JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) has the following brief report in today's "Breaking News" section:
Petition blasts C-SPAN on denier
More than 500 scholars signed a petition protesting C-SPAN’s decision to broadcast a lecture by a Holocaust denier.
The petition was organized by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in response to the U.S. cable network’s decision to broadcast a talk by David Irving alongside a lecture by Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt. Lipstadt later rescinded permission for C-Span to tape her talk.
Irving lost a lawsuit against Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin Books, in 2000, after Lipstadt accused Irving of being a Holocaust denier.
“The Holocaust is not a topic with ‘opposing views.’ It is a historical fact. Giving a platform to a Holocaust-denier to ‘balance’ a Holocaust historian is as outrageous as giving a platform to the Flat Earth Society to balance a speech by an astronomer,” Wyman Institute Director Rafael Medoff said.
Friday, March 25, 2005
AlterNet on Denial, C-SPAN ... and Ward Churchill
Bill Weinberg has weighed in on the C-SPAN controversy - and on Ward Churchill. Some excerpts:
Holocaust Denial, C-SPAN and Ward Churchill
C-SPAN is attempting to 'balance' a Holocaust studies professor with a denier; Ward Churchill's stab at 'moral equivalence' falls flat.
Over 200 historians have signed a petition in protest of C-SPAN's plan to pair coverage of a lecture by Deborah Lipstadt, professor of Holocaust studies at Georgia's Emory University, with one by David Irving, the notorious Holocaust revisionist. Irving, author of Hitler's War and other books, sued Lipstadt in his native U.K. after she called him out as a revisionist in her own book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory British courts dismissed the suit in 2000, finding that Irving deliberately misrepresented historical evidence. Lipstadt's book on the case, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving, has just been published.
[...]
In a 1991 speech, Irving told his audience that "more women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz." This is the kind of voice to which C-SPAN is about to loan credibility.
In Lipstadt's own blog, History on Trial, she notes that another one of her prominent critics is supposed American Indian scholar Ward Churchill, who recently gained notoreity by calling 9/11 victims "little Eichmanns."
[...]
[...]Churchill allows his own valid critique to be dismissed as the ravings of a nut. Recognition that the industrial destruction of indigenous lands and culture in the western hemisphere constitutes genocide (as defined under international law) can be lumped in with the pseudo-history of an Irving – or (more to the point) Churchill's own witless cheer-leading for mass murder in the 9/11 attacks.
[...]
So a nuanced sense of history is called for to really make sense of these issues – an unlikely prospect in an atmosphere degraded by cynicism and fealty to shallow sound-bites.
Meanwhile, if C-SPAN capitulates and drops the Irving segment, it will merely confirm the perception in the growing ranks of Jew-haters that "the Jews" control the media. Unless some honest and courageous voices are brought to the debate quickly, this affair will be a lose/lose no matter how we slice it.
The Emory Wheel on C-SPAN Controversy
Methinks that the student who wrote the article that appears in today's Emory Wheel could have learned some lessons from the editors at the San Antonio Express News [see previous post]. In doing her "homework", the writer - perhaps seeking "balance" - evidently spoke to Irving. Here are some excerpts:
Prof declines Book TV over Holocaust denier
Director of the Institute of Jewish Studies and Professor of Jewish and Holocaust Studies Deborah Lipstadt has again come at odds with the man who sued her five years ago for portraying him as a Holocaust denier.
Lipstadt planned to see a feature of her book about this court battle on the March 16 broadcast of C-SPAN’s “Book TV.” She granted C-SPAN permission to tape a speech she gave that day at Harvard Hillel, a Jewish organization at Harvard University.
But Lipstadt cancelled these plans when C-SPAN told her that a broadcast of English historical writer David Irving, an expert on the Hitler regime who she has called “a liar and a falsifier of history,” would be stacked with hers on the show.
According to Lipstadt, Irving’s claims that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz and that Adolf Hitler had no role in the Final Solution, among other things, implicate him as a Holocaust denier.
But Irving said such notions are part of Lipstadt’s “obsession” with him.
“I am not a Holocaust denier,” Irving said. “I am bored by the Holocaust and I think most of the world is, too.”
[...]
After a three-month trial, a British judge ruled in favor of Lipstadt, finding that testimony and documents that pictured Irving as an anti-Semite who distorted facts gave an apt portrayal.
Lipstadt said C-SPAN’s decision to “balance” her views with those of Irving was illogical.
“It would be like airing someone who wrote on slavery and someone who said slavery didn’t happen,” Lipstadt said.
Lipstadt refused C-SPAN coverage of her speech, which was based on her book History on Trial: My Day in Court With David Irving. However, C-SPAN taped a recent speech Irving gave at the Landmark Diner in Atlanta.
According to Irving, [...]
[...]
“[C-SPAN] have been totally uncommunicative,” Lipstadt said. “I have no idea what their plans are.”
Lipstadt said C-SPAN had planned to show Irving’s Atlanta speech on the show with or without her appearance.
“He didn’t have to be balanced, but I did,” she said.
San Antonio Express-News weighs in on C-SPAN issue
Here are some excerpts from an excellent editorial in today's issue of the San Antonio Express-News:
C-SPAN loses its sense of balance and reality
Balance is a watchword in journalism. In reporting the news, the media's goal is to present competing views of contentious issues. In commenting about the news, editorial pages seek diverse viewpoints.
Sometimes, however, the commitment to achieve balance can conflict with an even greater obligation to report truthfully and keep commentary within the bounds of reasonably established facts.
The recent decision of C-SPAN to counterpose a world-renowned Holocaust historian with an internationally discredited crackpot demonstrates how a blind commitment to balance can lead to a gross distortion of reality.
[...]
The British Royal High Court ruled against Irving. In his verdict, Justice Charles Gray determined Irving had "for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence."
Nevertheless, C-SPAN — under the premise of presenting balance — decided to pair Lipstadt's Harvard lecture with one by Irving on March 12 at the Landmark Diner in Atlanta.
Lipstadt declined to participate in C-SPAN's balancing act gone mad. Her lecture will not appear on "Book TV."
Propaganda can no more balance history than lies can balance the truth. C-SPAN's mistaken sense of balance represents an outrageous endorsement of hate-filled drivel.
History on Trial Reviewed in Cleveland Jewish News
Michael Berenbaum's review of History on Trial has been published in this week's Cleveland Jewish News.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
More than 500 Historians Protest to C-SPAN
The Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies has issued a follow-up to their March 17 petition.
More Than 500 Historians Protest C-Span Broadcast of Holocaust- Denier
More than 500 prominent historians and other scholars have now signed the petition protesting C-SPAN's plan to broadcast a lecture by Holocaust-denier David Irving on its program "Book TV."
The latest signatories include such prominent scholars as New Republic editor-in-chief Dr. Martin Peretz, Harvard Law School Prof. Alan Dershowitz, and Dr. Michael Walzer; Eric Foner, Simon Schama, and Istvan Deak, of Columbia; David Brion Davis, Harold Bloom, and Paul Kennedy of Yale; and Charles Maier and Richard Pipes of Harvard;
-- Pulitzer prize winners David Levering Lewis, Jack Rakove, and Lloyd Schwartz;
-- Media notables Marvin Kalb and Ben Stein;
-- Holocaust scholars Randolph Braham, Daniel Goldhagen, and Omer Bartov;
-- Leading Jewish historians Jonathan Sarna, Yosef Yerushalmi, Robert Chazan, and Deborah Dash Moore
...as well as historians from England, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, and Japan.
