Nazi Example Used in Critique of Stimulus by Washington Times Editorial

Last week, The Washington Times ridiculously wrote of the "Nazi version of efficiency" when criticizing health care provisions in the stimulus plan. The use of this example is not only inaccurate, but it is insensitive and clearly beyond the pale of even the most partisan critiques of the stimulus bill. The Times is free to voice its thoughts on its Editorial page, but attacking the stimulus plan by printing a photo of Adolf Hitler and invoking comparisons to Nazi policies is offensive and not befitting of any newspaper with at least a modicum of respectability.

As usual, Media Matters is on top of this.

A February 11 Washington Times editorial--also published on the paper's website alongside a photo of Adolf Hitler--compared the "spirit of the partisans of efficiency" who support a provision in the economic recovery bill that would attempt to improve "efficiency" of health-care delivery by providing for electronic medical records to the "Nazi version of efficiency" in which "elderly people with incurable diseases, young children who were critically disabled, and others who were deemed non-productive, were euthanized." The Times' comparison was based on a false interpretation of the health-care provisions in the recovery bill, claiming that it provided for the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology to "monitor[] the health care being provided to every American" and that it the bill "appears to institutionalize ... a body free of political influence to make the hard choices regarding how these efficiencies will be realized--what care will be limited, and who will be denied what services."

...

The Times suggested that the "efficiencies" embodied in the bill's provisions are comparable to the "Nazi version of efficiency." The Times asserted that a quote it attributed to "a program instituted in Hitler's Germany called Aktion T-4" is "fully in the spirit of the partisans of efficiency." The quote as the Times provided it read: "It must be made clear to anyone suffering from an incurable disease that the useless dissipation of costly medications drawn from the public store cannot be justified." The Times then explained that, under Aktion T-4, "elderly people with incurable diseases, young children who were critically disabled, and others who were deemed non-productive, were euthanized."

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Comments

[Stirner]

I recall that Hitler and Mussolini were widely admired in the early 30s... Benito made "the trains run on time" and Adolf had picked Germany up from Depression by setting up what today is termed a "military-­industrial complex" That both Dictators were against Communism (a.k.a. "Bolshevism") added to their appeal. Take a look at the Fascist architecture in D.C., with its decorative statuary being heavy on beefy Aryan types (the National Archive Building is a fine example). Roosevelt's set up of the WPA and PWA (Works Projects Administration and the Public Works Administration) was inspired by the success of the Hitler Jugend. As to another miserable Dictator, Stalin, when he was with us, he was cheerfully dubbed "Uncle Joe" by F.D.R. Power politics always trumps morality.

[quindy]

Washington Times should be printed on toilet paper so there would be some use for it.

[mediamarv]

Modicums are getting smaller and smaller every day, according to my observatio­ns..

Actually, putting the Times in the same sentence with credibility makes for "rolling on the floor" laughing fits.

[DuPageDem]

" not befitting of any newspaper with at least a modicum of respectabi­lity."

Your premise falls apart right about there. For the Moonie Times, that train left the station some time ago.

[wprange]

Last week, I wrote the ADL an e-mail with the exact same complaint but haven't heard anything back. Last year, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned an e-mail message sent by McCain supporters to Jewish voters in Pennsylvania, paid for by the “Republican Federal Committee of PA – Victory 2008” which contained the following observation: " it is shocking and profoundly distressing that anyone would see fit to make such an odious, false and repugnant analogy. Not only does it further debase the level of our political discourse, but it also diminishes and trivializes the virulent anti-Semitism and Nazi aggression that led to the slaughter of six million Jews and millions of others."

The same observation and condemnation seemed to be in order here too.

[wprange]

clarification, the quote was the condemnation by ADL, not the e-mail from McCain-supporters