BPR| Dennis Prager >
If decent people working in mainstream American media want to know why many Americans do not trust them and are willing to use the term “fake news” to describe the mainstream media, I offer one of the most glaring examples of a lie in my lifetime.
Last week, Newsweek headlined the following: “Conservative Radio Host Ridicules Anne Frank: ‘I Don’t Get My Wisdom From Teenagers.’”
Now, imagine how that must have struck any reader not familiar with the “conservative radio host” or with what he actually said. “Ridicule Anne Frank” — what kind of terrible human being would do that?
Well, it turns out the “conservative radio host” was me. Yes, me — a religious Jew who has devoted much of his life to the welfare of the Jewish people, served on the board of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, made the most widely viewed pro-Israel video in the world, written a book on anti-Semitism that is in its third printing, and founded a synagogue and a Jewish day school.
To understand how terrible a lie this is, you need to know what happened: Every week I do a video podcast for PragerU called “The Fireside Chat.” In it, I offer thoughts on life and then take questions from around the world (we have received questions from 52 countries). A few weeks ago, I received the following question from Sam in Meridian, Idaho: “On your most recent Fireside Chat, you said that people are not basically good. We’ve heard you discuss this topic before. Anne Frank is quoted as saying, ‘Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.’ How do you respond to her quote?”
Here is my response (this is a word-for-word transcription, except for the words in parentheses added for clarity): “She wrote that in her diary, the most famous Holocaust document. (She was) a teenage girl, a Dutch Jewish girl, who hid with her family until they were betrayed by someone to the Nazis, who then shipped them to death camps. And she died, murdered by the Nazis in the death camps. She was about 16 years old, maybe 15. Her diary is very famous. It gives a face to the horror of the Holocaust.
“I know she wrote that, and my answer is it doesn’t matter that she wrote it. I don’t get my wisdom from teenagers. That she was a wonderful young woman and wrote an unbelievably powerful document that will last forever is beside the point. I don’t expect 16-year-olds, unless they grew up in a religious Jewish or Christian home (where it is taught as basic religious doctrine that people are not born basically good). She was a secular Jew. Most kids believe that (people are basically good). But it is not true. So, it has never been an issue for me — ‘Well, you disagree with Anne Frank.’ So what?
“And, by the way, to be very serious for a moment, I would be very curious — I’ve thought about this a lot — if I were to be able to visit Anne Frank while in a concentration camp, would she have still believed that? We don’t know.”
Only someone who deliberately seeks to smear someone would claim that what I said ridicules Anne Frank. read more
Evergreen headline.
Newsweek is not a legitimate periodical, nor has it been for a couple of decades. It is owned by a Democrat and exists only because people give it credence due to its history. Its editors take advantage of that to foist unsubstantiated, rhetorical claims. I would consider reading an article from, say HuffPost or CNN as they occasionally stick to the news or entertainment, but I would never bother with Newsweak as their only intent is political.
When I was a child, I thought as a child. Not raised in an overtly religious home, I genuinely, sincerely believed that people are basically good…not much in my sheltered, limited existence suggested otherwise,
and the ones that did I dismissed as exceptions. I was naive; so naive that it wasn’t until I was in the USN that I really began to learn what the reality was about human nature, and that there is a majority of wicked ones who knowingly do even tiny evils, but still evils, for fun.
Anne Frank came by it honestly but had she survived I bet her view of human nature would have been radically different. Sweatshop children in China and India, bacha bazi boys and P.I. girl prostitutes probably don’t assume people are good by nature because they’ve seen the truth.
We’re not.
When I was a child, I thought as a child. Not raised in an overtly religious home, I genuinely, sincerely believed that people are basically good…not much in my sheltered, limited existence suggested otherwise,
and the ones that did I dismissed as exceptions. I was naive; so naive that it wasn’t until I was in the USN that I really began to learn what the reality was about human nature, and that there’s a majority of wicked ones who knowingly do even tiny evils (but still evils) for fun.
Anne Frank came by it honestly but had she survived I bet her view of human nature would have been starkly different. Sweatshop children in China and India, bacha bazi boys, P.I. girl prostitutes, they probably don’t assume people are basically good. They’ve seen the truth…we’re not. Not one of us.
Perhaps we are all to take our facts, opinions and attitudes from Greta Thunberg, Justin Bieber, Molly Cyrus, etal when they were young and all correct about everything.
Unfortunately the question of human nature is a very important one pertaining to human rights and wrongs and going after Prager on this is definitely a wrong.
Yesterday, my local paper picked up a long article tying the Australian fires to global warming.
Not one mention about the deliberate setting of those fires by a Muslim extremist.
Fake news.
After reading the transcript and looking at the headline penned by the Newsweek authors it strikes me that there is a case for some legal action. I think that a common person would look at what is a deliberately misleading headline and come away with a terribly incorrect conclusion about Prager. Isn’t that the grounds for either slander or libel (I always mix the two up).
On another note I used to like Newsweek in the late 70’s, 80’s and very early 90’s. It’s always has been a little left but usually not insane. The “Periscope” feature was always a fun read.
This will make the value of their magazine go down to fifty cents.
Newsweek, Time, NYT, CNN, etc. are all cancers on the body of America.
They should have been zapped decades ago.