WORLD MEDIA REPORTS OUTRAGE OF 10,000 VIEWERS AGAINST PBS
21-02-2006 14:00:00 | USA | Articles and Analyses
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
The controversy over the planned airing by PBS of an
offensive panel discussion on the Armenian Genocide has become a
major national and international issue. Here are the key
developments of the past few days:
- The Washington Post published on Feb. 16, a lengthy
article titled: "PBS Panel on Armenian Genocide Stirs Protest."
The article reported that more than 6,000 people (as of Feb. 16)
had signed an online petition demanding the cancellation of the
panel discussion, "making it one of the largest organized
protests of a PBS program." Subsequently, the Los Angeles Times
and several other newspapers reprinted the Washington Post
article.
- The AFP (French Press Agency) wire service carried on
Feb. 17 a major story titled: "Armenian-Americans Outraged by
Panel Discussion on Genocide."
-The Broadcasting & Cable magazine published on Feb. 16 an
article titled: "PBS Gets Complaints about Genocide Panel." It
stated that, as of last week, PBS had received 163 e-mails
complaining about the panel discussion.
- The Turkish newspaper Milliyet covered the PBS
controversy in its Feb. 17 issue.
- The Armenian National Committee of America issued a press
release on Feb. 15 calling on PBS to cancel the panel discussion
and "not to provide national television platform for Armenian
Genocide deniers." In addition, in a letter addressed to Jacoba
Atlas, Senior Vice President of PBS Programming, the ANCA
requested a meeting with her to discuss the Armenian community's
concerns.
- The online petition urging PBS to cancel the panel
discussion, which was established on Feb. 9, has now been signed
by well over 10,000 people!
- The Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), a
coalition of more than 60 Turkish organizations, issued its own
copycat petition, mimicking the Armenian one. It claims to have
more than 8,000 names, a large percentage of which are fake!
Even Elvis is listed as having signed the Turkish petition!
- Professors Taner Akcam and Peter Balakian, who
participated in the pre-taped panel discussion supporting the
facts of the Armenian Genocide, wrote lengthy reports last week
explaining that they were basically blackmailed by Jacoba Atlas
who told them that without the panel discussion, PBS would not
air the Armenian Genocide documentary. Saying that he was
"backed into a corner" by PBS, Balakian urged viewers to ask the
PBS stations "not to run the post-show."
- Lea Sloan, the Vice President of Media Relations at PBS,
provided in writing on Feb. 17 the following official reaction
to my two previous columns: "PBS, like most historians, news
organizations and world courts, accepts that the genocide took
place. That is why we scheduled the documentary to air and that
is what the film's title asserts. The intent of the panel is to
explore the question of how historians can come to such
divergent conclusions about these events."
In a similar reaction, the Washington Post quoted Jacoba
Atlas as saying, "while we believe [the genocide] is settled
history ... you still get dissenters .... This remains a
contentious piece of history. There are just questions around
it." Both Sloan and Atlas are contradicting themselves by first
saying that the Armenian Genocide is recognized by "most
historians, news organizations and world courts," and that it is
"settled history," and then turning around and calling it "a
contentious piece of history." This makes no sense, whatsoever!
Given the fact that PBS is still planning to go ahead and
air this offensive panel discussion, I suggest the following
immediate steps:
Please sign the online petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?pbspanel and
forward it to as many people as possible. More than 10,000
people have already signed it.
Send e-mails to Jacoba Atlas at [email protected] urging her
not to provide air time to genocide deniers.
Ask Armenian organizations to urge their members to sign
the petition and send e-mails to Jacoba Atlas.
Ask your Member of Congress to send a letter to PBS
demanding that the panel discussion be cancelled.
Ask the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues (close to
150 members of Congress) to send a collective statement to PBS
opposing its planned airing of the panel discussion.
Since the individual PBS stations are the ones that decide
whether to air the panel discussion or not, contact your local
PBS station and urge them not to broadcast the post-show. To
find your local PBS station, 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. This would give you the
phone/fax numbers as well as mail and e-mail addresses of your
local station.