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A right to due process and presumption of innocence until proven guilty...

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 28 December 2005

Europe Governments USA History Mary MacElveen

by Mary MacElveen

When I read Howard Kurtz’s article: Bush Presses Editors on Security it reminded me of a CBS movie "Hitler: The Rise of Evil." You may be asking why this movie came to mind. There are many Americans and those around the globe who have compared Bush with Adolph Hitler.

One has only to look at the Patriot Act to know this to be true.

When Hitler came to power, he pushed for an Enabling Act which, as I have stated before, is strikingly similar and during his reign of terror he also pressured the press.

In the movie "Hitler: The Rise of Evil," Matthew Modine portrays Fritz Gerlich ... a journalist who ultimately went to his death for reporting the truth, refusing to back down to outside pressures from the Hitler regime. In 1913, his first book, "The History and Theory of Capitalism" was published that led to his activities in both politics and journalism.

By 1917 he became an accomplished journalist who put his life on the line to expose the truth about Adolph Hitler to the German people. He refused to cower or be pressured and that is something I feel the editors of various media outlets must remember. You do not spy on Americans under the guise of terrorism and pressure the press to keep quiet about it.

To the New York Times: under the Constitution of the United States we do have a fourth amendment, and my guess is that you forgot that little detail. In this country (USA) we still are required by law to obtain warrants and we still have free speech.

At least I thought so...

In journalism one’s job is to expose and not help any political force cover anything up. Journalists are duty bound by conscience to record the annals of history. Would former President Nixon have resigned if Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had not exposed criminality at the highest levels of our government during the Watergate break in? Just suppose Nixon had pressured the editors of the Washington Post to keep a lid on this story? That would have changed history ... and not for the better! In the Watergate case we had people within the Nixon administration listening in on the Democratic Party. In this case we have the Bush administration listening in on innocent Americans.

* I say innocent because in this country (USA) you are still presumed innocent until proven guilty and have a right to due process.

In 1923, Gerlich witnessed the Munich Beer Hall Putsch which Hitler rashly attempted to take over the Bavarian state. Gerlich was convinced that treachery, deception and ruthless violence were at the very heart of Hitler’s character. Does that sound familiar? Gerlich was determined to use his expertise as a journalist to expose this knowledge to the German people.

Over the course of the next decade he wrote for the Munchener Neueste Nachrichten, one of the most conservative papers, and later for Der Gerade Weg (The Straight Path) which he created. In these publications he continued his anti-Hitler articles and considering how much power Hitler had. That took bravery on his part.

On March 9, 1933, five weeks after Hitler became Chancellor he (Gerlich) was prepared to publish his final anti-Hitler attack in a last ditch effort to derail Hitler. It was at that point that storm troopers burst into his office, he was arrested and sent to Dachau. He was eventually murdered and his bloodied spectacles were mailed back to his wife. Gerlich sacrificed his life for freedom and the truth.

* While some may say that this can never happen here in the United States: Did you ever hear this quote? "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

The New York Times that sat on a story due to pressure from this administration failed the American people. Instead of being thought of as independent publication, their credibility has been tainted since many have come to the conclusion that they are only purveyors of propaganda.

If the American press, or any press organization, truly wants to serve the needs of those who read their publications, they should remember the bravery of Fritz Gerlich.

On an end note: The producer of the movie, Ed Gernon, was fired by CBS for likening the climate in America leading up to the invasion of Iraq to the climate in pre-war Germany that allowed the rise of the Third Reich. Mr. Gernon said: "Imagine being axed for expressing an opinion about a period in history when it was unsafe to express an opinion."

I believe the press needs to listen Mr. Gernon’s quote.

CBS proved in 2003 that history indeed was repeating itself when they fired Ed Gernon.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=47504