Thanks AP for all you do for the living history set

[MPicciotto]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101009/ap_on_el_ho/us_ohio_candidate_nazi_costume

This kind of "journalism" has me steamed! :rage:

Matt

 

[filfoster]

Living History

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101009/ap_on_el_ho/us_ohio_candidate_nazi_costume

This kind of "journalism" has me steamed! :rage:

Matt

I agree. There is no attempt to put reenacting into any context. Most reenactors are not anitsocial neo anything. They love history and still have some 'little boy' in them.

 

[StraightEight]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101009/ap_on_el_ho/us_ohio_candidate_nazi_costume

This kind of "journalism" has me steamed! :rage:

Matt

It's just an AP wire repeat of a Toledo Blade story. Seems balanced enough. What, the voters have no right to know that he donned an SS uniform as part of his extra curricular activities?

'Course, if the story were about Obama instead of some third lieutenant Republican in Ohio, there would be rioting in the streets...

 

[MPicciotto]

This is the part that got me "...to participate in Nazi reenactments." I know German reenactors and reenactor groups that abhor Nazi ideals and send packing anybody who shows Nazi leanings. Sadly I know of at least one group that is the opposite. At least one of their members has the SS runes tattooed on her arm! It would take some real investigative journalism and some study into context to see if this guy is a closet Nazi or quite the opposite and the biggest American patriot you'll ever meet. The wearing of a German uniform as a member of a historical group should not be construed as participating in Nazi reenactments and sending "a chilling message to Americans". I found the article extremely biased towards a prejudiced conclusion. I found the Toledo Blade article to be better, but the AP author and editor seems to have rejected that balance in favor of a near slanderous piece that has spread via the internet and news repeater sites such as Yahoo to far beyond the district this originated.

Matt

 

[Phantomfixer]

Reenactors are their own breed( a good one mind you), but to say a person is a racist/nazi (implied), is a little farfetched regardless of political party.

 

[Zemke Fan]

For better or worse...

In this day and age you're political career is dead-in-the-water if you're a German WWII reenactor. (I'm not saying I'm agree that it should be so, but it tis.)

 

[Feraud]

I've seen Fedora Lounge discussions go off track due a similar inability to separate the re-enactor from the politics of the role they are portraying.
And we should know better..
I can't get too heated over an AP piece.

 

[filfoster]

The Hard Truth

In this day and age you're political career is dead-in-the-water if you're a German WWII reenactor. (I'm not saying I'm agree that it should be so, but it tis.)

FredH: As unfair as it is, this sums up a hard truth. All the explanations in the world won't change the impression of anyone seeing or even hearing tell of a candidate dressed in a WW2 German uniform, let alone one that bore the particular insignia of the Waffen SS.
Topic for another thread: Why do candidates with fatal baggage tempt fate?

 

[MPicciotto]

AP has since run another article (I can't find it at the moment or I'd provide a link) that I still feel has a condemning and inaccurate title. BUT the article on a whole was more balanced and the accompanying photograph was of the gentleman at a WW1 reenactment as a Doughboy.

Matt

 

[1961MJS]

Reenactor Interview

Hi

I watched part of another interview with the reenactor. Unfortunately for the host, the longer I watched, the more sympathetic I became to the Republican Reenactor. He reenacts Wiking, an Eastern Front SS Panzer division that was made up of Norwegian and Dutch Volunteers. They weren't convicted (maybe not charged) with war crimes. Apparently this is a big deal to someone. I kept hoping that they guy would just say "Well, somebody has to play the bad guys." The reporter did just about everything but point a finger and say you're a Nazi. Even the Skin-heads aren't real Nazi's. The guy running for office had pictures in a union outfit also. I think he also said he had WW2 US stuff too. It seems to me that the mainstream media are grasping at anything to make headlines.

Later

 

[Phantomfixer]

maybe this guy thought bad publicity would be good publicity?

 

[Spitfire]

Most reenactors are not anitsocial neo anything. They love history and still have some 'little boy' in them.

Yes and little boys do not think. But grownups are supposed to. Especially politicians. Isn't that the least one can expect?

 

[Spitfire]

He reenacts Wiking, an Eastern Front SS Panzer division that was made up of Norwegian and Dutch Volunteers. They weren't convicted (maybe not charged) with war crimes. Apparently this is a big deal to someone.

You bet it is!
Obvious you have not lived in a country occupied by nazis, where people were tortured and killed every day by SS and Gestapo.

 

[MPicciotto]

Often I have found German reeanctors to be the most ardent anti-Nazi persons I've met. There are some exceptions. And investigation by the press into this persons motives for reenacting should be done. It would be most frrightfull for an elected official to later be revealed as a pro-Nazi Holocaust denier. On the otherhand it would be a shame for an electorate to turn their backs on patriot on the false claims of Nazism

Matt.

 

[Diamondback]

This is a a hit-piece, plain and simple. (I've written enough of 'em myself to know.) I've actually been drafting a Nastygram about "Idiots like YOU are why I left journalism", with mention of "it goes back to childhood Cowboys & Indians / Cops & Robbers, SOMEBODY always has to play the bad guy--especially in Living History, we can't depict the Good Guys as being heroes without showing what they fought AGAINST."

I swear, my ex-colleagues make me wanna puke...

This ain't politics, this is Professional Journalism--more specifically, this is about Professional Ethics, which most of the profession only pays lip-service to if that.

 

[Phantomfixer]

I agree with Diamond. Journalism is about sensationalism (SP?). A working class guy from DE reenacting a german soldier doesn't get the same press as a politician running for office reenacting a Nazi war criminal. A shmuck reporter is trying to make a story when one is not there. His/her two minutes of fame. Look at the dust it kicked up here.

 

[Zemke Fan]

This UNFORTUNATELY is more about politics (a banned FL subject) than WWII. Thread, therefore, closed.

 

[Zemke Fan]

Closed as below.