[Peace-discuss] Paul Harvey's Tribute to Slavery, Nukes, Genocide

[David Green]

Subject: Paul Harvey's Tribute to Slavery, Nukes,
Genocide

Paul Harvey's Tribute to Slavery, Nukes, Genocide 
Hateful rant shows Disney's double standard on speech


FAIR-L

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

Media analysis, critiques and activism

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2569


ACTION ALERT:

Paul Harvey's Tribute to Slavery, Nukes, Genocide

Hateful rant shows Disney's double standard on speech


July 1, 2005


Disney/ABC radio personality Paul Harvey, one of the
most widely 
listened to 
commentators in the United States, presented his
listeners on June 23 
with an 
endorsement of genocide and racism that would have
been right at home 
on a 
white supremacist shortwave broadcast.


Harvey's commentary began by lamenting the decline of
American wartime 
aggression.  "We're standing there dying, daring to do
nothing decisive 
because 
we've declared ourselves to be better than our
terrorist enemies--more 
moral, more 
civilized," he said.   

Drawing a contrast with what he cast as the
praiseworthy nuclear 
bombings of 
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, Harvey
lamented that "we sent 
men with 
rifles into Afghanistan and Iraq and kept our best
weapons in their 
silos"--suggesting that America should have used its
nuclear arsenal in 
its invasions 
of both countries.


Harvey concluded:


"We didn't come this far because we're made of sugar
candy. Once upon a 
time, 
we elbowed our way onto and across this continent by
giving 
smallpox-infected 
blankets to Native Americans. That was biological
warfare. And we used 
every 
other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this
land from whomever.


"And we grew prosperous. And yes, we greased the skids
with the sweat 
of 
slaves. So it goes with most great nation-states,
which--feeling guilty 
about 
their savage pasts--eventually civilize themselves out
of business and 
wind up 
invaded and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry
up-and-coming who 
are not 
made of sugar candy."


Harvey's evident approval of slavery, genocide and
nuclear and 
biological 
warfare would seem to put him at odds with Disney's
family-friendly 
image.  The 
media conglomerate syndicates Harvey to more than
1,000 radio stations, 
where 
he reaches an estimated 18 million listeners.  Disney
recently signed a 
10-year, $100 million contract with the 86-year-old
Harvey.


In 2004, Disney forbid its Miramax subsidiary to
distribute Michael 
Moore's 
film Fahrenheit 9/11, even though Miramax was the
principal investor in 
the 
film.  A Disney executive told the New York Times
(5/5/04) that it was 
declining 
to distribute the film because, in the paper's words,
"Disney caters to 
families of all political stripes and believes Mr.
Moore's film...could 
alienate 
many."


One wonders whether Disney executives are worried
about alienating 
families 
who oppose slavery, nuclear war and Native American
genocide.


ACTION:

Ask Disney why it finds Paul Harvey's nostalgia for
slavery and 
genocide and 
his calls for nuclear war acceptable, but deemed
Michael Moore's film 
unacceptable.


CONTACT:

ABC Radio Networks 

abcradio at abc.com

John.E.McConnell at abc.com

Phone: 212-456-5387 



Paul Harvey

Irma.N.Aviles at abc.com

Phone: (312) 889-4085


Disney Corporation

Phone: 818-560-1000


As always, please remember that your comments have
more impact if you 
maintain a polite tone.


Read a transcript of Harvey's comments (courtesy of
the Chicago 
Tribune's 
Eric Zorn):

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ericzorn/weblog/archives/2005/06
/paul_harvey_ah.html




		
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