Another 330 scholars signed the petition this week, following on the heels of 203 historians who signed it last week. The petition was organized by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which publishes the only annual report on Holocaust-denial around the world.
[...]
The signatories on the first installment of the Wyman Institute petition, which was sent to C-SPAN on March 17, included some of the most noted historians of the Holocaust, such as Christopher Browning, Richard Breitman, Deborah Dwork, Ronald Zweig, and David S. Wyman. (For a list of those initial 203 signatories, please go to http://www.WymanInstitute.org)
The text of the letter and the complete list of 330 signatories on the second petition follow
[...]
History on Trial reviewed in The Jewish Week
New York's The Jewish Week combines a review of History on Trial with the C-SPAN storm story:
(03/25/2005)
No Denying This Victory
Deborah Lipstadt’s new book tells the story of refuting a libel accusation by a Holocaust denier — but you won’t see her on C-SPAN.
Sandee Brawarsky - Jewish Week Book Critic
Deborah Lipstadt did something few authors of new books would dare: She rejected an invitation to discuss her work on national television on a show geared to serious book lovers.
Lipstadt, the author of “History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving” (Ecco), was scheduled to appear last week on C-SPAN’s “Book TV,” but later refused to let the network tape her appearance at the Harvard Hillel when she learned that the show was planning to feature a talk by David Irving with her remarks.
“This is a man who is a Holocaust denier, who was found to be a liar and a falsifier of history,” she said last weekend in an interview on the Upper West Side.
Lipstadt, a professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta, explained that she would have no problem debating someone with a position diametrically opposed to her own, but this is a case where she had been asked to speak to someone with no grounding in truth.
“The producers would never ask Skip [Henry Louis] Gates to debate someone who said that slavery never happened. They wouldn’t dignify that position,” she said.
For Lipstadt and the more than 200 historians who signed a petition protesting C-SPAN’s decision, the notion of editorial “balance” doesn’t apply here.
“Falsehoods cannot balance the truth,” states the document, spearheaded by the David S. Wyman Institute of Holocaust Studies. The signatures were gathered in less than 48 hours; others have signed on since the petition was submitted.
“History on Trial” is an account of Lipstadt’s 2000 trial before the British High Court of Justice, where she was accused by Irving of libel in her previous book, “Denying the Holocaust.” In that book she identified Irving, a prolific writer on World War II-related subjects, as a Holocaust denier who repeatedly misrepresented history.
Unlike the American court system, where the accuser has to prove the charges false, British law places the burden on the accused, who must demonstrate that the statements considered libelous are in fact true.
Lipstadt had the options of trying to settle with Irving or going to trial. Given the nature of the accusations, however, she said there was no choice. Lipstadt ultimately raised $1.5 million for her defense.
The case received international press coverage. Irving served as his own lawyer, while Lipstadt did not speak at all. Her witnesses were historians and other experts involved in documenting Nazi genocide. Lipstadt’s legal team wanted to rely on documents, so it did not call any survivors to testify.
For the five years before the case went to trial and during the trial itself, Lipstadt kept a journal of developments and also her impressions. About six months before the trial, she realized that there was a book to be written. At first she thought about a joint venture, where members of her legal team would contribute a chapter. But Lipstadt realized later that she had a lot to say, especially since she would not be speaking at the trial or to the press.
“It’s my medium,” she said of writing. The director of Emory’s Institute for Jewish Studies, Lipstadt is also the author of “Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust 1933-1945” and many articles.
A compelling book, “History on Trial” is memoir and courtroom drama, a work of historical and legal import. Lipstadt succeeds in drawing textured portraits of the lawyers working on her case, as well as the historians, the judge and Irving, who comes across more as a clown than one to be taken seriously. Her narrative powerfully details the trial, weaving forensic and historical details and noting when a certain barrister would tug at his wig.
As a memoir, there are scant personal details, and Lipstadt admittedly is a very private person, even though she is frequently in the limelight. She is not, as many might assume, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Her father left Germany before the Third Reich and her mother, whose family came from Poland, was born in Canada.
Her feisty, determined personality comes through in the few stories she tells of her years growing up in Manhattan and Far Rockaway, at summer camps and at college. In early 1967, while studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, she was upset that Jews could not visit the holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, so she took a circuitous route to do so, traveling to Greece to obtain a new passport, then to Beirut, Damascus and Jordan, to the Old City and then through the Mandelbaum Gate back to Israel.
A person Lipstadt credits as being the seminal influence on her life, after her parents, is Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, who led the Far Rockaway synagogue where her family belonged, before he became chancellor of Bar-Ilan University. She was impressed with his knowledge of Judaism and the contemporary world, and of his efforts to reach out in intra- and inter-religious dialogue.
“Long before I knew precisely what a role model was, I knew that I wanted to be like him,” she wrote.
Featured in the book are two brief essays by outspoken defenders of free speech: an introduction by Anthony Lewis and an afterword by Alan Dershowitz. Although these two might often hold opposing viewpoints, here they provide affirming bookends.
Throughout the trial, Lipstadt remained anxious and cautious in her attitudes about potential outcomes; she was “living on the edge” with raw emotions.
“Not losing was critical,” she said. “If we lost it would have been a disaster, even if we said it was a legal fluke.”
For the two weeks between the closing arguments and the announcement of the judge’s decision, Lipstadt returned home to Atlanta, where she did what she did every year –– prepared for Passover and made a seder.
Ultimately she was confident that she would win, but was worried that the judge might have tried to be evenhanded in his decision or been unclear in a way that enabled Irving to further twist the truth. But the decision was clear-cut: The judge declared it “incontrovertible that Irving qualifies as a Holocaust denier” and that he “repeatedly crossed the divide between legitimate criticism and prejudiced vilification of the Jewish race and people.”
In conversation, Lipstadt plays down the heroism attributed to her by Holocaust survivors and other observers of the trial. Many survivors thanked her profusely for protecting their history.
“It all made me very uncomfortable,” she said. “I’m not a person who’s averse to being thanked. I’m not so humble.”
The trial ended at just about this time of year on the Jewish calendar. The following Shabbat, she attended synagogue in London, the week of Parashat Zachor, the Sabbath of Remembrance. Lipstadt says she stood instinctively when the additional reading, recalling the acts of Amalek, was read.
“I felt like I had really fought for that memory,” she said.
A few days later, back in synagogue for the reading of the Megillah for Purim, Lipstadt was struck by the lines in the text when Mordechai tells Esther that perhaps she has attained her royal position for just the crisis they faced.
“I heard that ringing in my ears. I don’t know for what reason people are put anywhere, and a lot of people do bigger chesed [acts of compassion and lovingkindness] that we don’t hear about,” she said. “I got a chance to do a thing that touched a lot of people. I didn’t seek it but I feel privileged, and now I have a voice and a responsibility to use that voice.”
