UPDATE: 2/27 6:30AM PST It seems the person making the attack, Shelley Rose, is part of a climate activist group, see below.
UPDATE: 2/27 2:50PM PST, The ADL Atlanta website has deleted comments on the issue, and has closed the press release to further comments. See below.
Boy, this is ugly, and I hope this boils down to simply an error in judgement by a lower tier administrator because this is like some bizzaro-world episode; on one hand the Anti-Defamation League is coming down against the “…type of comparison diminishes and trivializes the Holocaust.“, while on another they are giving a “get out of jail free card” to the people who have repeatedly done that very thing over several years.
Two telephone calls and two emails today requesting comment from ADL’s Southeast Interim Regional Director Shelly Rose have gone unanswered. She’s aware of my calls. I asked for her directly, gave my name and affiliation, and after a pause on hold her assistant asked if it would be OK to “send you to voice mail”. Ms Rose did provide a copy of the press release below, after I queried the main organization in New York after receiving a tip about this release, but found no evidence of its existence on the ADL Press Center website. The press release below still isn’t on the website as of this writing at 6:15PM EST well after close of business there. All of my requests were done during normal business hours for both the Atlanta and NYC office.
I have to wonder if the main organization is endorsing this press release, or if this is some regional director who went rogue.
Here is the press release.
==============================================================
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shelley Rose (404) 262-3470 work; 678-938-1399 cell
ADL Condemns Spencer’s Nazi Analogy
February 25, 2014, Atlanta, Georgia … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today denounced remarks by University of Alabama – Huntsville professor Roy Spencer who wrote on his blog that those who refer to him as a climate change “denier” should be called “global warming Nazis” and that they “are supporting policies that will kill far more people than the Nazis ever did — all in the name of what they consider to be a righteous cause.”
He also claims those who advocate for policies to slow global warming are “like the Nazis” in that they are fascist and anti-capitalist. The post is also accompanied by an image of a swastika.
Shelley Rose, ADL Southeast Interim Regional Director issued the following statement:
University of Alabama Professor Roy Spencer’s analogy of proponents of global warming to Nazis is outrageous and deeply offensive. This analogy is just the latest example of a troubling epidemic of comparisons to Hitler and the Holocaust.
It has become too common to use comparisons to the Holocaust and Nazi imagery to attack people with opposing views, whether the issue is global warming, immigration or stem-cell research.
The six million Jewish victims and millions of other victims of Hitler deserve better. Their deaths should not be used for political points or sloganeering. This type of comparison diminishes and trivializes the Holocaust. There is no place for it in civil discussions.
Shelley Rose |Interim Regional Director
Anti-Defamation League | 3490 Piedmont Road; Suite 610 | Atlanta, Georgia 30305
Phone: 404-262-3470 I Fax: 404-262-3548 I Cell: 678-938-1399 I srose@adl.org
ADL website I our blog I facebook I twitter I youtube I pinterest I google+ I linkedin
==============================================================
I queried Ms Rose for a comment on the last paragraph, asking:
Wouldn’t that also apply to the use of “denier” to denigrate people, including Dr. Spencer. whose research has nothing to do with the holocaust or denial of it?
I also asked her to comment on the “green light” as a working title, asking if it was an accurate representation of their position. It was clear to me from the lack of response to two emails and two telephone calls was ” no comment”.
From their website, apparently slurs in major league football rate higher in concern than comparing climate skeptics to holocaust deniers for the purpose of denigration:
ADL Welcomes NFL’s Willingness to Address Hate Speech
The League welcomed reports that the NFL is considering how to discourage the use of offensive slurs during the course of games and said that “the question of how to address offensive speech and the best ways to counter it on playing fields and in locker rooms is an important conversation.”
And that’s why I think this is bizarre. The selective hypocrisy is stunning. I’m hoping the main office in New York will come to their senses and disavow the press release from the “Interim Regional Director”. Surely they must see the ugly conundrum they’ve manufactured for themselves.
Dr. Roy Spencer responds:
Hypocrisy at the Anti-Defamation League?
He asks exactly what I was thinking; where was ADL all these years when such ugly and hateful comparisons were being made:
Ms. Rose, where was your organization when journalists, politicians, and even some scientists, chose to call us skeptics “deniers”?
