I’m sorry that I have been slow about sending out this information, this advertisement was in the newspaper last sunday. Please look into your local newspapers and sources to see if this blatant hate speech was also included in your area. And also feel free to contact the journal sentinel (milwaukee’s newspaper) and let them know that this unacceptable and disappointing that the choice that was made to include this dvd was made.
thank you.
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From another blog:
Sept 14, 2008 should most certainly be heralded as the day the term “Liberal Media” was finally exposed for the fiction from which it was coined.
Yesterday (last Sun) millions of copies of a propaganda video were distributed in 75 newspapers across all the swing states… including the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and?papers in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Nevada! ?
Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West is a hate-film touted as a documentary. Produced in Israel by a right-wing group, and funded by, the Swiftboat-like 501.c3, Clarion Fund, it played on FOX and CNN television during the run-up to the 2006 elections.? The film repeatedly uses false information, graphic images, deceptive quotes and film clips to demonize Muslims and misinform viewers into rethinking history.
By twisting the truth through flashy special effects and select pieces of film footage, this newspaper insert and DVD seeks to radicalize the west against a muslim threat it falsely portrays as being an assault on freedom. It repeatedly plays quotes of a muslim taking control of the white house, shows children being taught to hate the west and clips of Nazi Germany to link any and every violent act on earth to some Muslim world-domination Jihad fantasy while the west and Israel are simply poor innocent victims.
This propaganda is the latest vile and coercive stunt pulled by the right and its media partners. This ready-to-eat propaganda reached millions of readers nation-wide. They controlled the entire message without anyone being able to respond, review or refute the lies, deception and misinformation.? Some newspapers who’ve already been inundated by angry subscribers have responded that the inclusion of paid advertisements with samples are not new. ?
But as one subscriber noted, “A box of cereal? Toothpaste? Does a box of cereal or a tube of toothpaste encourage me to look with hatred and suspicion on my law abiding neighbors who have a different religion than mine? Does cereal and toothpaste lead to pogroms, religious harassment, fear and intimidation? The trailer for this video is about hate, pure and simple, and shows the video has only one goal — to instill fear and hatred of neighbor against neighbor.”
Touting ridiculous “awards” from right-wing film festivals like the Liberty Film Festival, this slick piece of Israeli propaganda stops at nothing to use the very techniques its sites as the “ways radical Islam and Nazi Germany” fooled their countrymen.? It even goes so far as to co-opt several historic quotes by people who spoke against the very schemes and techniques THEY are using… to rally support.
People, you should be outraged. This is a blatant propaganda piece sponsored by a foreign nation, used to coerce the voters of the US to throw another Presidential election. Please write or call your local or national paper and express your outrage for their standards. ?
JournalSentinel?414-224-2919 ? ?jsmetro@journalsentinel.com
People, if we tolerate this violation of our trust, we’ve truly lost our democracy.
http://wingnutprophet.blogspot.com/2008/09/obsession-war-on-us-media.html
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From an e-mail I received:
Hello,
As we announced at our last meeting the Milwaukee Journal allowed a propagandist group to insert a DVD in the MJS. This DVD called “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West”, includes interviews with many of the anti-Muslim people you might already be familiar with: Daniel Pipes, Walid Shoebat, Nonie Darwish and others. Every single subscriber to the Journal Sentinel received a DVD copy with their newspaper. Throughout the United States, over 28 million copies are being distributed.
Although the documentary is allegedly meant to expose the “threat of Radical Islam to Western Civilization”, the objective is to demonize and denigrate Islam and Muslims. I am also attaching the response that I received from the Journal.
below is information on who and where to submit editorials.
Thanks.
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 3:03 PM
Subject: RE: Obsession DVD
We will be running a column critical of the DVD on the Perspectives Page this week even though the DVD is a political advertisement. The Journal Sentinel editorial pages have constantly disagreed with the views in the DVD. You may remember the controversy over the Danish cartoons of Mohammed. We chose not to run the cartoons despite the pleas of many readers and the talk radio show hosts in Milwaukee who said we were too sensitive to Muslims and that we run hateful cartoons toward Christians.
According to Editor & Publisher magazine “the DVD was shown on Fox News just before the 2006 mid-term elections, and conservative activist David Horowitz screened the film on college campuses during 2007. An article at the group’s site, www.radicalislam.org, all but endorsed John McCain this past week, then was pulled down. The DVD carries on-screen text near the outset that it is not indicting most Muslims.”
As editor of the Journal Sentinel I do not control the advertising department. Just as the advertising department has no say over the news and editorial content of the newspaper.
However, I would not disagree with the New York Times spokeswoman, who said in response to the DVD’s inclusion in the New York Times:
“We believe the broad principles of freedom of the press confer on us an obligation to keep our advertising columns as open as possible. Therefore our acceptance or rejection of an advertisement does not depend on whether it coincides with our editorial positions. In fact, there are many instances when we have published opinion advertisements that run counter to the stance we take on our own editorial pages.
“We do require that opinion advertisements include the name of the sponsoring organization and a mailing address or a telephone number. This enables our readers to communicate directly with the sponsor should they seek additional information or wish to express agreement or disagreement with the advertised message. This advertisement complied with these requirements. The address on the advertisement was The Clarion Fund, 255 West 36th Street Suite 800 New York, NY 10018.”
Sincerely,
Editor
Following My Feet 