In January, Lipstadt traveled to Poland as part of the presidential delegation for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. She recalled looking out at the survivors and realizing that the vast majority won’t be around for the 70th anniversary.
“The torch of memory, or witness, is being passed from the survivors to the historians,” she said.
Since January, she has been an active blogger (lipstadt.blogspot.com), posting notes and recording impressions of the Poland trip as well as, more recently, the C-SPAN controversy. Until this week, readers were able to post their responses, but she halted that because the site was attracting a number of Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites. Lipstadt didn’t want to afford them a platform.
About blogging she said, “There’s always something going on to keep things interesting.”
(03/25/2005)
No Denying This Victory
Deborah Lipstadt’s new book tells the story of refuting a libel accusation by a Holocaust denier — but you won’t see her on C-SPAN.
Sandee Brawarsky - Jewish Week Book Critic
Deborah Lipstadt did something few authors of new books would dare: She rejected an invitation to discuss her work on national television on a show geared to serious book lovers.
Lipstadt, the author of “History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving” (Ecco), was scheduled to appear last week on C-SPAN’s “Book TV,” but later refused to let the network tape her appearance at the Harvard Hillel when she learned that the show was planning to feature a talk by David Irving with her remarks.
“This is a man who is a Holocaust denier, who was found to be a liar and a falsifier of history,” she said last weekend in an interview on the Upper West Side.
Lipstadt, a professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta, explained that she would have no problem debating someone with a position diametrically opposed to her own, but this is a case where she had been asked to speak to someone with no grounding in truth.
“The producers would never ask Skip [Henry Louis] Gates to debate someone who said that slavery never happened. They wouldn’t dignify that position,” she said.
For Lipstadt and the more than 200 historians who signed a petition protesting C-SPAN’s decision, the notion of editorial “balance” doesn’t apply here.
“Falsehoods cannot balance the truth,” states the document, spearheaded by the David S. Wyman Institute of Holocaust Studies. The signatures were gathered in less than 48 hours; others have signed on since the petition was submitted.
“History on Trial” is an account of Lipstadt’s 2000 trial before the British High Court of Justice, where she was accused by Irving of libel in her previous book, “Denying the Holocaust.” In that book she identified Irving, a prolific writer on World War II-related subjects, as a Holocaust denier who repeatedly misrepresented history.
Unlike the American court system, where the accuser has to prove the charges false, British law places the burden on the accused, who must demonstrate that the statements considered libelous are in fact true.
Lipstadt had the options of trying to settle with Irving or going to trial. Given the nature of the accusations, however, she said there was no choice. Lipstadt ultimately raised $1.5 million for her defense.
The case received international press coverage. Irving served as his own lawyer, while Lipstadt did not speak at all. Her witnesses were historians and other experts involved in documenting Nazi genocide. Lipstadt’s legal team wanted to rely on documents, so it did not call any survivors to testify.
For the five years before the case went to trial and during the trial itself, Lipstadt kept a journal of developments and also her impressions. About six months before the trial, she realized that there was a book to be written. At first she thought about a joint venture, where members of her legal team would contribute a chapter. But Lipstadt realized later that she had a lot to say, especially since she would not be speaking at the trial or to the press.
“It’s my medium,” she said of writing. The director of Emory’s Institute for Jewish Studies, Lipstadt is also the author of “Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust 1933-1945” and many articles.
A compelling book, “History on Trial” is memoir and courtroom drama, a work of historical and legal import. Lipstadt succeeds in drawing textured portraits of the lawyers working on her case, as well as the historians, the judge and Irving, who comes across more as a clown than one to be taken seriously. Her narrative powerfully details the trial, weaving forensic and historical details and noting when a certain barrister would tug at his wig.
As a memoir, there are scant personal details, and Lipstadt admittedly is a very private person, even though she is frequently in the limelight. She is not, as many might assume, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Her father left Germany before the Third Reich and her mother, whose family came from Poland, was born in Canada.
Her feisty, determined personality comes through in the few stories she tells of her years growing up in Manhattan and Far Rockaway, at summer camps and at college. In early 1967, while studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, she was upset that Jews could not visit the holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, so she took a circuitous route to do so, traveling to Greece to obtain a new passport, then to Beirut, Damascus and Jordan, to the Old City and then through the Mandelbaum Gate back to Israel.
A person Lipstadt credits as being the seminal influence on her life, after her parents, is Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, who led the Far Rockaway synagogue where her family belonged, before he became chancellor of Bar-Ilan University. She was impressed with his knowledge of Judaism and the contemporary world, and of his efforts to reach out in intra- and inter-religious dialogue.
“Long before I knew precisely what a role model was, I knew that I wanted to be like him,” she wrote.
Featured in the book are two brief essays by outspoken defenders of free speech: an introduction by Anthony Lewis and an afterword by Alan Dershowitz. Although these two might often hold opposing viewpoints, here they provide affirming bookends.
Throughout the trial, Lipstadt remained anxious and cautious in her attitudes about potential outcomes; she was “living on the edge” with raw emotions.
“Not losing was critical,” she said. “If we lost it would have been a disaster, even if we said it was a legal fluke.”
For the two weeks between the closing arguments and the announcement of the judge’s decision, Lipstadt returned home to Atlanta, where she did what she did every year –– prepared for Passover and made a seder.
Ultimately she was confident that she would win, but was worried that the judge might have tried to be evenhanded in his decision or been unclear in a way that enabled Irving to further twist the truth. But the decision was clear-cut: The judge declared it “incontrovertible that Irving qualifies as a Holocaust denier” and that he “repeatedly crossed the divide between legitimate criticism and prejudiced vilification of the Jewish race and people.”
In conversation, Lipstadt plays down the heroism attributed to her by Holocaust survivors and other observers of the trial. Many survivors thanked her profusely for protecting their history.
“It all made me very uncomfortable,” she said. “I’m not a person who’s averse to being thanked. I’m not so humble.”
The trial ended at just about this time of year on the Jewish calendar. The following Shabbat, she attended synagogue in London, the week of Parashat Zachor, the Sabbath of Remembrance. Lipstadt says she stood instinctively when the additional reading, recalling the acts of Amalek, was read.
“I felt like I had really fought for that memory,” she said.
A few days later, back in synagogue for the reading of the Megillah for Purim, Lipstadt was struck by the lines in the text when Mordechai tells Esther that perhaps she has attained her royal position for just the crisis they faced.
“I heard that ringing in my ears. I don’t know for what reason people are put anywhere, and a lot of people do bigger chesed [acts of compassion and lovingkindness] that we don’t hear about,” she said. “I got a chance to do a thing that touched a lot of people. I didn’t seek it but I feel privileged, and now I have a voice and a responsibility to use that voice.”
In January, Lipstadt traveled to Poland as part of the presidential delegation for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. She recalled looking out at the survivors and realizing that the vast majority won’t be around for the 70th anniversary.
“The torch of memory, or witness, is being passed from the survivors to the historians,” she said.