We don’t deny either “global warming” or “climate change”. Yet, we are called “deniers”. Ms. Rose, do you have any inkling why the term “denier” (which is a lie) might be used against us, rather than the term “skeptic” (which is accurate)? I think you know why.
I’d really like to know how ADL can turn a blind eye the use of “denier” for the purpose of denigration while at the same time calling out a victim of the denigration for fighting back after years of abuse.
There’s also a newspaper article about it:
UAH climate expert Roy Spencer calls critics ‘global warming Nazis’; Anti-Defamation League objects
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2014/02/uah_climate_expert_roy_spencer.html
UPDATE: The PR is now posted on the Atlanta ADL website here
http://atlanta.adl.org/news/adl-condemns-spencers-nazi-analogy/
Comments are allowed there. Be civil if you leave comments please.
The only thing that makes sense to me is that this person simply doesn’t know the history, and committed a terrible error in judgment.
UPDATE2: 2/27 6:30AM PST It seems the person making the attack, Shelly Rose, is part of a climate activist group, see photo and caption.
The caption reads:
Congregations Caring for the Climate – Atlanta, GA
Bill Witherspoon, from Congregation Bet Haverim writes: This was taken Friday evening before Erev Shabbat Services. We had about three times this many for services eventually, but these were the ones who arrived in time for the photo. As part of our second week of the Omer to Honor the Earth, Shelley Rose (third from right, just right of our Torah scrolls) gave the d’var (sermon) on acting with awareness that we all breathe the same air, and Tovah Melaver (second from right) led a breathing meditation.
April 13, 2007
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stepitup2007/464126698/
You can read all about this organization at http://stepitup2007.org
Of note is the list of “Friends and Allies” which reads like a who’s who in climate activism.
This whole episode makes a lot more sense now.
UPDATE3: 2/27 2:50PM PST, The ADL Atlanta website has deleted many comments on the issue, and has closed the press release to further comments. About an hour ago, I noted 90 comments were posted, now it is down to 50. See below.
Meanwhile I’ve drafted and sent a letter by email and by fax to ADL National Director, ABRAHAM H. FOXMAN asking if ADL plans to comment on the issue, and to ask id they plan to apply their condemnation equally, along with examples of what climate skeptics have been subjected to over the years. I think they simply have been caught unaware in a conundrum created by their Atlanta Interim Director.
I ask that if anyone makes communications with this organization, please be factual and respectful – Anthony
[snip – I just don’t think this needs to be said here in quite that way, which will likely be misinterpreted. I suggest a rephrase. – Anthony]
You know, this incident really isn’t anything new. Back in 2007, same ol’ same ol.
http://www.creators.com/opinion/dennis-prager/on-comparing-global-warming-denial-to-holocaust-denial.html
Ok Anthony, how about Spike Milligan playing one (a Traffic Warden one), and being dealt with by Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr?
Aanthanur,
You know, you got me thinking about it now. Denier? I’m not just a denier, I’m a dirty-no-good-gosh-darn denier. The sort your liberal arts college professor might have warned you about. Know why?
I’m an engineer.
See, it’s not that I know more about climate science (or science in general) than the climate scientists, I don’t. It’s not that my maths are better than theirs, they aren’t. It’s not that I’m smarter than those guys, or more dedicated, or more virtuous. I’m not.
The thing is, the buck stops with me and thousands of guys just like me. We’re the poor shmoes who have to put those be-a-utiful abstract scientific findings to use in practical applications. We have to apply the theories to get actual, concrete results. And it’s our necks when we’re wrong.
Want an elevator? Hey, no problem, we can do that. The theories say F=MA and A due to gravity is 9.8 M/s^2, and that the mechanical advantage I can get out of pulleys depends on the number of loops, and that if I compute the standard deviation of a sufficient number of observations I can predict the behavior of my system to whatever confidence is required for my application, and dozens apon dozens of others. And Behold! When I implement a design depending on the theories properly, the darn thing works! Would you look at that, the darn thing works! Still amazes me every time.
But along comes climate science. And these scientists tell me we’re going to see .2C warming per decade for the next couple of decades, and we’d see .1C warming even if all forcings were held at year 2000 constants. And … that’s not what we see.
