The GrassRoots TV board of directors voted Monday to ban a controversial Holocaust-denial film.As I mentioned last week, the Aspen Times newspaper editorialized that the film be shown.
Steve Campbell, founder of Citizens for 9/11 Truth, asked the station to air "Judea Declares War on Germany: A Critical Look at World War II" on Oct. 1.
But after prescreening the film, which questions conventional wisdom about the Holocaust, GrassRoots TV board members stopped the airing, pending further debate.
The board held an open forum on the matter Oct. 11 to gauge community reaction.
"The GrassRoots Television board has decided not to air the film 'Judea declares War on Germany,'" GrassRoots TV board chairman Alan Feldman said in a statement after the board meeting Monday.
"After careful consideration and community input, the board concluded that this film is obscene, repugnant to the generally accepted notion of what is appropriate in our community. GrassRoots TV will not allow the station to be used as a vehicle to incite hatred against any group. GrassRoots Television will issue a more detailed statement to our community in coming days."
Feldman promised a board policy in the future: "Our community spoke, and we have given it a lot of rational thinking," Feldman said. "We have the ability to refuse to air something if we believe it's obscene."
Campbell called it a "poor decision."
"Unfortunately, it shows basically what I and others have tried to say about this whole issue," Campbell said. "There are those who don't want you to see this information, and they'll do anything they can to stop you from watching it. And that's just what they're doing."
Campbell has shown other controversial films on GrassRoots, as well as on Rifle's public access station, he said.
He called the debate over "Judea Declares War on Germany: A Critical Look at World War II" a matter of "conscious-raising."
"I just think that it's a travesty what's going on," Campbell said.
Campbell said he is not planning any legal action against GrassRoots but added, "By censoring this film, it's only going to make people watch it more."
Campbell said that while he is being censored now, "The truth will come out. It's just like the grass that grows between the cracks in the sidewalk."
He said he might try and air the film in another venue, but he was disappointed that the large audience in Aspen wouldn't see it.
"This is part of the beginning of the loss of our freedoms of expression and speech and the dissemination of information just so certain people can maintain their status quo," Campbell said.
Notice how they cover this story above: giving far more space to the illiterate anti-semite ("conscious-raising"?) than to the people who made the decision. Not to mention the oh-so-politically correct way of referring to one of the purest forms of hate speech as simply "controversial" and as "question(ing the) conventional wisdom about the Holocaust."
The "censored" video is available at Amazon (one reviewer, 4 stars) and can be seen on-line if you care to look for it.
The name of the production company, believe it or not, is Amalek Productions.