San Jose State University’s campus newspaper, the Spartan Daily, has rejected numerous ads deemed offensive or inappropriate.
But the paper ran a lengthy diatribe written and paid for by Holocaust revisionist Bradley Smith in its Monday edition, calling for an “open debate” on Holocaust studies.
In an ad measuring 12- by 4-1/2 inches, Smith accuses Holocaust scholars of peddling “hate.” Smith also questions whether inmates of Auschwitz were gassed and suggests the story of mass exterminations has proved “immensely profitable” to their chroniclers.
Like most college papers, the Spartan declines ads that are false or misleading. But after reviewing Smith’s ad, a group of professors and students concluded that it was neither.
In an open letter to readers that accompanied the ad, Spartan Daily faculty adviser Jack Quinton said that after “careful review” he concluded the ad, however “troubling,” met the standards for acceptance by a college newspaper.
“We did not feel the copy was false or misleading, but rather an individual expressing an opinion,” Quinton said.
“I disagree strongly,” said Jonathan Bernstein, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Central Pacific region. “It is both. [The Holocaust] is probably the most well-documented event in modern history. The campus and the people at the paper aren’t aware of [Smith’s] real objectives.”
Harvey Gotliffe, a SJSU journalism professor who has published extensively on the question of free speech and Holocaust revisionists, echoed Bernstein.
“They didn’t understand they have a right to refuse any ad. He’s not a member of this campus community. They don’t owe him anything.”
Smith, who lives in San Diego, ran a similar ad in the Spartan Daily about five years ago. That time around, Gotliffe changed the word “Holocaust” to the word “slavery” and presented it to his students for their reaction.
“People said, ‘That’s horrible! What an awful thing to say! They should never run an ad like that,'” Gotliffe said. “But I asked them when World War II ended. They didn’t know. One kid said in 1956, when Hitler died.”
Bernstein said that Smith knows he is unlikely to inspire grave doubts that the Holocaust occurred. Rather, “his objective is to create turmoil.”
The tsunami of letters to the editors, speakers, debates and editorials that follow such ads help promote Holocaust denial as a valid course of study, Bernstein added.
“The Holocaust happened,” he said quietly. “It is not open to debate. To engage in a discourse over any individual points he makes says, in effect, this is a debatable issue.”
Painting the Holocaust as “myth manufactured by Jews” is only one of Smith’s attempts to hoodwink the gullible, Bernstein said in a Feb. 7 letter to SJSU President Robert Carel.
Bernstein said Smith has also “succeeded in persuading a small number of campus journalists to see this issue as one of free speech on campus,” which was the position of the Spartan staff.
The ADL leader disputes that stance.
“The First Amendment does not require them to publish any ad they’re given,” Bernstein said. “Most mainstream papers would know exactly what to do with this ad. But campus editors are a little naive about the First Amendment.”
Spartan Daily advertising director Joshna Patel said the staff supports a free exchange of opinion, including unpopular opinion.
“We can’t turn everybody down, you know,” she said. “We do screen ads to make sure the headlines and the language don’t offend people. But this isn’t a high school paper. It’s up to [readers] to make up their own minds.”
And Smith knows that this attitude gives him a continuous entree.
Eleven years ago, Bernstein heard Smith announce his plan to target college newspapers at a Los Angeles Libertarian Party: “He said, ‘Students are empty vessels waiting to be filled.'”
College papers also offer comparatively cheap ad space.
Smith, a 60-something Korean War veteran, heads the Committee for Open Discussion of the Holocaust Question.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s HateWatch project, Smith’s group consists solely of Smith. Among his claims: Prisoners at Auschwitz enjoyed regular recreation, including dips in an Olympic-sized pool. None were killed, but many died of cholera, he has said.
When the Spartan Daily ran an ad from Smith’s group five years ago, the reaction from readers was swift and furious, said advertising department staffer Kathy Gay, who was there at the time.
“This time we ran the disclaimer and an editorial, all on the same page, and there was very little reaction,” she said.
But Nick Zoffel, president of the campus Hillel, disagreed. He said the handling of this ad has created a firestorm of intense reaction.
“I’ve been getting call after call,” he said after a near-sleepless night Monday. “It’s just chaos.”
Bernstein said such ads can make Jewish students feel isolated and vulnerable.
“It is important for the administration to reach out to those students and let them know how disappointed they are that the paper chose to give Bradley Smith this platform,” he said.