Invoke the Holocaust to Encourage War?

[c9]

Perhaps some of you saw the story in the National Post the other day, "Iran Eyes Badges For Jews," and frowned deeply as you considered it. The short version of this post is: it's made up. I bet you didn't see the retraction, nor any explanation of what it's all about. Because the first story made the rounds so fast, we ended up with Canadian PM Stephen Harper denouncing the (non-existent) idea, the Simon Weisenthal Centre in LA getting upset about it, and numerous media outlets repeating the story. All legitimate, except that it's not really making headlines explaining the falsehoods now.

Antonia Zerbisias, a media columnist at the Toronto Star, gathered all sorts of info on this, and outlines: Amir Taheri wrote it. How'd it get to the SWC, and thus around the world? Taheri sent it. Who's he? An employee of Benador Associates. Who're they? A "typical right-wing war-mongering" American PR agency, according to Zerbisias. She has links and details if you're curious.

So basically an American PR guy pushed a false story, fed it to Jewish groups to create a story out of the reaction, and now everyone from right-wing blogs to Rush Limbaugh are running at full tilt on it despite it not being true. *Nice*.

Comments

[bartok.livejournal.com]

Charles Foster Kane: Read the cable.
Bernstein: "Girls delightful in Cuba. Stop. Could send you prose poems about scenery, but don't feel right spending your money. Stop. There is no war in Cuba, signed Wheeler." Any answer?
Charles Foster Kane: Yes. "Dear Wheeler: you provide the prose poems. I'll provide the war."