Uh-oh.
As an engineer I can’t accept that. What I call ‘science’ has as one of it’s primary characteristic that it works; it describes things or processes in reality. I can depend on it for consistent, predictable results. Further, I depend on it to tell me when I’m in dangerous waters, to let me know when it’s impossible to be sure of getting consistent predictable results. It doesn’t matter how politically expedient it might seem to some to accept a consensus statement as science, as an engineer I don’t have that luxury, because I depend on science to help me actually make things work. Because it’s my butt if things don’t work.
Anyway, thanks for giving me the opportunity to expound on this. 🙂
By now, it’s irrelevant what the ADL says.
On Comparing Global Warming Denial to Holocaust Denial
Dennis Prager, 2007
Much more. It is worth a read if not a bookmark.
It appears that Aanthanur DC has tucked tail and run. Well, good riddance. He wouldn’t answer questions anyway.
Also, it looks like this story is getting traction. Good.
Chicken Soup Nazis works for me. Thanks Jerry!
Folks,
Just a few points:
Ms. Rose works for a regional ADL office. Regional offices are not actively managed by the national office. The national didn’t know about this press release before it was issued. If they had they would have quashed it. Rose used the ADL’s resources to promote her own outside political interests – bad judgment at the least and she should be fired for it.
The ADL has no position on the climate debate, nor should it – it is outside the organization’s mission. However, the ADL should long since have publically condemned the use of the term “denier” in this context. Not doing so was hypocritical and motivated purely by an instinct for self-preservation. After all, most ADL supporters are liberals and big supporters of the current administration’s climate policies. Now the ADL has no choice but to address it (in some fashion). Should be an interesting high wire act.
I will be calling my regional office and the national tomorrow, and I will cancel my membership if they don’t do the right thing (retracting their criticism of Roy Spencer and/or condemning ALL the Holocaust language being used in this debate, and ALL of the people, including our President who continue to use it.
I have noticed with disappointment (but not surprise) that SOME of you are using this matter to make anti-Jewish and anti-Israel remarks.
Well, we Jews do take care of our own, and we never back down from a good fight. So, say it to my face and I’ll be happy to meet you outside and re-arrange your attitude. Otherwise, keep it to yourself.
The ADL have just closed their comments thread. And there I was answering back to someone who said.
I REPLIED
http://atlanta.adl.org/news/adl-condemns-spencers-nazi-analogy/
You did not respond to my challenge. Try again.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/26/bizzare-anti-defamation-league-apparently-gives-a-green-light-to-defamation-of-climate-skeptics-by-comparing-them-to-holocaust-deniers/#comment-1577913
Hopefully someone has the wherewithal to archive the comments at the ADL website. Comments have been closed and posts have been disappeared for reasons unknown. I’m not confident of the shelf life for the remainder.
Oh bummer, they deleted my comments, both highly rated (largely by virtue of being early comments).
It looks like they’re going through the whole list deleting (slowly) as they go. Or maybe they’ve headed home for the day….
I might have a copy in a WWW window at home.
I just went over to ADL to make a comment but it appears this is no longer an option. I bet they’ve never had that many comments on a post before
I called the number for the ADL here in Atlanta today and got an intelligent and courteous young man. In talking with him it became apparent that the ADL folks had no clue about the ongoing controversy about alarmist using Deniers against skeptics. He promised to follow up. We shall see.
Riki says:
February 27, 2014 at 2:13 pm
That’s pretty much what I assumed, though I noted Ms. Rose was stating the ADL position in her press release, not the “Atlanta (or southeast) chapter of the ADL”. I figured if national hadn’t heard about it, who was I to try to stop a train wreck from being a really big train wreck before they took notice.
At least the history will live on here, WUWT never forgets.
Riki
Thank you for posting and I welcome that you will cancel your membership if the issue is not addressed. Good luck.
The counter-facts and arguments are gaining traction and so the Warmists like ADL are increasingly resorting to Argumentum ad Hominem to cover up their shame and embarrassment.
Riki says: February 27, 2014 at 2:13 pm
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Thanks Riki, well said.