Since January, she has been an active blogger (lipstadt.blogspot.com), posting notes and recording impressions of the Poland trip as well as, more recently, the C-SPAN controversy. Until this week, readers were able to post their responses, but she halted that because the site was attracting a number of Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites. Lipstadt didn’t want to afford them a platform.
About blogging she said, “There’s always something going on to keep things interesting.”
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
C-SPAN Controversy cited in Columbia Journalism Review Daily
In an article entitled Propaganda Clothed as Critique, CJR Daily cites the C-SPAN controversy as an example of equivalence run amok:
A recent incident concerning C-SPAN illustrated to what absurd lengths the quest for equivalence at all costs can lead. The network announced that it would balance its coverage of a lecture by a professor of Holocaust studies named Deborah E. Lipstadt with a speech by David Irving -- who sued Lipstadt for calling him a Holocaust denier. A British court found for Lipstadt, finding that Irving was anti-Semitic, racist, and given to misrepresenting and misinterpreting historical evidence. "Falsifiers of history cannot 'balance' histories," said a petition sent to C-SPAN that was signed by more than 200 historians. "Falsehoods cannot 'balance' the truth."
New York Times issues correction to C-SPAN article
Correction: March 23, 2005, Wednesday:
An article on Friday about C-Span's plans to broadcast a speech by David Irving, who has argued that Hitler was not fully responsible for the mass murder of Jews, referred incorrectly to the disposition of a libel suit he filed against Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University, for calling him a Holocaust denier. The British High Court found for Professor Lipstadt; the case was not dismissed.
An article on Friday about C-Span's plans to broadcast a speech by David Irving, who has argued that Hitler was not fully responsible for the mass murder of Jews, referred incorrectly to the disposition of a libel suit he filed against Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University, for calling him a Holocaust denier. The British High Court found for Professor Lipstadt; the case was not dismissed.
Publisher's Lunch on C-Span Controversy
From Publisher's Lunch the publishing industry's "daily essential read," (daily circ. 30,000) which reports on stories of interest to the professional trade book community
Historian Denies C-SPAN for Wanting to Air Holocaust Denier
Historian Denies C-SPAN for Wanting to Air Holocaust Denier
C-SPAN is taking flak from a number of sides over their plan to give air time to Holocaust denier David Irving. The original excuse for the broadcast was that Irving would "balance" a planned airing of a lecture by Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt at Harvard. Lipstadt prevailed in a lengthy libel case brought against her by Irving in the UK, which is the subject of her new book HISTORY ON TRIAL.
Lipstadt explains in a NY Sun column today: "My book was a personal account of the experience of having to defend the truth of what I wrote. The opportunity to have an hour to discuss it on C-span was something I looked forward to, until I learned that they were intending to juxtapose my talk with one by Mr. Irving. In essence, they were planning to create the debate between us, a debate I have long refused to have. I consider debating Holocaust deniers to be the equivalent of asking NASA scientists to debate those who argue that the moon landing actually happened on a sound stage in Nevada."
Though Lipstadt withdrew permission to have her Harvard speech aired, C-SPAN told her they would broadcast a piece with Irving anyway. "When I protested to C-span, they insisted that they broadcast all opinions [Holocaust denial is an 'opinion'?] and that they broadcast liars all the time, after all, a C-span producer told me, 'they put on members of Congress,' - thus equating the U.S. Congress with bigoted liars. I cannot imagine them 'balancing' an appearance by a specialist on African-American history with someone who says slavery was a pleasant experience."
Honest Reporting Update on C-SPAN controversy
In their March 23 communique, Honest Reporting provides an update to their readers:
UPDATE: C-SPAN'S BOOK-TV
Last week's HonestReporting communique noted that the cable network C-SPAN, for its BookTV program, insisted upon airing Holocaust denier David Irving alongside Holocaust scholar Prof. Deborah Lipstadt, to provide what C-SPAN termed 'balance' on the topic. When Prof. Lipstadt refused to be cast side-by-side with Irving, C-SPAN cancelled the scheduled program.
Two days after the HR critique, The New York Times ran an article on this story, noting that more than 200 prominent historians from colleges across the U.S. have signed a petition protesting C-SPAN's decision. The petition was organized by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and may be viewed here.
Lipstadt's appearance on The O'Reilly Factor
Seems that Fox doesn't archive the show, but here is the Segment Summary of O'Reilly's March 21 interview with Prof. Lipstadt:
Personal Story Segment
C-Span Controversy
Guest: Deborah Lipstadt, author of "History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving"
Author Deborah Lipstadt has written a book about her legal battle with holocaust denier David Irving, who sued Lipstadt for libel. C-SPAN invited her to talk about the book, but the network insisted that Irving also be interviewed. "C-SPAN is a very important venue for authors and they asked me to be on and I was delighted," Lipstadt told The Factor. "Then I learned they were also going to put Irving on after me, creating a debate which I have avoided on principle. He says there was no Holocaust ? he says some Jews may have died, but just a few. It's the most convoluted political correctness ? they wanted to put him on for balance." Lipstadt refused to appear under those circumstances, and The Factor applauded her decision. "You were smart not to go on with him. You'll sell more books here."
Lipstadt in NY Sun: "Why I said No to C-Span"
OPED in today's New York Sun
March 23, 2005
Why I Said 'No' to C-Span
BY DEBORAH E. LIPSTADT
March 23, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/10993
C-span's "Book TV" has become a highly coveted venue for authors. The network, along with Oprah, has had a huge and positive impact on literacy in this country, an entire weekend - 48 consecutive hours - devoted to discussion of nonfiction books. The audience is book loving, reading, and, not to be dismissed, buying audience. I was delighted when C-span asked to broadcast a speech I was giving about my new book, "History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving."
The book chronicles how David Irving, a Holocaust denier, sued me for libel in a British courtroom for calling him a denier. Irving had called the Holocaust a "legend" and had declared that he removed all mention of the Holocaust from one of his books, because "if something did not happen you don't even dignify it with a footnote." He had counseled his followers that the Holocaust must be treated with, not just "ridicule," but tasteless analogies. He instructed them to say things "like more women died on the back seat of Senator Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz." His statement was greeted with laughter and applause. Given this record, I did not think that describing him as a denier was controversial.
I was wrong. He brought a libel suit against me in the United Kingdom demanding that I apologize, pay damages, and withdraw my book from circulation. In Britain, the onus is on the defendant to prove the truth of her words and not on the plaintiff to prove the falsehood. I could not, therefore, just walk away from the fight. Had I done so, the court would have found me guilty and, by so doing, legitimized his "definition" of the Holocaust. According to Mr. Irving, there was no German plan to kill the Jews. There were Jews who were killed, but as a result of rogue actions, not a coordinated program administered by the Third Reich. Moreover, Mr. Irving contends, Hitler was "the best friend the Jews had in Germany," and tried to prevent their persecution. One of the main claims in Mr. Irving's arsenal is that there were no gas chambers and that the survivors who contend otherwise are either psychopaths, liars, or in it for the money. He once asked a survivor how much money she made from having a number tattooed on her arm.
