What the ADL doesn't quite get

Jewish World Review / Nov. 12,1998 /23 Mar-Cheshvan, 5759

Farrakhan

What the ADL doesn't quite get

How should one deal with a Prophet of Rage? Excommunicate him or expose him?

By Nat Hentoff

THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE is a useful source of information about bigotry in all its forms -- not only antisemitism. But its national director, Abraham Foxman, sometimes has difficulty understanding that once a conjugator of hatred is exposed, he should continue to be illuminated -- in print and on television. That certainly goes for Minister Louis Farrakhan.

As Justice Louis Brandeis said, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." And of all the journalists on the Sunday morning talk programs, Tim Russert of "Meet the Press" is by far the most effective interviewer of Farrakhan, because Russert keeps doing substantial research on that inflammatory speaker.

As I wrote in this column about an April 1997 Russert interview with Farrakhan, the host "was not in the least intimidated by him. . . . Farrakhan had to explain his cult-like beliefs to a national audience." And Walter Goodman of the New York Times, writing of the same program, noted that "Farrakhan was trapped in his own words."

Yet here come Mr. Foxman and the ADL placing full-page ads in the New York Times (Oct. 25) and The Post (Oct. 26) attacking Russert for interviewing Farrakhan for the third time on "Meet the Press."

Under the headline, "Hate Has Another Outlet, NBC's "Meet The Press,' " Foxman says: "Interviews such as yesterday's give unwarranted status to Farrakhan as a Black leader by giving him an opportunity to propagate his message of hate which we have all heard before. . . . Is there no moral responsibility at NBC News any more?"

Alas, Farrakhan continues to have considerable newsworthy status. He is approaching his goal of moving into the mainstream of black leadership. Recently, the Nation of Islam and the NAACP were co-sponsors of a youth rally in Atlanta.

In June, Martin Luther King III, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, declared that he intended to reach out to Minister Farrakhan to help save affirmative action because Farrakhan "commands a following and has a presence."

Precisely because Farrakhan is gaining more credibility, it was certainly responsible journalism for Russert to interview him again.

Obviously, Foxman has every right to miss the point, but his ad -- in the form of a letter -- is meant to do more. It is addressed to Bob Wright, president of NBC, with a copy to Andrew Lack, president of NBC News. In that letter, Foxman charges that it was "outrageous" for Russert to feature Farrakhan "as a moral authority on national issues on such a prestigious program."

Foxman's message to NBC's brass is clear. Impose prior restraint on Russert.

Furthermore, in view of the fact that the Fred Friendly standard of courageous television journalism is not quite what it was at CBS (fronting for Nike at the Olympic Games) or ABC (recently killing a news story critical of the Disney empire), Foxman's message goes beyond NBC. Keep Farrakhan off all the television networks!

Other network talk show hosts may now hesitate over an invitation to Farrakhan for fear of also being condemned for "outrageous" irresponsibility.

If Foxman's desire to excommunicate Farrakhan is fulfilled, he will have greatly benefited that bigot.

Farrakhan's ceaseless penchant for conspiracy theories will result in a new grand Jewish "conspiracy" to silence him. And so widely will it reverberate that the following of the Nation of Islam is likely to grow.

Mr. Farrakhan will have become a First Amendment martyr. He might even print that phrase on his calling cards.

Foxman, by the way, accused Russert of not challenging Farrakhan. As I can attest, when you interview a zealot, the aim is to enable him to rant on so that he will indeed be "trapped in his own words." As in the most recent Russert interview in which Farrakhan revealed to the nation that Monica Lewinsky is part of a Zionist plot to entrap the president so that he will stop pressuring Binyamin Netanyahu.

Earlier this year, "Meet the Press" received the Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Award for "its impact on the American people's understanding of public affairs." The award was given by the Anti-Defamation League, and a signer of the good news was Abraham Foxman. Included in the award was a resplendent "First Amendment Freedoms" medal.

If I were Tim Russert, I would send the medal back -- along with the collected First Amendment opinions of Justice Louis Brandeis, who said, "It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears."