On The 'Zionist Conspiracy'

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Media Issues

(AP)

Over at Newsbusters, Tim Graham has used David Duke's recent appearance on CNN to make a point. (Here's the video of the appearance, which I can't recommend enough.) Writes Graham: "Conservatives have often been outraged that liberals would suggest Duke was one of them, when he always appears in the liberal media, and not on conservative talk radio." Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana state representative, recently appeared at a "two-day gathering of Holocaust deniers and white supremacists" in Tehran.

Graham is somewhat overreaching by tying his point to the Blitzer interview, as CNN did not link Duke to Republicans, opting instead to focus largely on his KKK past. But there are legitimate questions to be asked about news organizations propping up polarizing extremists who could be seen to represent people far more in the mainstream. Graham has given us an example from the right, so here's one from the left: Ward Churchill, an obscure, far-left University of Colorado professor who, as I noted in May of last year, was covered 25 times in a four-month period on "The O'Reilly Factor."

Neither Ward Churchill or David Duke can be said to represent anyone other than themselves and a small, fringe group of people of negligible importance. The question for news outlets is to what degree these people should be given a platform. They undeniably make for good television, which is why even folks like Fred Phelps get on the air. But they do not articulate views that represent the views of more than a small sliver of Americans. There's no question that it's important to pay attention to extremists if their ranks start growing or if there are other reasons we need to take them seriously. (It's important to cover people like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for example, because of their political power.) But it's hard to see a justification for grabbing the loudest wacko from off the street corner and putting him in front of a camera.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
Follow on Twitter »

4 Comments Have Your Say
Email Story Send to a Friend
Share This Tell Your Friends
Tweet This Tweet This
More Share It

Add a Comment


by selfmadein76-2009 December 17, 2006 2:02 AM EST: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfB5-J9BkAQ; Reply to this comment


by bmidji December 15, 2006 10:27 PM EST: And Brian, I didn't swear in my message, I used the D-word that can also mean "to fix holes in your socks." Tg; Reply to this comment


by bmidji December 15, 2006 10:26 PM EST: Brian, thanks for the item. I should state that as a middle-aged media critic, I certainly didn't mean to imply that reporters were still attaching Duke to the 1988 Bush campaign as they did so often at that time. But Wolf Blitzer never quite got through on how Duke in Tehran is not simply denying the Holocaust, but traveling to a country that's traditionally been opposed to America and offering them his endorsement of their crazed Islamic theories about Jews.

That said, Ward Churchill is a pretty *** good counter-example for Duke, and Fox is a pretty good counter-example to CNN. Except Duke was much more prevalent on the broadcast networks back in his heyday, while Churchill was a one-day story (if that) on the broadcast network news. I believe ABC skipped him entirely.

Tim G.; Reply to this comment


by one_american December 15, 2006 9:30 PM EST: What is truly amazing is the stereo-effect you hear when listening to David Duke and Jimmy Carter. It's like they're sharing the same mind. I'm suprised that Carter wasn't at the Conference in Tehran.

It's a sobering note that Carter was once our President!; Reply to this comment