Big Journalism Calls Koch “Tentacles” Image Anti-Semitic--But BigJ Writers Are Guilty Of The Same
Published
It's one thing for a conservative blog to fling about the “anti-Semite!” charge will-nill, but it's a bit embarrassing if that blog has blown the exact same dog-whistle.
Today, Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism blog has a post attacking Brave New Foundation over a Shepard Fairey T-shirt design that depicts the Koch brothers as a two-headed octopus:
Big Journalism blogger John Sexton points out that the image of a “world-controlling” octopus has “a long, ugly history in political cartoons going back to the 1930s” before posting this Nazi propaganda poster for comparison:
Now, while the Koch brothers aren't Jewish, Sexton's not wrong that the Fairey image may have been ill-advised, or at least, not carefully considered.
However, his fellow Big Journalism bloggers are guilty of some propping up some pretty ill-advised images and purveyors of extremely similar images themselves.
In April 2010, bloggers Jim Hoft and Pamela Geller, who both write for Big Journalism, ran with a Fox Nation report that French President Nicolas Sarkozy supposedly called Obama “insane.” The source that Fox Nation, Hoft, and Geller cited for this quote was from an outfit called the European Union Times. This publication has run a slew of anti-Semitic articles, including the charmingly titled “China Finally Learns the Truth About the Jews,” which featured this image:
Other gems on the EU Times homepage -- which, warning, should be avoided as it was infected with spyware as of April 2010 -- included a link to a site that blames “the Jews” for 9/11 and a graphic of Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke devaluing the U.S. dollar labeled, “Pure Jewish Magic.”
To be clear, Big Journalism didn't post the above image on its site, but rather referred its readers to a website that did. Meaning, the kind of sources Big Journalism contributors deem credible include online newspapers that run pictures of an octopus bearing the Jewish star strangling the Capitol.
More recently, Big Journalism itself ran this questionable image invoking Nazi propaganda in a January 8 post about “media bias” following the Tucson shooting:
Hmm...who else charged one group with secretly controlling the media?:
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is the most notorious and widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times. Its lies about Jews, which have been repeatedly discredited, continue to circulate today, especially on the Internet. The individuals and groups who have used the Protocols are all linked by a common purpose: to spread hatred of Jews.
The Protocols is entirely a work of fiction, intentionally written to blame Jews for a variety of ills. Those who distribute it claim that it documents a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. The conspiracy and its alleged leaders, the so-called Elders of Zion, never existed.
[...]
Although the exact origin of the Protocols is unknown, its intent was to portray Jews as conspirators against the state. In 24 chapters, or protocols, allegedly minutes from meetings of Jewish leaders, the Protocols “describes” the “secret plans” of Jews to rule the world by manipulating the economy, controlling the media, and fostering religious conflict.
I'm sure Big Journalism's use of a graphic that seems to be winking at this narrative is just an unfortunate coincidence.
Then again, maybe Shepherd Fairey's octopus design was just a coincidence, too.
What's that saying about stones and glass houses again?