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February 20, 2003
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!
There is nothing new to report on the Ernst Zundel situation
except that he is still in Canada, still in Maximum Security, and that we
are still finalizing the selection of a lead attorney.
Three reports from Canada regarding the revived media
feeding frenzy now that Ernst Zundel is once again in their custody. How
they could do that - throw a man who has asked for asylum in Maximum
Security - is still a mystery to me. And they still expect to be loved?
A Zundelsite scout reports that the Toronto Globe and Mail's
homepage http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030220.wxzund0220/BNStory/National
banners the Zundel story front and centre -- squeezing out
Iraq and Canada's blockbuster-spending budget delivered Tuesday -- with a
pic of Ernst Zundel.
The photo itself is absolutely amazing -- the very opposite
of bland (if I may put it that way). This is truly (to quote EZ) "the
story that won't go away"... What began in 1978, with Concerned Parents
of German Descent, is alive and kicking a quarter of a century later, in
2003.
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The CTV 11 p.m. newscast is the most watched in Canada.
The introduction to the February 19 broadcast checklisted
the main stories at the outset (as usual). Zundel's deportation to Canada
was included in the 4th slot, after a major Iraq-related story and two other
"biggies".
These are the impressions that linger a half hour later:
At about 11:10, just before news anchor Lloyd Robertson
announced the first commercial pause, CTV aired a 15-second promo of the
Zundel segment that, viewers were informed, would be up first after the TV
ads were aired. In the promo, Zundel was called a "hate-monger."
The music accompanying the promo was as dramatic as any high adventure film
score.
The segment that aired at about 11:12 lasted two minutes and
15 seconds. It showed old "classic" news footage of Zundel in
hard-hat and visored army cap, radiating a sense of virile confidence.
Footage of Zundel at sites in the Niagara Peninsula was taken at night and
bathed in a deep amber glow. Zundel was seen to be lifting up his hands in
what-can-I-say? resignation.
There were glimpses of a web page at the Zundelsite and a
clip of an interview with Mark Weber (spelt "Webber" at the bottom
of the screen). Weber was most articulate and expressed outrage, although in
a civil fashion, that Zundel who is married to an American citizen should be
deported from a country where many millions of undocumented aliens reside.
Weber has a pleasant voice and manner; signage below the image of him as he
spoke ID-ed him as a "Zundel supporter."
Other clips featured Prof. Ed Morgan for the Canadian Jewish
Congress and the Immigration Minister, Denis Coderre. The former was
disingenuous in the way he criticized Zundel's reluctance to be returned to
"democratic" Germany. The minister spoke in veiled terms about
those who would exploit our immigration system, etc.
There is no doubt that CTV considers the Zundel deportation
an important and interesting story "with (stove-pipe) legs,"
worthwhile to both chase down and highlight.
The companion-piece to this report was a 40-second segment
informing the viewers the Saskatchewan native elder David Ahenakew's
reinstatement as a senator (he resigned following a speech in December,
wherein he expressed unabashed sympathy for Hitler's anti-Jewish policies)
was denied after some other native elders had voted on it.
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The next letter came from the Canadian Midwest:
I just got back from a shopping mall in Edmonton, Alberta.
They have a three panel 'projected' TV sort of thing hanging on the wall
next to the food court there, which features news headlines, weather, stock
news, etc.
Anyway, they only put a few news headlines on each hour.
Today I walking by and in giant letters the screen read 'Zundel to apply for
refugee status' (or something similar). It has been in all the news up here.
Thought you might find this interesting....
Best wishes and hang in there!
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The final letter comes from a young man who we met some
three, four years ago during a lovely dinner with congenial friends in San
Diego. He was then 14 or 15 years old, and I will never forget his rapt face
as Ernst recounted some of his activism adventure. Now he is a young man.
Here is his take on the story, written a few days ago:
America's News Media:
Not long ago America's news media would defend a man who was
incarcerated for attempting to make free speech a reality. So what has
happened? Ernst Zundel, a defender of freedom and the truth, sits in a cell
at the Batavia Federal Detention Facility in upstate New York, and you,
America's major news media, have done nothing.
Illegally arrested on February 5 for allegedly missing an
INS hearing scheduled for June of 2001, Mr. Zundel is now scheduled to be
deported to Canada at any time. He had been living peacefully in his
Tennessee home for three years, married to a US citizen, always law-abiding,
and ever an honest man; before his unconstitutional arrest a couple weeks
ago.
Millions of illegal immigrants from third-world countries
are allowed to live unmolested in America's cities drawing welfare and
lowering our standard of living; and yet an honest, productive man with no
criminal record is so brutally treated. This is supposed to be America,
"land of the free;" and no man, no matter what his views, should
be treated as Mr. Zundel has.
If you, America's major news media, still believe in the
basic principles on which our country was founded and made great, then you
will stand up and demand justice for this defender of freedom. If you do
nothing then you too are a part of the problem!
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