How to create killers and other haters

Tabitha Southey wrote in the Globe and Mail that “killers don’t just spontaneously generate.” She was referring to Dylann Roof, the man who murdered nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. In her opinion Roof became a racist killer from the literature he read-on-line, specifically from the Council of Conservative Citizens whose information about black/white relationships was, to put it nicely -skewed. Well deceitful. Actually hateful. The false information could push someone over the edge into “action” against people of colour. And it did.

This website filled him with enough information to say “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country.” I have no doubt that much that is secreted online is questionable. It’s mostly opinion, based on feeling, without a verifiable fact in sight. But blaming on-line sites for this hate is unabashed hypocrisy. Southey needs to take a look in the mirror-a mirror that reflects the decisions made by editors of mainstream media outlets-print, TV, radio. That same day that Southey wrote her diatribe, I read letters in the National Post that refuted one by Ian Coleman of Edmonton that had been published the previous day. Coleman was responding to an article posted June 24:“Even when faced with criminal tactics, Israel abided by the laws of armed conflict” written by Irit Kohn, president of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, a UN-accredited NGO. Coleman took umbrage with the article. He couldn’t accept the facts that were reported. He wrote: “The honest version of how Israel fights is this: every few years, whenever an Israeli politician needs to win votes by demonstrating a capacity for ruthless cruelty, the Israeli Defense Force bombs people with no air defences, massacring at least a thousand.” Not a word of truth in that letter. Not an iota of fact. Just a hate-filled response. A Jew-hating, 100% fact-free response that was read by all the subscribers to the National Post paper and on-line. An editor at the National Post decided that it was appropriate to post a lie. Well, not a lie-many lies about Israel and the IDF. The editor decided that it was appropriate, perhaps in the name of “freedom of speech” to post this hate-filled diatribe in the National Post giving others a perspective that incites hate with no foundation.

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Why is it acceptable to print lies in Main Stream media?

And how is this any different from the web-site that Dylann Roof read? Why is it acceptable to print lies in Main Stream media? Is it to promote discussion? If so, what kind? What was the intention of the editor for printing such a hate-filled letter based on no facts at all-just Mr. Coleman’s hatred for Israel and the Jews? It has become acceptable to attack Israel and the Jewish people. In the United States Jewish students on campus are under attack. Students fear wearing anything that identifies them as Jewish. They see paintings of swastikas across campus, and other Nazi pornography. They are often ostracized and excluded, spat upon, called a terrorist, baby killer, woman killer, Christ killer, occupier, and told to go burn in an oven. What do you think would happen in the USA of Muslim or LGBT students reported being harassed like that? Canada is not much better. Anti-semitism on campus is on the rise. These Jew-haters get their ideas from somewhere. But seeing them in mainstream media validates them, like receiving the Good Housekeeping Stamp of Approval. A letter to the editor isn’t the same as comments posted online, which are often anonymous and fall into freedom of speech. Letters, like the one by Coleman, are not there by accident. They were specifically chosen by the letter editor. I remember years ago editors made decisions based on “If it bleeds it leads.” Not anymore. “If it’s Jews it’s news” is the new motto. Anything negative about the Jews or Israel is front and centre. One thing is for certain, that letter by Mr. Coleman led to much ado. Three letters in response to his fantasy fulminations were published the next day. Is that the reason the editor of the National Post published Coleman’s letter-to get a frenzied response-fill the letter pages by goading the Jews into justifying Israel’s right to defend herself when this is asked of no other country? What possible good did publishing that letter do? And the “Dylann Roof’s” of the world, what do you think they learned from the editor’s decision to publish a pack of lies? I fear that this is the new journalism and this new journalism is no different from the trash found on websites like the Council of Conservative Citizens. When asked about their responsibility regarding Roof’s atrocity, Kyle Rogers, proprietor of Council of Conservative Citizens, said they never “intended to promote racial hatred,” they’re “hardly responsible.” The alleged killer “merely … gleaned accurate information from our website.”(my emphasis) Southey reported that The League of the South, a Southern nationalist organization, issued a statement in support of “our friend and compatriot, Kyle Rogers” saying “that the alleged killer chose to act on this information is no fault of Mr. Rogers or anyone else who tells the hard truths about race.” I don’t’ think Ms. Southey bought that explanation. She referred to Rogers (and his comments) as “another particle in the air…swirling in the miasma of YouTube commentators with opinions…” How are the actions of the editors at the National Post-and please-it isn’t just the National Post any different from Kyle Rogers? No need to troll the web to find lies and obfuscations about the Jews. Just pick up a paper and it’s right there, because of the editors’ decisions to vilify the Jewish people. Southey wrote “If we, as a society, can’t acknowledge the connection between an alleged killer, who reportedly told his victims “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country and you have to go,” and those who repeatedly told him that black people rape “our women,” et cetera, posterity should mock us." What will posterity say about the editors of our major media outlets who consciously choose to publish letters, let alone “reports” filled with fabrications that denigrate Israel and the Jews and incite hateful actions?