Controversial DVD Gets Wider Play -- Via Newspapers

We first heard about this a few days ago via The Huffington Post, and our Joe Strupp made a few calls to The New York Times Co. to check on their policies on inserting ad packages in their home-delivered papers, but never put up a story, awaiting further developments.  Now more has transpired.  A controversial DVD was home-delivered today with McClatchy papers in North Carolina, in Charlotte and Raleigh, and the Miami Herald, bringing the nationwide total to about 70.  Our longtime contributor, William E. Jackson, Jr., tipped us off to it today (he lives in Davidson, NC and gets the Charlotte Observer), and he will write more about it himself.  He and others point out that it is only being distributed in "swing" election states.  It was made in 2005 by the Clarion Fund.

The documentary, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, showcases scenes of Muslim children being encouraged to become suicide bombers, interspersed with shots  of Nazi rallies. 'The threat of Radical Islam is the most important issue facing us today,'' reads the sleeve of the DVD. ''But it's a topic that neither the presidential candidates nor the media are discussing openly. It's our responsibility to ensure we can all make an informed vote in November.''  It was shown on Fox News just before the 2006 mid-term elections, and conservative activist David Horowitz screened the film on college campuses during 2007.  An article at the group's site, www.radicalislam.org, all but endorsed McCain this past week, then was pulled down.

A New York Times spokeswoman told Strupp that it had distributed 145,000 DVDs last Sunday with papers in several key metro areas in swing states (including Denver, Philadelphia and Miami). 

An article at the site of the Morning-Call in Allentown, Pa. today reveals that it will be inserted in the Sunday paper there tomorrow.  It continues:  "A call to Clarion wasn't returned, but the nonprofit's spokesman, Gregory Ross, told the Harrisburg Patriot-News this week that 28 million copies of the DVD are being distributed nationwide throughout September. He said the intent is not to sway voters' opinions about the presidential candidates."   It has already been packaged with dozens of large papers, such as the Denver Post and Columbus Dispatch, and appears with the St. Pete Times on Sunday. We  publish the full NYT response over at E&P and here is how a reporter at the News & Observer described it fully today: here.  See clip from the DVD below.-- Greg Mitchell

Comments

[Nellcote]

It's going out in Denver and Detroit too. Is this sort of thing ethical? Is there any sort of line between sending out this dvd and KKK dvds? Is it all good if it brings in money?

http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/n_o_subscribers_to_receive_islam_dvd

[Rose]

A copy of this dvd was in our NY Times this past Sunday. We live in a suburb of St. Louis - a district very, very red - but hopefully turning purple this November.

[David]

Pure unadulterated hatemongering that will appeal only to those who are inexcusably ignorant and/or racist. It is also further evidence that the United States is in the throes of a rapid and unprecedented moral decline.

[Syed Hussein]

Let's all understand the purpose of this DVD is clear. To incite fear and hate against Islam and Muslims so that one and only one candidate would benefit: John McCain.

As an American Muslim, I'm not a bit surprised such cowardly Muslim-bashing would be permitted in our nation, only against Islam and Muslims, under the guise of "fighting terrorism."

Imagine if such generalizations and incitement was done against Jewish extremists in Israel or Christian extremists right here in the US, who don't necerassily commit suicide bombing but incite and cheer others to bomb Muslim countries, i.e. Falwell and Robertson cheering the invasion of Iraq and Rod Parsley declaring Islam as on par with Nazism.

These people expect Muslims to stand against hate, when we laugh and see that these people aren't inciters of peace themselves rather want the war against Muslims to spread against Iran and Syria. (I'm sure 2 more Nazi controlled countries)

[JD Brooks]

The most important threat facing us today? Ignorance.

The "stupidification" of America will be our downfall. The effects are being felt from decades of an educational system designed to produce good 'worker bees' for corporate industry, instead of knowledgeable citizens capable of independent thought. Conformity is prized over critical thinking. The boob-tube is the Great American Baby-Sitter, after all.

Ignorance, of course, leads to fear of the unknown -- a natural, evolutionary survival mechanism. But paired with our state-of-the-art military, this makes us a dangerously paranoid and destructive force in the world.

Neocon extremists like David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes, being Jewish, ought to know better than to conflate radical Islamists with Nazi Germany, which was a major world power when it attempted to impose its ideology on other countries through force. It disserves history, and the importance of the Holocaust, to equate the two. The radical Muslims exist in enclaves scattered throughout the vast Muslim world. Lacking the military backing of any nation, they must resort to wild sneak attacks aimed at civilian populations. Their terrorist tactics, while frighteningly unpredictable, actually demonstrate quite vividly just how isolated, weak and desperate they are. Of course, exaggerating the threat they pose is essential to the success of the neocon agenda.

