For an organization designed to report facts, Reuters appears to be disturbingly unaware of what a fact actually is:
JERUSALEM, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A week of international remembrances marking the Holocaust reaches a climax on Thursday, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi death camps.Why on earth is it necessary to cite Yad Vashem here? A fact is a fact, no matter who vouches for its truth or alleges its falsehood.
Following are seven facts about the Holocaust, the state-sponsored persecution and genocide of European Jews and others by Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.
-- Nearly six million Jews were murdered in Europe as part of Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution" to what the Nazi dictator called the Jewish problem, according to Yad Vashem, Israel's national memorial to the victims.
Math textbooks don't say, "2 + 2 = 4, according to Stephen Hawking."
Encyclopedias don't state, "Albany is the capital of New York, according to George Pataki."
And sports websites don't read, "The Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, according to Curt Schilling."
Those things are facts. They're not true "according to" some source. For Reuters to cite Yad Vashem as the backer of the six million figure is to suggest that another group could just as well come up with a much lower tally.
Now, it's pretty clear from the overall article that Reuters acknowledges that a large number of Jews were killed. So why am I being so picky?
At a time when Russian politicians are demanding a nationwide ban on all Jewish groups, when a Spanish city sponsors an electronic billboard calling Israelis the "New Nazis", and when "62% of Germans are sick of all the harping on about the Jews", I'm not prepared to accept the tiniest bit of fudging about what happened during the Holocaust.
And that's a fact.
4 comments:
so what is your final solution to the Palestinian problem then? (you see when I'm serious and insulting, but seem to lack the ability to see serious mixed with tongue in cheek, so this is one of those.) And I'm glad your blog ratings are going up. You are pretty prolific, keep up the good work.
Best Regards,
e
Posted by fasteddie
Failed societies either have to collapse under their own weight (Soviet Union), or have their destruction forced upon them (Imperial Japan), before they become ready to change.
That can be done by military intervention or internal revolution (whether peaceful or violent).
But it cannot be done by crossing your fingers and thinking happy thoughts.
Unfortunately, the number of Palestinians who will have to die before their side decides to seriously pursue peace with Israel, is up to the Palestinians themselves.
Posted by GaijinBiker
I perfectly agree with you on the distorted use of "according to".
Have a nice day.
Posted by Leon B
Over at LGF, they refer to Reuters as Al-Reuters.
It must be nice living in a world where you know not one person who was affected personally by the Holocaust. There is no other reason I can fathom as to why seemingly intelligent people can dissociate themselves from the truth of what happened during WWII. I grew up in Skokie, Illinois. Besides Israel, no other place has as high a population of post-WWII jewish immigrants. I knew people whose entire lineage, but for their parents, were wiped off the face of the earth. Once you see the tattoo on a person's arm, you are no longer able to pretend that it didn't happen.
Posted by Sharon
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