Yet Another Anti-Semitic Persecution - UPDATED W/ MORE HATE TALK

Were your ass sweet (We're sure it isn't, so don't.) you could safely fucking bet it that your editor is catching up on his R.E.M. (Not the as-shitty American version of U2, mind you.) sleep when such inane crap as C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" is polluting Yankee cable systems & satellite services.

We are not kidding about the polluting, either, as one Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic notes:

C-Span's "Washington Journal" is inundated with anti-Semitic and racist callers, and most hosts are similarly robotic in their responses to these bigots. So there is obviously a deep problem here, one that should be addressed publicly.

The item's real point is that C-SPAN won't reply to Goldberg's queries about this interesting phenomenon, rendering them less than transparent.

I just want the chance to explore your network's policies with you. This is obviously a problem for C-Span -- I've heard from a number of colleagues (mainly Jewish) who will no longer agree to go on "Washington Journal" because of the frequency of insulting, anti-Semitic callers (I myself stopped going on the show after one caller said, "I can tell by looking at you that you're Jewish," and then proceeded downhill from there. The host in that instance also did not end the call.)

Bear this in mind when you next encounter a religious reactionary whining about how persecuted Christians are when the government refuses to execute homos for being gay.

We also wonder if this is related to C-SPAN's insistence that callers segregate themselves by "Democratic," "Republican," & "Independent" lines.

Goldberg's opening sentence is worth a quibble, though:

Ever since a host for C-Span's "Washington Journal" allowed an obviously bigoted caller to discuss how America was "jewed" into Iraq, I've been trying to get an interview with C-Span's vice-president for programming, Terry Murphy.

"Jewed" is not the verb we would have used, but somebody sure as fuck pushed us into the illegal invasion of Iraq, & it wasn't Hindoos & animists. No, we aren't suggesting use of "neo-con" as a euphemism for "Jew." As a rootless cosmopolitan ourself, we have plenty of admiration for the more rootless & cosmic of our Hebrew cousins. And plenty of room to condemn those who have roots & are excessively parochial. Meaning you all, Kristols & Podhoretzs.

MINUTES LATER: Also.

C-SPAN HOST ROBB HARLSTON: Lets take a 2nd call from Atlanta. This one on our line for Democrats. You're on the Washington Journal.

CALLER: How you doing this morning?

HARLSTON: Just fine Sir, go ahead.

CALLER: Okay. Listen, I feel we need to come to the problem- to the root of the problem - and I think the Jews that's actually there in Palestine - they are pretended Jews. It's just like white folks from South Africa (indistinct) but they went over and took the people's land, language and their culture and then called themselves South Africans. There was Jews already over there in that land. They were darkey Jews. These European Jews - they are pretended Jews. They are the scum of the planet Earth and they are just like their father, the Devil.

Plus which:

CALLER: "Good morning. What I want to say is that Iran has the full right to test anything they want in their land. The only problem with Iran and the only reason that the media here puts a lot of attention on Iran is that they are anti-Zionist, which Zionism is a theology or methodology of ethnically cleansing the Christians and Muslim Palestinians from Palestine to make it a Jewish majority state called Israel. You call it "Israel," I call it the "fourth reich" and the "fourth reich" controls the media here and so they set the agenda on what is important and they keep fear mongering people about Iran."

C-SPAN HOST PAUL ORGEL: "Should Israel be concerned over its security with Iran apparently having the ability to strike it?"

CALLER: "Well, if you notice how insecure Hitler was, the Third Reich was, because they had bad intentions - Hitler had bad intentions - for he was always insecure about Russia and everybody against him. Because he was out against everybody - Hitler was. The same thing with the Jews. They are against everybody."

PAUL ORGEL: "That's the view from Baltimore, Maryland."