Your Email:

Friend's Email:

Note: (optional)

Subject:

Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/40717/full/40717/right-wing-attacks-adl-report-on-obama-bashing/ <br /><br /> <b>Right wing attacks ADL report on Obama-bashing</b> <br /> Thursday, December 3, 2009 | by eric fingerhut <br /><br /><p>The Anti-Defamation League is taking heat from some conservatives after releasing a 27-page report that states that a “current of anti-government hostility” has swept the United States since Barack Obama’s election.</p> <p>Conservatives are arguing that the ADL has gone out of its way to admonish criticism of Obama, noting that the organization did not respond similarly to anti-Bush hatred during the previous eight years.</p> <p>Also, some are saying that the ADL report unfairly links mainstream criticism of Obama with fringe attacks on the president.</p> <p>But the ADL said it frequently denounced extremist rhetoric during the Bush administration, and that its new report does make a distinction between everyday partisan vitriol and more problematic attacks.</p> <p>“The comments are coming from people who have not read the report,” ADL spokeswoman Myrna Shinbaum said. “They’re reacting to the media spin and not its substance.”</p> <p>The report, titled “Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies” and issued on Nov. 16, examines both mainstream and more fringe expressions of anti-government anger, which it says is characterized by a “shared belief that Obama and his administration actually pose a threat to the future of the U.S.”</p> <p>“Some of these assertions are motivated by prejudice,” the report states, “but more common is an intense strain of anti-government distrust and anger colored by a streak of paranoia and belief in conspiracies.”</p> <p>Among other things, the report cites the “tea parties,” the “Birther” movement and the disruptions of congressional town hall meetings across the country this summer — often by protesters comparing the Obama administration and the Democrats to Nazis.</p> <p>The ADL charges that some in the mainstream media have played a role in promoting anti-government anger, specifically singling out Glenn Beck of Fox News as a “fearmonger-in-chief” for making comparisons between Obama and Hitler, and promoting conspiracy theories.</p> <p>Beck himself responded on his Nov. 25 radio show to the ADL report and an L.A. Times piece that mentioned the report and compared Beck to the 1930s anti-Semitic radio broadcaster Father Coughlin.</p> <p>Beck slammed the ADL, saying it was “nothing … but a political organization at this point — and it kills me to say that.”</p> <p>He added, “Name the person that has been more friendly to Israel. Name the person that has spoken more to the Holocaust deniers running Iran.”</p> <p>Among the more prominent critics of the report was Commentary executive editor Jonathan Tobin. “By choosing to frame its report ... in such a way as to associate all those who have opposed Obama’s policies in one way or another with the far right, the ADL has stepped over a line that a nonpartisan group should never cross,” Tobin said.</p> <p>ADL officials said the report does distinguish between mainstream partisan attacks and more hostile rhetoric. The introduction states that, for the most part, conservative politicians and media figures “eschew the conspiracy theories and more outlandish notions and tactics propagated by others. Some of their activities parallel Democratic tactics during the Bush administration. These mainstream political attacks fall outside the bounds of this report.”</p> <p>Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matt Brooks argued that the ADL was disproportionately focusing on the right. He cited Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) for comparing the U.S. health care system to the Holocaust and Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) for comparing town hall attendees to “brownshirts.”</p> <p>Other conservative commentators have argued that the ADL never put out a similar report on anti-Bush hatred.</p> <p>The ADL did not release a formal “report” decrying inflammatory criticism of President George W. Bush, but it did issue a statement in 2004 slamming MoveOn.org for allowing a 30-second advertisement comparing Bush to Hitler to be posted on its Web site as part of a contest. This summer, liberal bloggers pointed to that statement in urging the ADL to condemn statements from the right comparing Obama to Hitler.</p> <p>National Jewish Democratic Council executive director Ira Forman applauded the ADL report for saying there was a “responsibility” for those on the right to disassociate themselves from that inappropriate rhetoric.</p> <p>“The ADL made the distinction that not every Republican elected official is the same as the Tea Partiers,” he said.</p>

Please enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below: