35 The Spotlight (Holocaust: IHR)
Description
This article is from the Holocaust FAQ, by Ken McVay kmcvay@nizkor.org with numerous contributions by others.
35 The Spotlight (Holocaust: IHR)
The Spotlight evolved from the Liberty Lobby's newsletter, "Liberty
Letter," which echoed Willis Carto's earlier anti-Semitic assaults
during the period when he controlled "American Mercury." According to
Deborah Lipstadt,
"In 1975 the lobby's _Liberty Letter_, whose circulation was more
than one-hundred thousand, was subsumed by the _Spotlight_, a
tabloid newspaper that regularly featured articles on Bible
analysis and the putative efforts of the Council on Foreign
Relations and the Trilateral Commission to dominate the nation. It
offered its readers tips on avoiding taxes and fighting the IRS.
The paper attacked Martin Luther King, Jr., as a Communist and
praised members of the Ku Klux Klan. It has memorialized Gordon
Kahl, the leader of the right-wing-extremist group Posse
Comitatus, who killed three [US] federal marshals and wounded a
number of others before he was killed in 1983 in a shoot-out with
federal agents." (Lipstadt, 150)
Lipstadt offers information which suggests that _Spotlight_'s
standards for journalistic integrity leave something to be desired:
"...In 1979 _Spotlight_'s lead article described how a global
elite planned to topple world governments. The paper claimed that
its reporter had attended an international conference in Austria
at which such plans were discussed. In truth, no one from the
_Spotlight_ attended this legitimate conference, and the reporter
who wrote the story admitted to falsifying it." (Lipstdt, 150)
Lipstadt goes on to explain that the primary focus of _Spotlight_'s
attention lies in exposing what it calls the "Jew-Zionist"
international bankers' conspiracy, aimed at Americans, and the
"Holocaust Hoax," which it maintains is an integral part of this vast
conspiracy. Holocaust denial "has also become a regular staple."
(Ibid., 150)
"The nature of _Spotlight_'s readership can be gauged to some
degree by the contents of its classified advertising section.
There are ads for poetry, laetrile prescriptions, dating services
for patriotic Christians, and devices for dramatically increasing
a car's gasoline mileage (these devices have supposedly been kept
off the market in a conspiracy against the American consumer). In
addition, its classified section regularly offers Nazi
paraphernalia, gun silencer parts, bullet-proof vests, clandestine
mail drops, and instructions for manufacturing false
identification." (Lipstadt, 151)
The masthead of the May 3, 1993 edition of The Spotlight lists Robert
Weems with the Southern Bureau. Weems is a former KKK leader and
founding chairman of the PAC (see Section 4.2).
The Canadian representation on the international bureau is Ron
Gostick. Gostick controls the "Freedom Council of Canada," along
with Patrick Walsh, both of whom are described as officers of the
anti-Semitic (and non-governmental) "Canadian Intelligence Service."
Walsh is said to be the "Canadian correspondent of the Liberty
Lobby," although I am uncertain as to what this refers to. (Anderson, 154)
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