VP OF PBS SHOULD BE DISMISSED FOR INSULTING ARMENIANS
28-02-2006 15:00:00 | USA | Articles and Analyses
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
Up until now, I had refrained from blaming any one
individual at PBS for the unwise decision to air a debate with
deniers of the Armenian Genocide, immediately after the
broadcast of Andrew Goldberg's documentary, The Armenian
Genocide, on April 17.
Regrettably, I must now single out Jacoba Atlas, the Senior
Vice President of PBS programming, not only for being
responsible for this misguided decision, but also for insulting
Armenians worldwide by stating that the Armenian Genocide "is
not entirely analogous" to the Jewish Holocaust. In response to
a letter from Steve Dadaian, the Chairman of the Armenian
National Committee of America, Western Region, Atlas wrote: "You
and others have likened our decision to following a documentary
on the genocide of Jews during WW II with a panel of Holocaust
deniers. With all due respect, the comparison is not entirely
analogous. Germany has fully accepted responsibility for the
Holocaust, paid reparations, made apologies, met with survivors
and teaches about it in its schools. As you know, this is not
the case with the Armenian genocide. Turkey's official position
on this chapter of history is a key part of the controversy that
the documentary and the panel discussion seek to examine."
Since when does PBS take its programming cues from
oppressive governments? In terms of Turkish acknowledgement,
Ms. Atlas is probably not aware that in an interview published
in the August 1, 1926 issue of the Los Angeles Examiner, Kemal
Ataturk admitted that the Young Turks had massacred "millions of
[their] Christian subjects." She may not also know that the
Turkish Military Tribunal in 1919 sentenced to death in absentia
the masterminds of the Armenian Genocide. How many times Turkish
leaders and Turkish courts must acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide before Ms. Atlas is satisfied that the Armenian
Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust are "analogous?"
Ms. Atlas owes an apology to the Armenian American
community for providing a national platform to genocide deniers
and stating that the Armenian Genocide is not "analogous" to the
Holocaust. Should she fail to apologize and cancel the offensive
panel questioning the Armenian Genocide, PBS management should
then dismiss her from her position. American taxpayers should
not pay the salary of someone who besmirches the memory of the
victims of genocide and insults their descendants.
Notably, while Ms. Atlas is stubbornly clinging to her
anti-Armenian Genocide stance, another Jewish American, Cong.
Anthony Weiner (D-NY), was joining Armenian demonstrators
outside the studios of WNET/13 (the PBS affiliate in New York
City) last Saturday to protest the station's planned airing of
the genocide debate. The Associated Press and Newsday (NY)
quoted Cong. Weiner as saying that the inclusion of
genocide-deniers on the panel "is an insult to the history of
that time." This is the first such demonstration held against a
PBS station on this issue.
In other major developments on the PBS controversy since
last week:
- The New York Times published on Feb. 25 a lengthy article
titled: "Armenian Furor over PBS Plan for Debate." The article
referred to this writer as the "first [to] spread word of the
petitions and protests against the panel."
- Congressmen Adam Schiff (D-CA), George Radanovich (R-CA),
Armenian Caucus Co-Chairmen Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe
Knollenberg (R-MI) asked all members of the House of
Representatives to sign a joint letter expressing their
opposition to the PBS panel discussion. It is expected that many
of the 150 members of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian
Issues would sign this letter. The Caucus makes up more than
one-third of the entire House, a significant number when the
time comes to allocate funding to PBS. "A commitment to balance
does not mandate the inclusion of opinions that are objectively
false," the congressional letter said. "Doing so only promotes
the propagation of false and misleading views and undermines the
credibility of PBS."
- The Glendale News Press published an article on Feb. 22
titled: "Armenian Genocide Panel Protested."
- Two Turkish newspapers (Turkish Daily News and Zaman) and
an Azeri newspaper (Echo) published articles on this controversy
last week.
- During the daily press briefing at the State Department
on Feb. 24, a journalist asked Adam Ereli, the Deputy Spokesman
of the State Department, about "the position of the U.S.
Government" on the PBS controversy. Mr. Ereli's response was:
"You can watch whatever you want to watch."
- Several PBS stations announced last week that they would
not air the offensive panel discussion, following the broadcast
of the Goldberg documentary.
- The world famous rock band System of a Down supported the
campaign against the PBS panel by posting a link to the ANCA's
online Webmail on its website, www.systemofadown.com and placed
a link to the online petition on a second website:
http://www.axisofjustice.org/feature_022106.htm.
- KCET, the PBS station in the Los Angeles area, decided to
air in April two genocide documentaries: The U.S. premiere of
French filmmaker Laurence Jourdan's "Le Genocide Armenien" and
Canadian-Armenian Hagop Goudsouzian's "My Son Shall be
Armenian." KCET designated the month of April as "Armenian
Remembrance Month."
- Nearly 15,000 individuals have so far signed the online
petition asking PBS not to broadcast the panel discussion.
Meanwhile, the copycat Turkish petition is full of thousands of
anti-Armenian hate messages, profanities, fake and unauthorized
names, including those of people long dead, such as Ataturk and
Talaat.
- More than 3,500 protest e-mails have been sent to Ms.
Atlas through the ANCA's online Webmail.
- Several Armenian organizations and web groups have placed
the link to the online petition on their websites and have sent
e-mails to their members urging them to sign the petition.
I suggest the following actions in order to continue the
pressure on PBS to do the right thing:
1. Sign the online petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/pbspanel and forward the link to
others.
2. Send an e-mail to Jacoba Atlas at [email protected] urging
her not to provide airtime to genocide deniers. Forward her
e-mail address to others asking them to write to her also.
3. Ask Armenian organizations post the link to the online
petition on their websites and to send an e-mail to their
members urging them to sign the petition and to e-mail Ms.
Atlas.
4. Ask your Member of Congress to sign the joint
congressional letter to PBS.
5. Contact your local PBS station and urge them not to
broadcast the panel discussion. Go to www.pbs.org/stationfinder,
enter your zip code and click next. When you see the logo of
your local station, click next again.
6. Contact the PBS stations in Chicago and New York City
(WNET) urging them to cancel their decision to air the panel
discussion.