| Canada's huge National Post newspaper has embarked on an attack
of Jewish philosophy professor Michael Neumann, seeking to have him
fired. (Here's his response to the National
Post). The cited reason is Neumann's email exchange with this
web site.
Why is this obscure email exchange by the Jewish Tribal Review
with professor Michael Neumann so very newsworthy? National
news in Canada! The ironies within the current National
Post /Michael Neumann controvesy are quite amazing.
The issue of Mr. Neumann's personal ethics is not central in all
this. Far more importantly, and which the National Post attack
on Neumann underscores, is broader "Jewish" ethics (particularly
with regard to racist Israel) and the issue of contention The Jewish
Tribal Review originally had with Mr. Neumann from the very start:
Judeocentric Jewish power and influence in popular culture.
Neumann denys its extraordinary importance in shaping modern culture
and seeks to lay blame for a range of problems elsewhere.
And here he is, dangling at the mercy of this quite astounding power that
he claims doesn't even exist! A power which he STILL CAN'T NAME explicitly,
for fear of getting into even deeper trouble. Michael Neumann:
victim of a phantom.
The deciding factor in our decision to post the Neumann's email
exchanges at this web site was, in fact, his dismissal of our position
and others: that Jewish/Zionist influence has taken way too much hold
in popular culture. After our exchanges, he even decided to publish an
article
at the online "leftist" journal Counterpunch to denigrate
the legitimacy of a critical investigation of Jewish power. We responded
to his article, here. Counterpunch would
not publish this rebuttal.
Mr. Neumann now finds himself in a dilemma which centers around
that what he denies: the vast reach of the Jewish lobbying and propaganda
groups. That which he declares does not exist has come to silence the
Jewish dissenter against the Jewish Collective.
Mr. Neumann is indeed Jewish. But that doesn't protect him from
"Jewish power" and the long arm of Jewish censorial punishment.
Neumann is -- at least on the point of Israel -- a renegade to Jewish
convention. Even a Jew can be accused of "antisemitism!" This
is in Jewish tradition the Jewish heretic: the "self-hating"
Jew.
So why does Mr. Neumann suddenly find himself in so much trouble?
Because a Jewish reporter, Jonathan Kay,
at Canada's National Post decided that it was newsworthy to attack
Neumann's reasonable position about racist Israel. And apparently
it is very useful to impugn Neumann with his email exchange with
the Jewish Tribal Review.
Now, what IS the National Post? Who controls it? And why would
it have such a special interest in attacking a poor Jewish professor of
philosophy?
Anyone say "Jewish power?" The man who controls the National
Post, Israel Asper, owns the media conglommerate CanWest
Global. He seems like a caricature of a man who single-handedly wants
to prove as fact the much disreputed Protocols of the Elders of Zion,
the Russian-based "forgery" that claimed that Jews wanted to
take over the world.
How so?
Israel Asper has been slowly gobbling up much of the Canadian print
media (and other media). He caused enormous outrage in Canadian journalist
circles in 2001. He was condemned everywhere for his censorial dictates
to the editorial pages of all his newspapers, particularly regarding Israel.
Before we get to the evidence (citations below) about Asper,
what is the world view of Mr. Asper? Asper still pays
homage to a form of Zionism that has been called -- quite literally,
even by fellow Jews -- fascistic. (Also, here's some more background
to Mr. Asper and to profound Jewish influence in the CANADIAN
mass media network, generally).
Now, the indicting evidence:
Canada:
CanWest 'muzzles' staff. Corporate Censorship. CanWest-owned papers across
Canada have pulled and censored not only any articles which criticise
the corporation, but also those that simply fail to toe its line, the
principal tenets of which are support for Israel and for the government
of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien,
Index on Censorship, April 2002
"Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) published
a report on 15 April giving a balanced but firm view of the controversy
surrounding allegations of corporate censorship in the CanWest Global
media conglomerate. The report made it clear that 'freedom of expression
includes the right of proprietors of news organisations to publish what
they want in the media they own', but condemned CanWest for trying
to 'muzzle its employees'. Since absorbing Hollinger, in the largest
media take-over deal in Canadian history, the corporation, run by the
Asper family, owns over 130 newspapers in Canada, including 14
major metropolitan dailies and a 50% stake in one of the country's largest
national papers, the National Post. CanWest Global also
has a television network in Canada and media interests in Ireland, Australia
and New Zealand. CanWest-owned papers across Canada have pulled
and censored not only any articles which criticise the corporation, but
also those that simply fail to toe its line, the principal tenets of which
are support for Israel and for the government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
CanWest's contempt for editorial independence was formally expressed
in December 2001, when it introduced a policy of imposing three centrally-produced
editorials a week on all its major publications, through its subsidiary,
Southam newspapers ...In January, Halifax Daily News columnist
Stephen Kimber resigned (after fifteen years on the paper) when his column
criticising CanWest was spiked. Two colleagues followed suit after
they were not permitted to report on the resignation. Bill Marsden, an
investigative reporter for the Montreal Gazette, has been monitoring
CanWest's interference and directives: 'They do not want to see
any criticism of Israel. We do not run in our newspaper op-ed pieces that
express criticism of Israel and what it is doing in the Middle East. We
even had an incident where a fellow, a professor wrote an op-ed piece
for us criticising the anti-terrorism law and elements of civil rights.