This legal battle lasted for over six years. The Royal High Court of Justice dismissed Mr. Irving's suit and, in a 355-page judgment, declared that in his writings about the Holocaust, he "perverts," "distorts," "mislead[s]," and does so "deliberate[ly]." His renditions of events were, the judge noted, a "travesty of the evidence" and were "reprehensible." Four different appeal court judges subsequently concurred.
My book was a personal account of the experience of having to defend the truth of what I wrote. The opportunity to have an hour to discuss it on C-span was something I looked forward to, until I learned that they were intending to juxtapose my talk with one by Mr. Irving. In essence, they were planning to create the debate between us, a debate I have long refused to have. I consider debating Holocaust deniers to be the equivalent of asking NASA scientists to debate those who argue that the moon landing actually happened on a sound stage in Nevada. There are many things to debate about the Holocaust, e.g. precisely when did the Nazis decide to murder European Jewry. Whether it happened is not one of them.
When I protested to C-span, they insisted that they broadcast all opinions [Holocaust denial is an "opinion"?] and that they broadcast liars all the time, after all, a C-span producer told me, "they put on members of Congress," - thus equating the U.S. Congress with bigoted liars. I cannot imagine them "balancing" an appearance by a specialist on African-American history with someone who says slavery was a pleasant experience. Or for that matter, "balancing" an appearance of a civil rights leader with a member of the Ku Klux Klan to discuss theories of black inferiority.
I told the C-span producer that, if they insisted on broadcasting me back to back with Irving, I would not allow them to cover my talk at Harvard. Then I added, almost as an afterthought, that I assumed that they would not broadcast Mr. Irving. "No," the producer assured me, "we plan to broadcast him in any case." I was too flabbergasted to ask the obvious: "Where's the balance in that?" I then learned that Mr. Irving had previously appeared on C-span; though no scholar had been asked to balance his presentations.
Holocaust deniers and, for that matter, most prejudiced people are wretched types who are no more important than the dirt we step in on the street. We must, however, clean it off our feet before we drag it into our homes. This time, however, my "adversary" was a network that many people look to as a source of calm, clear and, generally, insightful discussion.
Four years after my trial in a London court, I find myself far more disturbed by C-span's moral blindness than by pathetic characters such as Holocaust deniers.
Professor Lipstadt teaches Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University and the author of "History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving" (Ecco, 2005).
March 23, 2005 Edition > Section: Editorial and Opinion > Printer-Friendly Version
March 23, 2005
Why I Said 'No' to C-Span
BY DEBORAH E. LIPSTADT
March 23, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/10993
C-span's "Book TV" has become a highly coveted venue for authors. The network, along with Oprah, has had a huge and positive impact on literacy in this country, an entire weekend - 48 consecutive hours - devoted to discussion of nonfiction books. The audience is book loving, reading, and, not to be dismissed, buying audience. I was delighted when C-span asked to broadcast a speech I was giving about my new book, "History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving."
The book chronicles how David Irving, a Holocaust denier, sued me for libel in a British courtroom for calling him a denier. Irving had called the Holocaust a "legend" and had declared that he removed all mention of the Holocaust from one of his books, because "if something did not happen you don't even dignify it with a footnote." He had counseled his followers that the Holocaust must be treated with, not just "ridicule," but tasteless analogies. He instructed them to say things "like more women died on the back seat of Senator Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz." His statement was greeted with laughter and applause. Given this record, I did not think that describing him as a denier was controversial.
I was wrong. He brought a libel suit against me in the United Kingdom demanding that I apologize, pay damages, and withdraw my book from circulation. In Britain, the onus is on the defendant to prove the truth of her words and not on the plaintiff to prove the falsehood. I could not, therefore, just walk away from the fight. Had I done so, the court would have found me guilty and, by so doing, legitimized his "definition" of the Holocaust. According to Mr. Irving, there was no German plan to kill the Jews. There were Jews who were killed, but as a result of rogue actions, not a coordinated program administered by the Third Reich. Moreover, Mr. Irving contends, Hitler was "the best friend the Jews had in Germany," and tried to prevent their persecution. One of the main claims in Mr. Irving's arsenal is that there were no gas chambers and that the survivors who contend otherwise are either psychopaths, liars, or in it for the money. He once asked a survivor how much money she made from having a number tattooed on her arm.
This legal battle lasted for over six years. The Royal High Court of Justice dismissed Mr. Irving's suit and, in a 355-page judgment, declared that in his writings about the Holocaust, he "perverts," "distorts," "mislead[s]," and does so "deliberate[ly]." His renditions of events were, the judge noted, a "travesty of the evidence" and were "reprehensible." Four different appeal court judges subsequently concurred.
My book was a personal account of the experience of having to defend the truth of what I wrote. The opportunity to have an hour to discuss it on C-span was something I looked forward to, until I learned that they were intending to juxtapose my talk with one by Mr. Irving. In essence, they were planning to create the debate between us, a debate I have long refused to have. I consider debating Holocaust deniers to be the equivalent of asking NASA scientists to debate those who argue that the moon landing actually happened on a sound stage in Nevada. There are many things to debate about the Holocaust, e.g. precisely when did the Nazis decide to murder European Jewry. Whether it happened is not one of them.
When I protested to C-span, they insisted that they broadcast all opinions [Holocaust denial is an "opinion"?] and that they broadcast liars all the time, after all, a C-span producer told me, "they put on members of Congress," - thus equating the U.S. Congress with bigoted liars. I cannot imagine them "balancing" an appearance by a specialist on African-American history with someone who says slavery was a pleasant experience. Or for that matter, "balancing" an appearance of a civil rights leader with a member of the Ku Klux Klan to discuss theories of black inferiority.
I told the C-span producer that, if they insisted on broadcasting me back to back with Irving, I would not allow them to cover my talk at Harvard. Then I added, almost as an afterthought, that I assumed that they would not broadcast Mr. Irving. "No," the producer assured me, "we plan to broadcast him in any case." I was too flabbergasted to ask the obvious: "Where's the balance in that?" I then learned that Mr. Irving had previously appeared on C-span; though no scholar had been asked to balance his presentations.
Holocaust deniers and, for that matter, most prejudiced people are wretched types who are no more important than the dirt we step in on the street. We must, however, clean it off our feet before we drag it into our homes. This time, however, my "adversary" was a network that many people look to as a source of calm, clear and, generally, insightful discussion.
Four years after my trial in a London court, I find myself far more disturbed by C-span's moral blindness than by pathetic characters such as Holocaust deniers.
Professor Lipstadt teaches Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University and the author of "History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving" (Ecco, 2005).
March 23, 2005 Edition > Section: Editorial and Opinion > Printer-Friendly Version
S.F. Chronicle on C-Span Controversy
Jon Carroll in The San Francisco Chronicle weighs in.
So in this corner we have Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University. In the other corner we have author and lecturer David Irving, who once remarked, "I say quite tastelessly, in fact, that more women died on the backseat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz."
Lipstadt called Irving a "Holocaust denier," and, remarkably, Irving sued her for libel. A British Royal High Court of Justice dismissed Irving's lawsuit, saying, in effect, "Are you kidding?"
