GRGR-related: where to look for Weissmann?

[Doug Millison]

"If you're wondering where he's gone, look among the successful academics,
the Presidential advisers, the token intellectuals who sit on boards of
directors. Look high, not low." (GR 749)

Or, among the advisers to neo-Nazi Jorg Haider, as explained in the
following analysis:


>                                 FAIR-L
>                    Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
>               Media analysis, critiques and news reports
>
>FAIR MEDIA ADVISORY
>U.S. Media Downplay Fascist Ties of Austria's Haider:
>Haider's pro-Nazi "gaffes" are no aberration
>
>February 4, 2000
>
>Jorg Haider's Freedom Party's rise to power as a partner in the Austrian
>government has gotten a lot of coverage in the U.S. media, but there has
>been little recognition of it as symptomatic of a resurgence of the extreme
>right in Europe, and of the implications this may have for European
>integration.
>
>When the Freedom Party won nearly a third of the vote in Austria's national
>elections last October, it generated front-page coverage in most European
>newspapers. The Times of London (10/4/99) warned that "Haider's result has
>thrown [Austrian] politics into turmoil, frightened investors and brought
>closer to power the largest and most radical far right party in Europe."
>
>By contrast, the Freedom Party's electoral breakthrough elicited little more
>than a shrug from mainstream U.S. media, as typified by a Seattle
>Post-Intelligencer editorial (10/12/99) headlined: "Europe Has Little to
>Fear From This Goose-Stepping Austrian." The New York Times also downplayed
>the results of the Austrian election, referring to "the seemingly
>unstoppable rise of Jorg Haider" in an article (12/6/99) by Alison Smale: "A
>Rightist Leader Stirs Tepid Dissent, and Assent."
>
>The bland U.S. reportage represented another victory of sorts for Haider,
>the charismatic, Porsche-driving populist, who undertook a trans-Atlantic,
>post-election charm campaign to shore up his image, which had been tarnished
>by several pro-Nazi "gaffes": Haider had praised Nazi SS veterans as "men of
>character," and he called Winston Churchill the twentieth century's greatest
>war criminal. He also said that all soldiers in World War II, regardless of
>which side they were on, had fought for peace and freedom.
>
>Asked about such comments, Haider "made a stunning apology" at a meeting
>with editors of the Washington Post, which subsequently reported (11/10/99):
>"Repentance, moderation and tolerance should be encouraged, provided they
>are part of an evolution anchored in sincerity and not spin." While Haider's
>belated apology is certainly newsworthy, U.S. media have thus far neglected
>to disclose pertinent facts that seriously call into question his latest PR
>maneuvers.
>
>True, Haider does not conform to the stereotype of a Hollywood Nazi. But a
>brown stain hovers over the Freedom Party, thanks in part to Haider's
>decision to retain as his advisor on cultural affairs Andreas Molzer, a
>fascist ideologue who until recently was publisher of the Vienna weekly Zur
>Zeit. This virulent racist newspaper-which Molzer published for several
>years while advising Haider-ran articles raving about "the dogma of the 6
>million murdered Jews" and the "epoch-making economic and political
>successes of the great social revolutionary," a reference to Adolf Hitler
>(Searchlight, 11/98, 11/99).
>
>Far from being "gaffes," as news media often refer to his apparent verbal
>missteps,  Haider's penchant for expressing pro-Nazi sympathies was
>intrinsic to his calculated attempt to build political support by catering
>to deep-rooted prejudice in Austrian society. For additional evidence that
>Haider is being disingenuous when he speaks of banishing the brown shadows,
>one need look no further than his nomination of Thomas Prinzhorn to stand as
>the Freedom Party's top candidate in last year's parliamentary poll. A few
>days before the vote, Prinzhorn hysterically accused the Austrian government
>of giving free hormone treatments to male immigrants to boost their
>birthrate. But this remark didn't stop Prinzhorn from being chosen recently
>as co-speaker of the Austrian parliament (Searchlight, 11/99).
>
>As Professor Mark Mazower writes in the Manchester Guardian Weekly
>(10/20/99), if Haider himself "steers clear of overt racism, it is no doubt
>partly because... things are better said in code." Added Mazower: "The shock
>value of Haider's views on history strike me as less worrying than his
>xenophobic approach to the present. His success may move the threshold of
>what is acceptable in European politics."
>
>Indeed, xenophobia and racism are far from being exclusively Austrian
>problems. "Neo-fascism and neo-Nazism are gaining ground in many countries,
>especially in Europe," says Maurice Glele-Ahanhanzo, special rapporteur of
>the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (InterPress Service, 9/20/98).
>Of particular concern, a U.N. study warns, is the "increase in the power of
>the extreme right-wing parties," which are thriving in "an economic and
>social climate characterized by fear and despair." Among the key factors
>fueling the far right, the study notes, are "the combined effects of
>globalization, identity crises and social exclusion."
>
>Even so, there is a tendency among North American news analysts to minimize
>the danger by asserting that the European Union (EU) will automatically act
>as a buffer against the nefarious schemes of the far right. Supporters of
>the EU have long argued that economic integration is a necessary step toward
>creating a political union, which will end forever the outbursts of crazed
>nationalism that have ravaged the continent in the past. But this notion may
>prove to be wishful thinking. Riding the crest of a populist backlash
>against globalization, neo-fascist demagogues have gained support by
>exploiting justifiable qualms about measures like the adoption of the
>"euro," which inevitably limit the capacity of national governments to
>regulate their economies and redress high unemployment by adjusting their
>own currencies and interest rates.
>
>As economic globalization has accelerated, producing definite categories of
>winners and losers, so, too, has the momentum of neo-fascist and right-wing
>extremist organizations. If anything, European integration is likely to
>promote the continued growth of extreme right-wing parties. Thus far,
>however, the press has shed little light on this insidious dynamic.
>
>(This advisory is based on an article by FAIR co-founder Martin A. Lee,
>which will appear in the next issue of FAIR's magazine, Extra!.)
>
>                               ----------
>
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