Now that professor happens to be a Muslim and happens to have an Arab
name. We got a call from headquarters demanding to know why we had printed
this.' Various international Press organisation have condemned CanWest's
behaviour. According to Robert Cribb, president of the Canadian Association
of Journalists, there have been many other cases of journalists on
CanWest papers getting into trouble. He warned though that the
real worry is the self-censorship that ensues: 'It's not the four or five
we've heard about, it's about the dozens of journalists who self-censor
as a result of this very public policy.' The management of CanWest
remained defiant. 'I can say to our critics and to the bleeding hearts
of the journalist community that it's the end of the world as they know
it, and I feel fine,' declared David Asper, publications committee
chairman, gleefully misquoting the REM song. The CJFE report said that
media companies should defend freedom of expression because they are among
its chief beneficiaries, and urged CanWest to cancel all pending
disciplinary action against its employees, and to invite those who have
left their posts to return to them. It also called for an Independent
government enquiry look into the potential impact on free expression of
media ownership concentration." [The Canadian Journalists for
Free Expression Report about Asper and CanWest is here.
Canadian
Media Giant Censures Editorials Deemed Critical of Israel,
Arizona Daily Star, December 29, 2001
"Canadian newspaper readers are being warned not to expect a balanced
opinion from their dailies after executive orders from the country’s largest
media corporation were given to run a select number of national editorials
and homogenize remaining editorials across the country so as not to, among
other things, reflect negatively on Israel’s occupation of Arab land.
Recently, media giant CanWest Global Communications Corp., owned
by Israel (Izzy) Asper and family, announced that
beginning Dec. 12 one, but eventually three, editorials a week would be
written at corporate headquarters in Winnipeg and imposed on 14 dailies,
which include the Vancouver Sun and Province, the Calgary
Herald and the Montreal Gazette. CanWest also owns 50 percent
of the nationally distributed National Post, which will be subject to
the new directives as well. Furthermore, in addition to the imposed editorials
themselves, all locally produced editorial column pieces will be forced
to conform to reflect the viewpoints of the CanWest Global corporation.
CanWest last year became Canada’s dominant newspaper chain when
it purchased Southam News Inc. from Conrad Black’s holding company,
Hollinger Inc., for a reported $3.2 billion Can. ($2 billion) The
deal transferred ownership of the 14 metropolitan dailies and 128 local
newspapers across the country."
Canadian
Publisher Raises Hackles, Washington Post,
January 27, 2002
"Late last year, columnist Stephen Kimber says, the editing of his
writing became more and more inexplicable. It wasn't so much dropped commas
or the introduction of errors. Sometimes he would open the newspaper,
the Halifax Daily News, and find that his opinions had been removed. 'I
put up with that for a while, then I began to censor myself,' said Kimber.
'I would remember, 'No, I'm not supposed to write about that.' Kimber
had been writing his column without such concerns for 15 years. But things
changed, he said, after CanWest Global Communications took over
his newspaper and 135 others last summer. In December, the company announced
that all 14 of its big-city newspapers would run the same national editorial
each week, issued from headquarters in Winnipeg, and sometimes written
at CanWest papers around the country. Any unsigned editorials written
locally at the 14 papers, the company said, should not contradict the
national editorials, which covered such subjects as military spending,
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and property rights. The decision provoked
immediate complaints from journalists across Canada, who say its effect
goes far beyond the editorials, imposing control on columnists and reporters
as well. In the United States, the National Conference of Editorial Writers,
whose members include Canadians, joined in, saying the decision was 'likely
to backfire with readers who are accustomed to editorials on national
and international subjects that take account of the diversity of views
in their communities.' Many journalists say the company is breaking age-old
traditions that keep reporters and columnists independent of the publications'
owners. CanWest and its owners, the [Jewish] Asper family,
deny that the policy restricts freedom of expression in this way. All
they are doing, they say, is exercising the legitimate prerogative of
owners to influence a limited part of their publications, the editorials
... CanWest controls a major newspaper in every major city outside
of Toronto."