So now Lipstadt has written a book about the libel case and is seeking to promote it, like every author west of the international date line, on C-SPAN. C-SPAN decided that it would follow Lipstadt's remarks with a speech by Irving. This is called "fairness," which is one of those ideas that seem wonderful and reasonable until they run up against reality. I, for instance, became incensed when I read "What Color Is My Foot? No, Seriously, What Color Is It?" by Lockman Rodwall, a retired advertising executive. In it, Rodwall maintains that it is a bad idea to attack advertising executives with poisoned stilettos. "I categorically reject the idea," wrote Rodwall, "that any group of individuals, no matter how wealthy or influential, should have the power to pierce the flesh of advertising executives with curare-tipped needles."
A controversial idea? I should say so. I myself hold that one of the great freedoms our Founding Fathers preserved for us was the right to maim advertising executives in any manner we choose. That's Amendment 2.5, and I hold it sacred.
Well, this Rodwall fellow got a slot on C-SPAN to promote his book as part of the panel discussion called "No One Is Watching Anyway; Talk in French if You Want." I immediately called C-SPAN to demand time to rebut Rodwall and, in accordance with my constitutional rights, to impale an advertising executive on a bed of cyanide-tipped nails.
Well, of course, all those namby-pamby civil rights people got involved, saying, "Oh no, you can't kill anyone on television," conveniently forgetting the daily footage of people being killed in Iraq by nice American boys just doing their jobs. I'd be doing my job, too. I'd be defending the Constitution and, not incidentally, reducing the world population of advertising executives by one.
I could go on like this all day, but I'll stop now. There is no "fairness" in society. There is no "fairness" in the media. No one is going to print an opinion piece called "Incest Is Really Cool" or "Let's Make a Car Bomb!" or "Hunger No More! We'll Eat Our Babies." So we're all involved in making judgments about what is an acceptable opinion and what is an unacceptable opinion.
Of course, everyone is still free to express any opinion. But society is going to suppress some opinions, free speech or no, because there is good in the world and there is evil in the world and somewhere along the road to madness we have to acknowledge that. Slavery was real; the Holocaust was real; the massacre of Armenians by Turks was real; the massacre of American Indians by European invaders was real. Those realities are inconvenient, but not so inconvenient that we get to play "wishing makes it so" games.
The lesson of all these realities is the same: Within each of us lies a monster. That monster can be aroused. It takes ideology, circumstances, fear - - whatever. We do not understand the monster within us. It is useful for us to face the monster, and give it a name, and inquire as to its nature. Fairness is of no use in this quest.
The problem comes in the areas in which society has not formed a consensus. Sometimes the consensus changes over time. In 1958, less than 50 years ago, only 4 percent of Americans thought that interracial marriage should be permitted. A plurality of Americans -- 48 percent -- did not accept interracial marriage until 1991. There may be a great conservative wave in this country, but there is a great undercurrent of tolerance too. That's why I think history is on the side of gay marriage.
That's what makes this information business so hard. Everything is a judgment call; there are no rules -- or rather, what is a rule today will not be a rule tomorrow. I'll give you an example: This paper and the New York Times both ban the term "pro-life" to describe the anti-abortion movement. I think that's a terrible idea because it is the only term that gives you a real sense of what the fight looks like from the anti-choice side. That's what they think the stakes are, like it or not.
I think that C-SPAN's decision was wrong, but I can sure see how it happened.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some ideas are good and some ideas are not good, and it is useful to distinguish between the two, even if it makes some people angry.
Gentle bows and glasses raised, to the charity of jcarroll@sfchronicle.com.
So in this corner we have Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University. In the other corner we have author and lecturer David Irving, who once remarked, "I say quite tastelessly, in fact, that more women died on the backseat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz."
Lipstadt called Irving a "Holocaust denier," and, remarkably, Irving sued her for libel. A British Royal High Court of Justice dismissed Irving's lawsuit, saying, in effect, "Are you kidding?"
So now Lipstadt has written a book about the libel case and is seeking to promote it, like every author west of the international date line, on C-SPAN. C-SPAN decided that it would follow Lipstadt's remarks with a speech by Irving. This is called "fairness," which is one of those ideas that seem wonderful and reasonable until they run up against reality. I, for instance, became incensed when I read "What Color Is My Foot? No, Seriously, What Color Is It?" by Lockman Rodwall, a retired advertising executive. In it, Rodwall maintains that it is a bad idea to attack advertising executives with poisoned stilettos. "I categorically reject the idea," wrote Rodwall, "that any group of individuals, no matter how wealthy or influential, should have the power to pierce the flesh of advertising executives with curare-tipped needles."
A controversial idea? I should say so. I myself hold that one of the great freedoms our Founding Fathers preserved for us was the right to maim advertising executives in any manner we choose. That's Amendment 2.5, and I hold it sacred.
Well, this Rodwall fellow got a slot on C-SPAN to promote his book as part of the panel discussion called "No One Is Watching Anyway; Talk in French if You Want." I immediately called C-SPAN to demand time to rebut Rodwall and, in accordance with my constitutional rights, to impale an advertising executive on a bed of cyanide-tipped nails.
Well, of course, all those namby-pamby civil rights people got involved, saying, "Oh no, you can't kill anyone on television," conveniently forgetting the daily footage of people being killed in Iraq by nice American boys just doing their jobs. I'd be doing my job, too. I'd be defending the Constitution and, not incidentally, reducing the world population of advertising executives by one.
I could go on like this all day, but I'll stop now. There is no "fairness" in society. There is no "fairness" in the media. No one is going to print an opinion piece called "Incest Is Really Cool" or "Let's Make a Car Bomb!" or "Hunger No More! We'll Eat Our Babies." So we're all involved in making judgments about what is an acceptable opinion and what is an unacceptable opinion.
Of course, everyone is still free to express any opinion. But society is going to suppress some opinions, free speech or no, because there is good in the world and there is evil in the world and somewhere along the road to madness we have to acknowledge that. Slavery was real; the Holocaust was real; the massacre of Armenians by Turks was real; the massacre of American Indians by European invaders was real. Those realities are inconvenient, but not so inconvenient that we get to play "wishing makes it so" games.
The lesson of all these realities is the same: Within each of us lies a monster. That monster can be aroused. It takes ideology, circumstances, fear - - whatever. We do not understand the monster within us. It is useful for us to face the monster, and give it a name, and inquire as to its nature. Fairness is of no use in this quest.
The problem comes in the areas in which society has not formed a consensus. Sometimes the consensus changes over time. In 1958, less than 50 years ago, only 4 percent of Americans thought that interracial marriage should be permitted. A plurality of Americans -- 48 percent -- did not accept interracial marriage until 1991. There may be a great conservative wave in this country, but there is a great undercurrent of tolerance too. That's why I think history is on the side of gay marriage.
That's what makes this information business so hard. Everything is a judgment call; there are no rules -- or rather, what is a rule today will not be a rule tomorrow. I'll give you an example: This paper and the New York Times both ban the term "pro-life" to describe the anti-abortion movement. I think that's a terrible idea because it is the only term that gives you a real sense of what the fight looks like from the anti-choice side. That's what they think the stakes are, like it or not.
