BIPARTISAN GROUP OF THIRTY U.S. REPRESENTATIVES URGE PBS NOT TO PROVIDE A PLATFORM FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIERS

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 06 2006

WASHINGTON, APRIL 6, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Rep. Adam Schiff
(D-CA) was joined by Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA), Congressional
Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg
(R-MI), and a bipartisan group of twenty-six U.S. Representatives in
urging the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) not to provide a broadcast
platform for deniers of the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America. In an April 3rd letter, addressed to
PBS Chief Operating Officer Wayne Godwin, the House Members addressed
the growing controversy surrounding plans by PBS to broadcast a panel
discussion including known Armenian Genocide deniers Justin McCarthy
and Omer Turan following the airing this April of the documentary “The
Armenian Genocide,” produced by Andrew Goldberg. In their letter,
the group of legislators urged that, “PBS not provide a national
platform to those who deny the Armenian Genocide… Despite the
Turkish government’s concerted and well-financed effort to obscure
and alter history, there is no serious academic dispute about the
Armenian Genocide.” The letter closed by noting that, “Surely,
PBS would not consider broadcasting a documentary on the Holocaust,
followed by a panel that included Holocaust deniers. A commitment to
balance does not mandate the inclusion of opinions that are objectively
false.” “We want to thank Representatives Schiff, Radanovich, Pallone,
and Knollenberg for their leadership in giving voice to the growing
Congressional opposition to PBS’s deeply flawed decision to provide
public airtime to deniers of the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “Clearly their concerns are being
heard, as more and more PBS affiliates are deciding not to run this
panel discussion.” The full list of signatories is as follows: Gary
Ackerman (D-NY), Shelley Berkley (D-NV), Jerry Costello (D-IL), Anna
Eshoo (D-CA), Bob Filner (D-CA), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Raul Grijalva
(D-AZ), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Steve Israel (D-NY), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI),
Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), James McGovern (D-MA),
Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), Michael McNulty (D-NY), Richard Neal (D- MA),
C. L. Butch Otter (R-ID), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Donald Payne (D-NJ),
Collin Peterson (D-MN), George Radanovich (R-CA), Steven Rothman
(D-NJ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Joe Schwarz (R-MI), Brad Sherman (D -CA),
Mark Souder (R-IN), John Sweeney (R-NY), Edolphus Towns (D-NY),
Diane Watson (D-CA), and Anthony Weiner (D-NY). In addition to the
signatories of this letter, a number of other legislators undertook
individual efforts directly with PBS. Among these were Senator Boxer
(D-CA), who shared her concerns with San Francisco’s KQED, which
recently decided not to air the denial panel.

Senator John Ensign (D-CA), the author of the Senate version of the
Armenian Genocide Resolution (S.Res. 320), similarly urged Las Vegas
PBS affiliate KLVX not to air the panel, stressing that, “to air
this or any other denial would only serve to condone [the Turkish
government’s] denial and to ignore the reality of those atrocious
acts that were responsible for the loss of one and half million lives
and for more than half a million survivors being exiled.” On the House
side, individual letters were sent by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and James
Langevin (D-RI). In her letter, Rep. Lofgren expressed her hope that
“PBS will evaluate this planned programming using the same standard
it would employ if deniers were discussing either [the Armenian or
Jewish] Holocaust.”

Rep. Langevin noted that, “I imagine that those who deny the existence
of the Holocaust would not be offered the same chance to air their
views, and I question why the Armenian Genocide appears to be held
to a different standard.” On April 4th, Rep. Schiff hosted a Capitol
Hill screening of the PBS documentary, “The Armenian Genocide,” to
a standing-room only audience of Members of Congress, Congressional
staffers, members of the media and Armenian American community
activists. Rep. Schiff was joined by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Rep.

Pallone in offering remarks at the opening of the documentary,
while director Andrew Goldberg led an insightful question and answer
session at the conclusion of the piece. Among those in attendance
were His Excellency Tatoul Markarian, Ambassador of the Republic of
Armenia to the U.S. accompanied by Embassy staff, as well as former
U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Michael Lemmon and Pulitzer Prize winning
author Samantha Power. On March 29th, Rep. Pallone delivered a House
floor speech urging PBS not to air the panel discussion, arguing
that he “would not feel any different about this issue if we were
discussing Darfur, Rwanda or the Nazi Holocaust. Genocide deniers
should not have a forum.

The quest for fair and balanced information does not give a license to
propagate false, misleading and offensive information about historical
facts that relate to genocide.” The Washington Post reported on
February 16th that, “Thousands of Armenian Americans are protesting
the Public Broadcasting Service’s planned panel-discussion program
about Turkey’s role in the deaths of Armenians during and after World
War I. The 25-minute program has generated an outcry because the
panel will include two scholars who deny that 1.5 million Armenian
civilians were killed in eastern Turkey from 1915 to 1920.”