[Montreal]
Gazette Reporters Protest National Editorials,
Straight Goods, December 14, 2001
"For two days last week, many reporters at The Gazette in
Montreal removed their names from the articles they wrote. It was a protest
against the decision by Southam News to force all of its 12 major
metropolitan newspapers to run 'national editorials' written at the Winnipeg
corporate headquarters of parent company CanWest Global Communications
Corp. The first was published last week. Another is to run next Thursday.
Credibility is the most precious asset a newspaper possesses. When the
power of the press is abused, that credibility dies. We believe this is
an attempt to centralize opinion to serve the corporate interests of CanWest.
Far from offering additional content to Canadians, this will practically
vacate the power of the editorial boards of Southam newspapers
and thereby reduce the diversity of opinions and the breadth of debate
that to date has been offered readers across Canada. CanWest's
intention is initially to publish one national editorial a week in all
major Southam newspapers. This will eventually become three a week. More
important, each editorial will set the policy for that topic in such a
way as to constrain the editorial boards of each newspaper to follow this
policy. Essentially, CanWest will be imposing editorial policy
on its papers on all issues of national significance. Without question,
this decision will undermine the independence and diversity of each newspaper's
editorial board and thereby give Canadians a greatly reduced variety of
opinion, debate and editorial discussion. Editorial boards at each newspaper
exist to debate public policy issues, reach a consensus and then present
the reasoning to the public. They are designed to be largely free of corporate
interests. This crucial process of journalistic debate is undermined by
editorials dictated by corporate headquarters. We believe this centralizing
process will weaken the credibility of every Southam paper. Last week's
first editorial, for example, calls on the federal government to reduce
and eventually to abolish capital-gains taxes for private foundations.
Who would blame a reader for thinking the editorial simply serves the
interests of the foundation run by the Asper family, owners of
CanWest and Southam?"
The
CanWorld Chill: 'We Do Not Run in Our Newspaper Op Ed Pieces that Expression
Criticism of Israel,' Electronic Intifada,
December 11, 2001
"The 7 December 2001 broadcast of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's
As It Happens [online link included] uncovered a disturbing example
of corporate and political interference in freedom of the press. The program
reported on a new editorial policy directive from CanWest Global,
a leading Canadian media conglomerate, that impairs readers' ability to
make up their own minds about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, among
other issues. As It Happens reported that over two dozen journalists
at the Montreal Gazette have pulled their bylines to protest a new policy
imposed by the newspaper's owners, Southam Newspapers Inc, which
is owned by CanWest Global. The new policy requires the company's
main local newspapers to run editorials written at headquarters in Winnipeg
by Southam Editor-in-Chief Murdoch Davis. Bill Marsden, an investigative
reporter at the Montreal Gazette, noted that up to 156 times a
year -- about three times a week -- the editorial would be imposed and
that the remainder of locally-written editorials would be required to
reflect the viewpoints and stances taken by the paper's corporate headquarters
... ...[O]n July 31, CanWest announced its acquisition of all of
the major Canadian newspaper and Internet assets of Hollinger Inc.,
including the metropolitan daily newspapers in nearly every large city
across Canada and a 50% partnership interest in the National Post."
[The owner of CanWest
Global, which owns a huge percentage of Canadian newspapers, and
the second largest Canadian TV network (as well as some media venues in
Ireland, New Zealand, and other countries), is avid Zionist Israel
Asper].
Robert
Fisk: Journalists are under fire for telling the truth,
by Robert Fisk, The Independent (UK), December18,
2002
"Let us forget, for a moment, that Fox News's Jerusalem bureau chief
is Uri Dan, a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
and the author of the preface of the new edition of Sharon's autobiography,
which includes a revolting account of the Sabra and Chatila massacre of
1,700 Palestinian civilians and Sharon's innocence in this slaughter.
Then Ted Koppel [also Jewish], one of America's leading news anchormen,
announced that it may be a journalist's duty not to reveal events until
the military want them revealed in a new war against Iraq. Can we go any
further in journalistic cowardice? Oh yes, we can. ABC television announced,
a little while ago, that it knew all about the killing of four al-Qa'ida
members by an unmanned 'Predator' plane in Yemen but delayed broadcasting
the news for four days 'at the request of the Pentagon.' So now at least
we know for whom ABC works ... In Canada, the situation is even worse.
