followup-To: alt.revisionism Distribution: world Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac Keywords: CODOH Archive/File: orgs/american/codoh/university.response msu.001 Last-Modified: 1993/10/24 _The State News_ of Michigan State University Wednesday, October 20, 1993 ADVERTISEMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED, PUBLISHED editorial by Donald Gochberg, Professor of English It is unfortunate that you printed a prominent advertisement in The State News on Oct. 15. ["A Revisionist's View of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C." by the Committe for Open Debate On the Holocaust - CODOH] Was anyone on your news and opinion staff aware of the malicious lie printed in the ad? It seeks to cast doubt on the very historical existence of one of the great tragidies of modern Western civilization. Under the rather transparent veil of promoting "a free exchange of ideas about the Holocaust story," it insinuates a conspiracy of "academic bureaucrats, career-driven professors and an opulent Holocaust Lobby" who wish to keep the truth hidden. Now, since the Holocaust is one of the most well-documented disasters in history with many thousands of witnesses and survivors, endless paper documentation (including trial transcripts) and film records from all sides in the European sector of World War II, we can only assume the sponsors of such an ad are either lunatics or international spreaders of malicious falsehoods for their own purposes. Please understand, I believe in free and open discussion of all public issues--even, for example, on such sensitive and difficult topics as the current debates on abortion. You have no obligation, however, to accept an advertisement for that which is knowingly false and malicious. Let me give you an analogous example. Would you accept an ad which stated that the very historical existence of racial slavery in this country was open to "a free exchange of ideas" and that a conspiracy existed to prevent that "free exchange" made up of "academic bureaucrats, career-driven professors and an opulent Civil Rights lobby" who wished only to promote their own affirmative action programs and did not wish the truth to be know about the fact that slavery may never have existed here? The ad would conclude, as this one did, with an appeal for funds so that further "open debate" about the existence of slavery could be continued. I suspect you would reject the ad, laughing it away as a ridiculous and obviously malicious falsehood. In what way is last Friday's ad about the "Holocaust story" different in kind? Followups directed to alt.revisionism.
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