What I find very interesting is that the only remaining comments that are not actively condemning the release are at the bottom of a whole thread of deleted comments.
@MattS et. al. – What I find surprising is when I commented initially, there were about 80 comments. Now there are only 50 (mine apparently survived the cut). There are some “Comment was deleted”, but no where near enough to account for the missing 30+
I just looked at the comments on the ADL site (at http://atlanta.adl.org/news/adl-condemns-spencers-nazi-analogy/), and many, if not most comments, are venomously scathing of the published ADL position of this issue.
So kudos to them for not ‘censoring’ the blowback on this issue.
Of course, shame on them for not being on top of this ‘Denier’ name calling earlier.
And shame on them for not jumping in and cleaning up this mess quickly.
I’ll be checking back every couple of days to see if they print a “mea culpa” over this apparent
politically biased hypocrisy.
hswiseman says:
February 26, 2014 at 6:18 pm
Well composed, sober and to the point. A splendid reply Howard.
==================================================================
Many groups that started as a noble cause have been infiltrated and subverted. It would seem the ADL has an opportunity to nip an infiltrator in the butt …er… bud.
(Of course, unless………………)
My comment that quoted climate sceptics being equated to ‘holocaust denier’s by journalists, activists and politicians has been deleted by ADL
Why… would the ADL do that, surely they would like to confront the issue (and people) that trivialises the holocaust by using it to marginalise ‘climate sceptics’
my deleted ADL comment, is reproduced in full here:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/26/bizzare-anti-defamation-league-apparently-gives-a-green-light-to-defamation-of-climate-skeptics-by-comparing-them-to-holocaust-deniers/#comment-1577831
I went to comment on ADL Atlanta site, but now closed to comments, so I will post mine here:
Dear Ms. Rose, if I may start by saying I admire and agree with the mission statement and stated purpose of the ADL which I have copied below for readers who do not have the time to look it up.
“About the Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry in the U.S. and abroad through information, education, legislation, and advocacy. ADL serves as a resource for government, media, law enforcement, educators and the public.
MISSION STATEMENT
The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.
ADL Charter October 1913”
I initially took the view that your response to the unfortunate comments of University of Alabama – Huntsville Professor Roy Spencer had been ill informed, particularly with regard to the fact that Dr. Spencer’s comments were taken out of context in that they were a response to constant, over several years, unjust and unfair discrimination and ridicule against him and other climate skeptics for expressing his view and professional opinion on ‘climate change’.
The ridicule has included being dehumanized by using terms such as ‘climate change denier’ but not only in some silly sense that he may ‘deny climate change’ but also with comments suggesting that skeptics are the same as ‘holocaust deniers’ and should face ‘Nuremberg type trials and should face the death penalty for their view’.
I changed my opinion in that I now take the view that you were not ill informed when I re-read the first paragraph of your response,
“wrote on his blog that those who refer to him as a climate change “denier” should be called “global warming Nazi”,
and the fourth paragraph,
‘University of Alabama-Huntsville Professor Roy Spencer’s analogy of proponents of global warming to Nazis is outrageous and deeply offensive.”
So, firstly you were aware that his blog post was in response to being termed a ‘denier’ and secondly are you saying it is okay to link skeptics to Nazis but if it is ‘proponents of global warming’ only then do you find it “outrageous and deeply offensive”?
I am not aware that the ADL has ever condemned proponents of global warming for dehumanizing skeptics by linking them to ‘holocaust deniers’, what I have been made aware of is that you Shelley Rose are the member of a climate activist group!
Do you not think that you should have declared your bias or conflict of interest?
All you have done is demonstrate your intolerance toward skeptics or those who hold different opinions from yourself (termed bigotry), you have failed in your stated purpose of ‘fighting all forms of bigotry’ let alone your mission statement,
“Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”
I also fail to see how Dr. Spencer’s comments were in any way anti-Semitic or defamed the Jewish people? He was pointing out that dehumanizing skeptics by linking them to ‘holocaust deniers’ and suggesting they should be put to death was a similar tactic used by Nazis.
Also, where you state
“Their deaths should not be used for political points or sloganeering”.
Is that not what you are doing by commenting on Dr. Spencer without declaring your bias as a member of a climate activist group?