Canwest, owned by Israel Asper, owns over 130 newspapers
in Canada, including 14 city dailies and one of the country's largest
papers, the National Post. His 'journalists' have attacked colleagues
who have deviated from Mr Asper's pro-Israel editorials. As Index
on Censorship reported, Bill Marsden, an investigative reporter for
the Montreal Gazette has been monitoring Canwest's interference
with its own papers. 'They do not want any criticism of Israel,' he wrote.
'We do not run in our newspaper op-ed pieces that express criticism of
Israel and what it is doing in the Middle East...' But now, 'Izzy'
Asper has written a gutless and repulsive editorial in the Post
in which he attacks his own journalists, falsely accusing reporters of
"lazy, sloppy or stupid" journalism and being 'biased or anti-Semitic'.
These vile slanders are familiar to any reporter trying to do his work
on the ground in the Middle East. They are made even more revolting by
inaccuracies. Mr Asper, for example, claims that my colleague Phil Reeves
compared the Israeli killings in Jenin earlier this year – which included
a goodly few war crimes (the crushing to death of a man in a wheelchair,
for example) – to the 'killing fields of Pol Pot'. Now Mr Reeves has never
mentioned Pol Pot. But Mr Asper wrongly claims that he did. It
gets worse. Mr Asper, whose 'lazy, sloppy or stupid' allegations
against journalists in reality apply to himself, states – in the address
to an Israel Bonds Gala Dinner in Montreal, which formed the basis of
his preposterous article – that "in 1917, Britain and the League of Nations
declared, with world approval, that a Jewish state would be established
in Palestine". Now hold on a moment. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 did
not say that a Jewish state would be established ... At no point, of course,
does Mr Asper tell us about Israeli occupation or the building of Jewish
settlements, for Jews and Jews only, upon Arab land. He talks about 'alleged
Palestinian refugees' – about as wrongheaded a remark as you can get –
and then claims that the corrupt and foolish Yasser Arafat is 'one of
the world's cruel and most vicious terrorists for the past 30 years'.
He concluded his speech to Israel's supporters in Montreal with the dangerous
request that 'you, the public, must take action against the media wrongdoers'.
Wrongdoers? Is this far from President Bush's 'evildoers'? What in the
hell is going on here? I will tell you. Journalists are being attacked
for telling the truth, for trying to tell it how it is. American journalists
especially. I urge them to read a remarkable new book published by the
New York University Press and edited by John Collins and Ross Glover.
It's called Collateral Language and is, in its own words, intended
to expose "the tyranny of political rhetoric."
Rumours of war Conflict
in the Middle East has come to Canada, with Izzy Asper's National Post
criticizing the CBC's coverage of the battle between Israelis and Palestinians,
Ottawa Sun, January 12, 2003
"The relentless Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a deep quagmire,
and Canadians fear it. A recent polling of readers by the Globe and
Mail [in Toronto] named Israel, not Iraq or North Korea, the world's
most dangerous hot spot by a goodly margin. Such an apprehension helps
explain the federal government's reluctance to discuss it, much less deal
with it: Why jump into bottomless antagonism? But the Liberal government,
and the other political parties, may be dragged into it if the Asper
media empire has its way. In a recent, frank epistle in his National
Post, Canwest Global chairman Israel Asper wrote of
his love for his namesake. To him, Israel is a moral beacon to
the world. So it is not surprising that since he took control of the Post
from Conrad Black the paper has taken an ever-tougher line against Israel's
enemies and, accordingly, the CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Company]
has become one of them. The Post now regularly harries the CBC
for its 'biased' Middle East reporting. Leading the charge is Norman
Spector, a former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney who was rewarded
for this service with Canada's ambassadorship to Israel. Spector's
attachment to the Jewish state seems every bit as strong as his employer's,
and if his columns are a guide, the Asper campaign against the
corporation will continue to escalate. Last Wednesday Spector implied
the CBC coverage fuelled anti-Semitism of the sort voiced by David
Ahenakew, the former First Nations chief. Asper, Spector,
and the Post accuse the CBC of mollycoddling terrorists by refusing
to use that word to describe the organizations which back attacks on Israelis
... Asper has previously called for the Chretien government to
rein in the CBC, arguing the PM himself was being treated unfairly by
the Mother Corp. The Post has just been in front of a successful
campaign to have the government ban Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based radical
party that sponsors attacks on Israel. If the CBC does not back
down, can a demand for Ottawa to make it do so be far behind? ... While
Asper is a lifelong Liberal, his agitating on this issue is far from welcome.
Hezbollah had few friends here, yet the government was reluctant to act.
