While the Zundelsite still struggled to take a few wobbly steps into cyberspace and I predicted that there would be massive media attention to what we were saying and posting, one of the Nizkor fellows opined something to the effect that media attention for our pains would be exactly zippo. Well, here we are - less than a year later. It is no exaggeration to say that, since we started, we have had more than a hundred media write-ups and probably several dozen that were syndicate releases which spun around the world and were copied by who-knows-how-many other media outlets. The Zundelsite has been officially attacked twice by the German Government and now by Canada. We have had so much media attention to what we are doing and saying I don't even always bother any more to send copies to Ernst unless it is a media request for yet another interview. Jurgen Rieger, Ernst's long-time German lawyer, who has defended him ably in the past, wrote a scathing critique of the action of the German censors for each of the eight essays banned by the German government, and pointed out in each case that no adequate reason had been given for their decision. Worse yet, the Bonn stooges had no legal right or even jurisdiction to do what they have done. Ernst commented: "I have never seen such a text sent to an official body in repression- and censorship-happy Germany!" Rieger did that for the record because we want to leave a paper trail to show in later actions before various human rights bodies that, in Germany, there is no justice for other people when it concerns the Holocaust and Jews. Ernst wrote:
"It is perverse! Just think about it for a moment - for twelve years, under the Hitler regime, the Jews couldn't do anything right, we are told. For the last fifty years, under the allegedly 'democratic' regime, the Jews cannot do anything wrong - as we can see every day! Dr. Faurisson, the world's leading Revisionist scholar, said it beautifully: 'It seems the Germans have gone from National Socialism to National Masochism!' Sad but true! Just to give you a feel for the coverage the Zundelsite is getting, I am quoting from the November Power Letter out of the Zundel-Haus: Australia's S.B.S. ethnic TV re-broadcast a detailed and well-produced Canadian television documentary, where the Zundel global media outreach program was prominently featured. Although poisonous in its tone in some areas, it was a gripping, fast-paced, well-made, informative and entertaining piece. Millions of Australians and Canadians have already seen this film. The film was also played already in the USA. We have won many new adherents through it. Dr. Fredrick Toben, who has his own website in Australia ( http://www.adam.com.au/~fredadin/adins.html ) and publishes a newsletter called The Adelaide Report, had this to say: 'I stand in awe of Ernst and his enterprise.' German television, too, brought an almost half-hour special report on 'Nazis on the Internet', which featured the Zundelsite and its revisionist, and thus in repressive Germany illegal, content. The media, according to German media monitors, normally so cocksure and arrogant in their demonization of 'Nazis', seemed pretty tame, helpless and downcast this time. In fact, the Chief of the 'Constitutional Police' of South Germany - straight out of 'Animal Farm' and '1984'! - one of the many political police forces in Germany, yammered almost resignedly that '. . . the Nazis and Revisionists are technically so well versed and equipped that we (the police) are always several paces behind.' Even a few years ago, the police were always self-assuredness personified in interviews. They thought that they had that 'nasty Nazi problem' - i. e., the Revisionist problem - licked. And no wonder - what with laws guaranteeing five years' imprisonment for questioning the Jewish/Allied version of the 'Holocaust', and after all the seizures of books, the burning of entire editions, the smashing of printing presses, seizing of computers and thousands of raids on private homes and hundreds of court cases! Well, obviously not! Germany's largest news magazine, Der Spiegel, with over 5 million readers, reported about the German language 'Voice of Freedom' radio program beamed by us from Russia into Germany and Europe, reporting in the customary nasty fashion of Der Spiegel, got our message one more time before millions of readers in Germany. So, even though the Russians canceled our program quickly, we made two one-hour Europe-wide, Revisionist radio broadcasts and got extra mileage out of the story in the print media - all that without having paid a dime, so to speak! That made my frugal Swabian heart just jump! Other print media in Germany (as well as in France) covered our Internet work. One paper called 'Trans-Media' published two photographs showing the whole web page with the Zundel logo in the center and another photo showing Fred Leuchter's photo and the full title of the forbidden 'Leuchter Report' above a big, fat, bold headline saying 'The Internet - A Trauma for the Politicians'. The German vassals fear that material on the Zundelsite like the Devil fears the holy water! They, too, lamented about all that Revisionist stuff reaching especially those young, computer literate, intelligent Germans - but the word of the Leuchter Report, one of our most frequently visited and downloaded documents, being available, got out to thousands more! This is a feature the Zundelsite webmaster in California has noticed for some time - just how much subtle, covert support there is in mainstream media. Reporters may pretend they do not like us and disapprove of what we do and say, but then they slip in little cues and hints of where to find us, such as '. . . of course, censorship does little good, because Zündel is listed in the Toronto telephone book . . . ' or '. . . the Zundelsite can be found by merely typing in the word Zundel in various search engines.' Doing so brings up not only the Zundelsite but many websites that link to the Zundelsite or have documents that mirror those on the Zundelsite. We see (reporters doing) this in many media write-ups and broadcasts, even in wire releases such as are sent from the Associated Press. C.T., a large, slick, well-produced computer magazine with Germany's largest circulation, finally produced a piece about the legal situation and legal implications for websites with a dissident, revisionist, radical, or politically incorrect viewpoint. The article was also illustrated with color photos, and it was, all in all, a helpful and thoughtful piece. I had given their 'Rechtsexperte', their legal expert, a long interview. He was respectful, neutral, and kept his promise that he would submit to me a print-out before they would go to print. He kept his word - rare in media circles. I learned some interesting legal points from him about German law regarding the media, content etc. Finally, the Western Jewish Bulletin - a large and well-connected Jewish regional paper in Western Canada covered the Anti-Racist-Action demonstration outside my house in a pretty balanced piece. Gil Kezwar, the reporter, even used some of our Samisdat Publishers photos to illustrate the ARA demonstration. Obviously, he did not have the courage, or enough pull with the Bulletin, to give us the photo credit he had promised. Oh, well. Consider the source. In America and Canada, the long awaited, thick, profusely illustrated coffee table picture book about '24 Hours in Cyberspace' is on sale in virtually every bookstore. It includes a CD ROM explaining what happened during those stormy days last February when there was a virtual cyberwar going on and we were smack in the middle of the controversy because the Wiesenthalers and the German government, furious because of our Revisionist content on our website, tried to ban our website or get it shut down. An electronic shoot-out! Well, it backfired. Badly! For them! All that is now forever cyber-history. One Jewish cyber journalist has summarized it well what is happening to the dissident voice on the Net: "In the early days of the Internet, Usenet discussion groups were the realm of the white nationalist movement. Specifically, four newsgroups - alt.politics.nationalism.white, alt.politics.white-power, alt.skinheads, and alt.revisionism (the last dedicated to Holocaust denial) - have been the stomping grounds for racist activists . . . Not only are these individuals and groups able to present their point of view unquestioned, but they are finally able to reach millions of people at a very low cost. . . . (they) produce snappier Web pages, which show America that they can be intelligent people with arguable points of view, and not inbred rednecks just looking for scapegoats. . . . The days of leafleting cars in parking lots and printing newspapers for subscribers are clearly over.'"
(end of excerpt) When I wrote to this Jewish journalist and asked for permission to use his name while quoting him, he refused, saying that I would distort his general viewpoint - which was that, despite our efforts, our influence was minimal. Well, that is his considerate opinion. My considerate opinion is that just the opposite is true. Ingrid
Thought for the Day :) "Admitting error Clears the score And makes you wiser Than before." (Arthur Guiterman)