Finally, I find it disturbing that the newspaper owners, whose presses were virtually silent when it came to opposing the invasion of Iraq, would allow their papers to be the vehicles for yet more warmongering disinformation as we approach the next election -- and all for a quick advertising buck. Disgusting.

[eurokin]

This is what I wrote to the President and Publisher of the Milwaukee Journal:

Our household has been longtime subscribers to The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Never before have I been so outraged that I felt compelled to write a message of complaint about your publication. It's unfortunate that today, at 8:12 AM, on a Sunday morning, I find myself doing so.

Usually Sunday morning is the time when I grab a cup of coffee and my morning paper and peruse the various sections looking for information not covered in the main sections during the week. On other mornings I tend to read Section A first -- but Sunday tends to be my "light" reading day.

This morning I was appalled to find, stuffed in my paper, a DVD entitled Obsession, by the shady outfit named, The Clarion Fund. While The Clarion Fund identifies itself as a 501(c)(3) organization - organizations which are not permitted to engage in political activity, endorse or oppose political candidates, or donate money or time to political campaigns -- it was forced to remove an endorsement of John McCain from its website due to the flagrant breach of those rules.

When I first found the above said DVD in my Sunday paper, I questioned to myself, "When did The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel become a propaganda tool for the Neo-Conservative Zionists?" I used to be proud of living in a city that hosted a daily newspaper which shied away from the sleazy and subtle propaganda tricks that papers like, The New York Times, often participate in. This wasn't even subtle - it was glaring and egregious.

My flatmates are still asleep, but when they arise I am going to discuss with them the subject of canceling our subscription to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. As I am familiar with their feelings on the issue of mainstream media used as a propaganda tool, I am certain that our cancellation will be forthwith.

I am aware that daily newspapers are currently struggling for advertising dollars -- it's one of the reasons why I try to support your paper in print, and not just read your news online -- but really, how low can you go? If I wanted hate propaganda delivered to my door, I'd subscribe to any number of extremist organization's publications. This is truly outrageous and you should be ashamed of yourself. As President and Publisher of this once fine newspaper, you have tarnished the reputation and credibility of what, I once thought, was one of the last truly dignified dailies in the country.

Truly disappointing.

[John]

The clip shown here seems to end with a moderate Muslim female calling for supporting "moderate and liberal" Muslims in order to overcome fanatical Islamists. The answer (according to this talking head) is "hope and education." This seems to be the Obama platform (as opposed to McCain's "bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb, bomb, Iran" --which will KILL moderate and liberal Muslims and possibly turn them into vengeful extremists as well)

[dave]

this was distributed in the St Pete Times today as well. it was hell to fold the paper with it stuffed in there, but hey, the mantra these days seems to be "screw the carriers"

[becca]

I think everyone who received this DVD should cancel their subscription in protest. I do not want propoganda like this dropped at my door. Who's next...KKK?

While the intent of this DVD is to use fear to swing voters to vote Republican, I think it makes it even MORE clear that we cannot risk having Palin a "heartbeat away" from the presidency. McCain is no more knowlegable than Obama/Biden , and McCain lacks the temperment and judgement to keep America safe. He is too anxious to go to war with anyone and everyone. McCain is still trying to win the Vietnam war...even Petraes said Iraq is an "occupation" and not a type of war where the goal is "winning."

[jb]

Hmmm, distributed less than two months before an election? Shameful. Expected. Predictable. Imagine what's ahead in the next 50+ days. The U.S. will set a record for the most hideous and unethical behavior in any presidential election. The First Amendment applies to all speech. Even this DVD garbage.

[Dan]

RE:John

Brigitte Gabriel is not a "moderate Muslim" nor is any other talking head in the "documentary." She's a Lebanese Maronite Christian, a group who tend to have some of the most hardened feelings towards Muslims (and Palestinians) among Christians of the region. They, too, attempted to maintain hegemony in Lebanon. (The are about 1/3 of the Lebanese population and are among the wealthiest factions in a highly sectarian country).

Mrs. Gabriel, Nonie Darwish, Walid Shoebat, and other Native Informants in the "documentary" have dubious credentials.

The New York Times:

>>>Academic professors and others who have heard the three men speak in the United States and Canada said some of their stories border on the fantastic, like Mr. Saleem’s account of how, as a child, he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights. No such incidents have been reported, the academic experts said. They also question how three middle-aged men who claim they were recruited as teenagers or younger could have been steeped in the violent religious ideology that only became prevalent in the late 1980s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/us/07muslim.html?ex=1360126800&en=945e97aac6c78430&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink#

[indichik36]

wow this was a low blow is the Mcain campaign that desperate. Why in the world would they send this out.. apparently that there is nothing better for them to do. This is one sided and does not show that people are good not everyone is evil and any country you go to including America it is hurt full and pathetic that the newspaper Even agreed to this