I think that C-SPAN's decision was wrong, but I can sure see how it happened.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some ideas are good and some ideas are not good, and it is useful to distinguish between the two, even if it makes some people angry.
Gentle bows and glasses raised, to the charity of jcarroll@sfchronicle.com.
The American Thinker on the C-Span Controversy
The American Thinker has weighed in on the controversy.
Equal time follies
Fox News is often mocked for its slogan "fair and balanced - we report you decide." In the skewed world of news reporting that is mockable because for so long news was generally presented through a liberal haze -- the opposing side, if given attention, was set up as a straw figure.
C-SPAN, the cable channel devoted mainly to public affairs, took a similar equal time philosophy to bizarre lengths recently when they decided to devote equal exposure not only to respected Holocaust historian Professor Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University but to racist propagandist David Irving. Lipstadt was to discuss her book detailing her victory in a British court against Holocuast denier Irving. In C-SPAN's distorted world, Irving deserved equal time.
Equal time, equal balance to Bush v Kerry--of course. (Oh, that it should have been!)
Equal time, equal balance to Lipstadt and Irving. Of course not -- truth and racism are not morally equivalent. Lipstadt proved in a British courtroom that Irving distored history.
Tell that to the usually bright folks at C-SPAN, bookrv@c-span.org.
Ethel C. Fenig 3 22 05
Equal time follies
Fox News is often mocked for its slogan "fair and balanced - we report you decide." In the skewed world of news reporting that is mockable because for so long news was generally presented through a liberal haze -- the opposing side, if given attention, was set up as a straw figure.
C-SPAN, the cable channel devoted mainly to public affairs, took a similar equal time philosophy to bizarre lengths recently when they decided to devote equal exposure not only to respected Holocaust historian Professor Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University but to racist propagandist David Irving. Lipstadt was to discuss her book detailing her victory in a British court against Holocuast denier Irving. In C-SPAN's distorted world, Irving deserved equal time.
Equal time, equal balance to Bush v Kerry--of course. (Oh, that it should have been!)
Equal time, equal balance to Lipstadt and Irving. Of course not -- truth and racism are not morally equivalent. Lipstadt proved in a British courtroom that Irving distored history.
Tell that to the usually bright folks at C-SPAN, bookrv@c-span.org.
Ethel C. Fenig 3 22 05
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
3/30 Lipstadt at Barnes and Noble, Upper West Side of Manhattan
7:30 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Broadway and 83rd St.
Lecture and Book Signing
Lecture and Book Signing
3/23 Barnes and Noble, Athens Ga.
Lecture and book signing
Check with B&N in Athens Ga. for precise details.
Check with B&N in Athens Ga. for precise details.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Deniers not welcome on JBooks.com
As Prof. Lipstadt noted earlier, deniers will not be given a platform on this blog. Nor are they welcome on JBooks:
You'd think that with the multiplicity of cyber-venues available to them, they wouldn't need to flaunt their bigotry and ignorance elsewhere. Oh, well ... perhaps they don't get much of an audience at their regular posting-grounds.
March 21, 2005
JBooks recently ran a threaded discussion about Deborah Lipstadt, which included comments from the Emory professor [herself]. Unfortunately, a number of Holocaust deniers, including David Irving, found their way into the conversation and immediately began desecrating the memory of the Shoah. Therefore, we've discontinued the discussion. If you're interested in the Lipstadt saga, read our review and perhaps Richard Cohen's Washington Post article, then catch her tonight on The O'Reilly Factor (show starts at 8).
You'd think that with the multiplicity of cyber-venues available to them, they wouldn't need to flaunt their bigotry and ignorance elsewhere. Oh, well ... perhaps they don't get much of an audience at their regular posting-grounds.
Troy (NY) Record Supports C-Span while Newsday Does Not.
In addition to the articles, blog entries and wire coverage over the past week, editorials are now starting to appear.
The editorialists at Troy Record voiced their support of C-Span, one of the few newspapers or blogs to do so. They wonder:
But Newsday took a different stance:
The editorialists at Troy Record voiced their support of C-Span, one of the few newspapers or blogs to do so. They wonder:
Can there be any reasonable person in the western world who disputes the breadth and depth of the Holocaust?"
The operative word is "reasonable," as we know there are right-wing groups in our own country whose belief system springs from an anti-Semitic fountain that spews lies about the Holocaust. Indeed, one British historian, David Irving, has made a career based on challenging the extent of the Holocaust.
[...]
We agree with Lipstadt and the historians who are appalled by what Irving stands for. Anyone who could deny one of history's most horrific examples of inhumanity is a either a fool or someone carrying a misguided burden of hatred for certain people.However, because Lispstadt chose to make an issue of her court battle with Irving by writing a book, Irving's account of the same issue should be fair game for airing. Certainly his lecture would provide viewers a clearer picture of what sparked the battle in the first place.
[...]
Letting Irving be heard on a respectable medium like C-Span, a network with no agenda and no pundits, only reinforces the fact that bigotry and hate still run deep among some people the world over,....
But Newsday took a different stance:
Indelicate balance
No need for equal time on Holocaust
[...]But the channel did itself a great disservice recently when it decided, under the guise of "balance," to give coverage to Holocaust denier David Irving because it was doing a show on a book by Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt.
[...]
More than 200 of this nation's leading historians have signed a letter strongly opposing the channel's decision to provide "balance" by including Irving. "Falsifiers of history cannot 'balance' historians," the historians write.
"Falsehoods cannot 'balance' the truth."
Well said. C-Span, given all the good work it has done, deserves a chance to explain better what it thought it was doing. Balance does not always serve the truth.
History on Trial reviewed on JBooks.com
An Undeniably Interesting Case
By SETH STERN
HISTORY ON TRIAL
My Day in Court with David Irving
By Deborah E. Lipstadt
368 pages. Ecco Press. $25.95.
It’s been more than five years since an English judge found Emory University historian Deborah Lipstadt innocent of libeling David Irving in a case that officially branded him as a Holocaust denier. At this point, there isn’t much new to say about the trial or its plaintiff, whom Lipstadt referenced in her 1993 book on the Holocaust denial movement.
The trial garnered international media attention, attracting the hordes of paparazzi usually associated with the British royal family. It was already the subject of two books published in 2001, including one by British historian Richard J. Evans, a man Lipstadt’s defense team hired to deconstruct Irving’s books. HBO even reportedly commissioned a movie about the case starring Anthony Hopkins as Irving.
So why this book? Generally speaking, the defendant usually isn’t the ideal candidate to write a trial’s definitive objective history. Well, there are plenty of good reasons to read History on Trial. It’s a compelling blow-by-blow narrative that began a fall day in 1995 when Lipstadt received a letter informing her of a possible libel action that she tossed aside with barely a second thought.
Of course, as events would prove, that wasn’t exactly how things unfolded. Irving may not have had the facts on his side but he did have British law working for him—at least at the outset.
In British courts, defendants in libel cases must prove the statements at issue are true. That puts libel plaintiffs in a much better position than in the United States, where the burden is placed on them to prove the statements they claimed injured them are false.