Why? Because it feared the issue might generate a national concern over
the rights and wrongs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with who knows
what consequences for our vaunted multicultural diversity. Support for
Israel in Canada seems to have been slipping in the last few years as
its military might, including nukes, and televised images from the intifada
-- slingshots vs. tanks -- have undermined the notion Israel is simply
a noble little nation surrounded by relentless, powerful enemies. Those
who accuse the CBC are further undermined by their very staunch
support for the Bush administration's plans to topple Saddam Hussein --
which Canadians seem to favour less and less. And it seems to me the notion
that Canada must support Israel because it is the front lines of the global
war on terror is being more and more rejected in Canada as simplistic,
and bullying. Finally, and vitally, the CBC, unlike Hezbollah,
has many friends. The anger voiced and pressed by Asper and Spector is
no sham. For them the issue truly is black and white. In taking on the
CBC and insisting theirs is the only legitimate interpretation
in line with history and democratic values, they seem to be overreaching.
And it may rebound on them and on Israel."
Canadian
Media Giants Announce Landmark Convergence Deal,
Canada Newswire, July 2000
"[Israel Asper's] CanWest Global Communications Corp.
today announced the largest transaction in the history of the Canadian
media industry. CanWest, owners of Canada's most popular national
television network, Global Television, has agreed to acquire 100%
of the principal metropolitan operations of the successful Hollinger newspaper
chain in Canada, together with all of its Canadian Internet properties,
its magazine group, most of the community publishing operations and a
50% interest in the National Post. The merged company will have
complete and unparalleled national and local coverage in both electronic
and print media, plus the canada.com network, a leading group of national
and local Internet sites ... With the addition of the Hollinger
properties and the 50% stake in the National Post, CanWest will
become Canada's most comprehensive multiple platform media company, with
a strong national and local profile in news, publishing, conventional
and specialty television and the Internet, as well as in the production
and international distribution of television entertainment programming
and feature films. - CanWest will have the largest electronic and
print information and news gathering capacity in Canada, with more journalists,
editors and news gathering personnel than any other media operation in
the country."
Dateline
Winnipeg, Economist, March 15, 2002
"[Izzy Asper is] Canada's most powerful media mogul ... Mr
Asper controls the country's most profitable television network
and a chain of more than 100 newspapers across the country, which he bought
18 months ago from Conrad Black. But he has resisted moving the headquarters
of his company, CanWest Global Communications, to Toronto, Canada's
media capital. The company remains in Winnipeg, 2,100km (1,300 miles)
to the west. As a result, Mr Asper has brought jobs to the city,
as well as being a generous donor to local causes. But there is a more
controversial aspect to Mr Asper's devotion to making Winnipeg
great again. All of his family's papers, from British Columbia to Newfoundland,
are now obliged to print company editorials, on national and international
issues, written in Winnipeg. No subsequent deviation from the line they
set is allowed in the local papers, which include the market leaders in
most of Canada's big cities. This has provoked howls of protest, and not
just because the papers concerned were used to substantial editorial independence
before the Aspers took control. Canada is a country of several
distinct regions. But ownership of its media is now highly concentrated.
And nobody has as much control over what Canadians read and watch as the
Aspers. Mr Asper has strong opinions. He is a former leader
of the Liberal Party in Manitoba, and a friend both of Jean Chrétien,
Canada's prime minister, and of Israel. Journalists fear that there is
now no room for dissenting views: one columnist has been fired, another
suspended and several stories killed because they expressed points of
view the Aspers disagreed with."
Is Asper alone is in his grab for power? More about the increasing Jewish
dominance of the mass media: here (online citations
list) and here (WHEN VICTIMS RULE chapter
about Jewish prominence in the mass media.)
We, at the Jewish Tribal Review, are ethical. Israel Asper,
the National Post, and the web of Judeocentric intrigue that leads
us all to world war, is NOT. We invite any reader to investigate our web
site's evidence against the claims of any Judeocentric propaganda organ.
For Mr. Neumann's part, the eminent teacher and philosophy professor
is falling deeper and deeper into quicksand, learning something even a
grade-school kid knows: one lie leads to another in order to cover up
the earlier ones. In his desperate defense, Neumann now calls this
web site both "ingenius" and "insidious." (He also,
in a panic, alludes to it as being "racist." Anyone is free
to inspect this website. The only thing having to do with "racism"
at the Jewish Tribal Review is the scholarly examination of JEWISH racism).
It would be in everyone's best interests (including the Palestinian's)
if he stopped his squirming dissimulation before the Jewish Tribunal and
just named what's REALLY insidious: the "Jewish Power" circle
(from Asper to the Canadian Jewish Congress) that seeks to destroy
him -- in the name of racist Israel -- as a Jewish blasphemer.
A fable for our times? Organized Jewry even eats its own to protect its
veiled supremacy, racism, and ethnocentrism.
|