i?<lP3'Si
Setting down poisonous roots
Editor:
For miuiy yciirs, people have fought to stop Doug Collins from publishing his hatred, but he is still publishing and we are still fighting.
1 believe if Mr. Collins lived in Germany, he would be punished for his "propaganda" masquerading as free speech, (jcrmany, which produced the Holocaust, not only accepts this fact but has apologized for this tragedy, has suflered morally and iintmcially, and pays compensation for their cruelty to the victims of the Second World War. It is funny that Mr. Collins .stubbornly denies it.
I think the press has a special goal — to give knowledge and to enrich people's souls, minds, and spirits, especially to youngsters.
Wrong information, denying historical fact, is not educational. It disorients people and shouldn't be published. I adore freedom of speech but I think it has its limits. To publish some opinion which can harm masses of people breaks the law and is too much.
At first sight free speech looks innocent, but if we look deeper sometimes it isn't innocent but harmful.
Anti-Semitic "propaganda" sets down deep poisonous roots in the mind and can spread. Parents who believe it become bigoted against Jews, can transfer this negative attitude to their children and the hatred can go from generation to generation. This is false information spread under the slogan of "free speech." It is really dangerous. Maybe Mr. Collins has published his opinion for many years exactly for this purpose.
I also couldn't understand how journalist Gerry Deiter, Victoria editor of Congregation Emanu-El's newspaper Koleinu, can say, "I believe [Mr. CoUins] is fully within his rights to vmte what he wishes ..., I join [the B.C. Press Council] in supporting a free and imfet-tered press, independent of bureaucratic review ... .We must tolerate the rantings of people such as Doug Collins." ("No supporter of Collins," Letters, June 13)
So, he thinks we have to tolerate the false teachings at school by Jim Keegstra or the publications of Ernst Zundel as well as Mr. Collins?
No, we can't tolerate all this wrong information and lies, because it creates anti-Semitism and antagonism between ethnic groups instead of promoting unity which is a policy in the constitution of our country.
Dina Golovan Vancouver
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Attacking the advertising
PETER HOTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The recent focus and publicity given to the North Slioiv Newfi and its primary columnist has engendered another unfortunate debate about freedom of speech and racism. It has also, in the process, reinforced the stature of a newspaper delivered free to all households on the North Shore.
I recall a very thin newspaper about 20 years ago, battling for survival and not being taken particularly seriously by anybody. It had some advertising. It had, and still does have, a few columnists, but nobody would have gone out on a limb for the existence of the newspaper. Now, 20 years later, despite a wholesale change in population, this "freebie" has expanded its readership. It is constantly in the public eye, and it is read by the very people its columnists tend to attack.
This certainly has not been enough to keep it going, nor boosted sales. No, the newspaper has been kept going by its advertisers, large and small. It has expanded to carry flyers. On most pages, there is some form of advertising. Indeed, if one looks in the phone book, four separate phone numbers and a fax number exist for advertising. This rivals the Vancouver Sun. Clearly, the pulse and the lifeblood of this freebie rests on advertising. Of course, if nobody bothered to read it, its advertising would be ineffective.
By employing its m^or colvmi-nist, keeping him in the public eye, advertising him on buses, the newspaper has ensured constantly expanding readership. The columnist has presented his attitudes, and people have predictably reacted, keeping the pot boiling, and creating for the newspaper and its columnist a fine forum.
Some 15 years ago, for two years I did a careful content analysis of advertising and kept each column. I watched the newspaper grow. In the course of this, I presented a strategy to get rid of the columnist. It had several key elements, which were not applied because people thought the problem would go away by itself I advised the following strategies be followed:
1. Keep calling mid tolling the circulation oflice to discontinue delivery.
2. Link all the "victim" communities and put ongoing prcjssure on advertisers in escalating fiish-ion. It started with a request. It could escalate to people with black sashes in silent vigil outside relevant stores. Bottom line was to withdraw advertising until the columnist was fired. The newspaper was not big enough to choose the columnist over its advertisers.
3. Ignore the newspaper for all events. Ignore the columnist and, above all, avoid debate. The issues were not debatable and, by avoiding debate, so-called "controversy" would not occur.
This was perhaps the worst setback. One week after presenting the strategy, to my amazement, two people got into a huge debate with the columnist, who put them down, made idiots out of them and turned them into objects of mirth. Shortly afterwards, y^ith this simmering, pictures of a congregant blowing a shofar appeared with an article explaining the High Holy Days. This served to perfectly reinforce the image of a fine community newspaper covering everything in the commimity, with a controversial columnist to boot. The newspaper has never looked back.
Things have now reached the point where tribunals are sitting to investigate complaints. They have sat before. Now "free speech" is the issue. What nonsense. The coliunnist has become a martyr on the pyre of free speech—spare me, I cannot take
this seriously. However, it shows how the jxwr litUo pa[X'i- and iXK)r misunderstood colunmist have been harmed by the big, bad terror of Judaism — the bullies of the world, so to sjx^ak. And in addition, just through this, the columnist and his paper achieve renewed credibility.
To date, David Radler of Southam has correctly come out and said the newspaper is dependent upon advertising. Well, thank you and hollo!
There needs to be a concerted, co-ordinated approach in place, based on clear application of the following methods: 1. Determining the problem: the home delivery advertising paper is wholly dependent on advertising and "controversial" articles by its primary columnist whose views are distasteful.
2. Any acknowledgment of the columnist reinforces his views as legitimate. Let him argue with himself and let the silence be deafening. Ignoring is essential.
3. Undertake an auiily-sis of each advertiser, and list them in alphabetical order.
4. Put together a group of people who are prepared to visit advertisers on an ongoing basis. Ask them to dtMiiand
removal of the columnist ior their advertising dollars. This needs constant following up. The first cut-off'point is a 10-per cent drop in advertising, the goal is 25 per cent. Ongoing analysis of the advertising will reveal the figure.
5. Get as many people as possible to demand that the paper not be delivered. Follow up with letters demanding that the paper be withdrawn. Initiate a campaign to boycott the paper in this way, but do not write letters explaining why.
6. "Conscientize" as many people as possible to play a role in the campaign. This is real community action to remove a distasteful set of opinions from the print media. □
feliBtHotZ is a clinical psychologist practising in Vancouver.
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