Lipstadt was fortunate that her case attracted the sympathies of deep-pocketed backers including Leslie Wexner, founder of The Limited and Victoria’s Secret chains, who could afford to offset more than $1.5 million in legal bills should would rack up. She assembled a dream team of historians and attorneys, who included Princess Diana’s divorce lawyer.
History on Trial offers a fascinating window into trial strategy. From the outset, her defense team pledged not to let the case become a platform for Irving to question whether the Holocaust happened. Instead, they built a case designed to show that even his previously well-regarded books were filled with duplicity and errors that always pointed in the same direction: questioning the Holocaust and favoring Hitler.
Then there are the trial scenes themselves, in which her barrister, Richard Rampton, eviscerates Irving one piece of evidence at a time. In just one of many aspects of British law that might seem arcane to American readers, different lawyers prepare the case and present it at trial.
True, you will have to wade through a few too many references to what wines she and her lawyers drank and how she unsuccessfully sought to unwind at night. (Note to readers: Don’t watch The Sound of Music or The Merchant of Venice to escape a trial centered on Nazis and anti-Semitism.)
But she largely keeps up the suspense even though most readers know well the outcome. The way Rampton boxes Irving into a corner with his evasions reads better than a Grisham courtroom scene. The way Lipstadt tells it, every word Rampton couldn’t recall while cross-examining witnesses, and every averted gaze, served a purpose. Or at least that’s what he told Lipstadt to calm her nerves.
It also helped their cause to have such a foolish opponent, who proved true the old adage that “he who represents himself has a fool for a client.” No responsible lawyer would tell her client to proceed with this sort of libel case. Lipstadt’s lawyers got their hands on Irving’s personal diaries, in which he describes singing racist ditties to his daughter and details speaking engagements before Aryan groups. He also must have known that his previously published books about Nazi Germany could not withstand serious scrutiny.
But Irving just couldn’t pass up such a prominent soapbox, which ultimately proved his undoing. The trial judge’s sweeping decision ruined Irving’s reputation and ultimately left him bankrupt. The British legal system gets at least one thing right in a case like this: Loser pays.
In the years since, Irving has been reduced to a sniveling bigot with little reach beyond his own website, but larger questions raised by the trial still linger.
What’s nearly as disturbing as Irving and his neo-Nazi supporters was the tendency of legitimate historians to defend him in the name of protecting free speech or brush him off as merely quirky. Why were Lipstadt and her team of historians criticized for the potentially chilling effect they might have on academia rather than Irving, who was the one who actually instigated the whole matter in the first place?
Lipstadt blames an old-boy network in which British academics, such as military historian Sir John Keegan, were more apt to sympathize with a sloppy and self-taught colleague with the right accent than an uppity Jewish-American female.
Sadly, the end of the trial did not bring an end to Holocaust denial. In fact, Lipstadt points out, it seems to have received a new lease on life in the Arab world.
Seth Stern is an attorney and a legal-affairs reporter for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C.
By SETH STERN
HISTORY ON TRIAL
My Day in Court with David Irving
By Deborah E. Lipstadt
368 pages. Ecco Press. $25.95.
It’s been more than five years since an English judge found Emory University historian Deborah Lipstadt innocent of libeling David Irving in a case that officially branded him as a Holocaust denier. At this point, there isn’t much new to say about the trial or its plaintiff, whom Lipstadt referenced in her 1993 book on the Holocaust denial movement.
The trial garnered international media attention, attracting the hordes of paparazzi usually associated with the British royal family. It was already the subject of two books published in 2001, including one by British historian Richard J. Evans, a man Lipstadt’s defense team hired to deconstruct Irving’s books. HBO even reportedly commissioned a movie about the case starring Anthony Hopkins as Irving.
So why this book? Generally speaking, the defendant usually isn’t the ideal candidate to write a trial’s definitive objective history. Well, there are plenty of good reasons to read History on Trial. It’s a compelling blow-by-blow narrative that began a fall day in 1995 when Lipstadt received a letter informing her of a possible libel action that she tossed aside with barely a second thought.
Of course, as events would prove, that wasn’t exactly how things unfolded. Irving may not have had the facts on his side but he did have British law working for him—at least at the outset.
In British courts, defendants in libel cases must prove the statements at issue are true. That puts libel plaintiffs in a much better position than in the United States, where the burden is placed on them to prove the statements they claimed injured them are false.
Lipstadt was fortunate that her case attracted the sympathies of deep-pocketed backers including Leslie Wexner, founder of The Limited and Victoria’s Secret chains, who could afford to offset more than $1.5 million in legal bills should would rack up. She assembled a dream team of historians and attorneys, who included Princess Diana’s divorce lawyer.
History on Trial offers a fascinating window into trial strategy. From the outset, her defense team pledged not to let the case become a platform for Irving to question whether the Holocaust happened. Instead, they built a case designed to show that even his previously well-regarded books were filled with duplicity and errors that always pointed in the same direction: questioning the Holocaust and favoring Hitler.
Then there are the trial scenes themselves, in which her barrister, Richard Rampton, eviscerates Irving one piece of evidence at a time. In just one of many aspects of British law that might seem arcane to American readers, different lawyers prepare the case and present it at trial.
True, you will have to wade through a few too many references to what wines she and her lawyers drank and how she unsuccessfully sought to unwind at night. (Note to readers: Don’t watch The Sound of Music or The Merchant of Venice to escape a trial centered on Nazis and anti-Semitism.)
But she largely keeps up the suspense even though most readers know well the outcome. The way Rampton boxes Irving into a corner with his evasions reads better than a Grisham courtroom scene. The way Lipstadt tells it, every word Rampton couldn’t recall while cross-examining witnesses, and every averted gaze, served a purpose. Or at least that’s what he told Lipstadt to calm her nerves.
It also helped their cause to have such a foolish opponent, who proved true the old adage that “he who represents himself has a fool for a client.” No responsible lawyer would tell her client to proceed with this sort of libel case. Lipstadt’s lawyers got their hands on Irving’s personal diaries, in which he describes singing racist ditties to his daughter and details speaking engagements before Aryan groups. He also must have known that his previously published books about Nazi Germany could not withstand serious scrutiny.
But Irving just couldn’t pass up such a prominent soapbox, which ultimately proved his undoing. The trial judge’s sweeping decision ruined Irving’s reputation and ultimately left him bankrupt. The British legal system gets at least one thing right in a case like this: Loser pays.
In the years since, Irving has been reduced to a sniveling bigot with little reach beyond his own website, but larger questions raised by the trial still linger.
What’s nearly as disturbing as Irving and his neo-Nazi supporters was the tendency of legitimate historians to defend him in the name of protecting free speech or brush him off as merely quirky. Why were Lipstadt and her team of historians criticized for the potentially chilling effect they might have on academia rather than Irving, who was the one who actually instigated the whole matter in the first place?
Lipstadt blames an old-boy network in which British academics, such as military historian Sir John Keegan, were more apt to sympathize with a sloppy and self-taught colleague with the right accent than an uppity Jewish-American female.
Sadly, the end of the trial did not bring an end to Holocaust denial. In fact, Lipstadt points out, it seems to have received a new lease on life in the Arab world.
Seth Stern is an attorney and a legal-affairs reporter for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C.
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