Thursday, October 4, 2007

Weltner’s ‘Scholarly’ Site

In all honesty before this class probably the only computer term I knew was www as 'world wide web'. I would like to think I am very proficient using my computer, to use hotmail, check my facebook, run most applications, but I had never thought of how it all works. It worked and that was enough for me. In our Digital History class the seeming 'magic' of my computer and the internet is definitely being replaced by a dizzying array of code and format. The last few weeks have been extremely interesting in some respects and in others very disquieting...After watching Epic 2015 I found it a little hard to breathe... What, our emails don't actually get deleted?

A little voice inside of me cries ranking order, TEI, xml vs. html vs. xhtml? Who cares? Although ignorance is bliss, I am happy that this course has forced me to realize (although I'm still stuck in a fuzzy stage) how everything works. One of my best friends sent me this email today and I thought it was a great example of everything we have been discussing in class.

The email describes the racist web-site www.Jewwatch.com and the fight to remove it from the Google search engine.

Please copy this message and send it to your
> friends. Thank you *Subject:* Petition to Google to
> remove an anti-Semitic siteWhen you Google the word
> "Jew", one of the first websites that pops up
> is
http://www.jewwatch.com/ -- an anti-Semitic,
> hate-filled haranguemasquerating as "scholarly,
> factual, informational".Add your name to the
> petition to remove www.jewwatch.com from
> Google'ssearch engine. (Check out the site and you
> will understand why.)In order for Google to remove
> this, they would need a petition of over500,000
> requests.... So let's make it 1,000,000! P.S.
> Current total signatures approx. 325,000Go to:
>
http://www.petitiononline.com/rjw23/petition.html to
> sign thepetition. VERY IMPORTANT !! Please pass this
> one on!

The owner of this site is Frank Weltner, a member of the white-nationalist and white-separatist group the National Alliance. An example of the www.jewwatch.com 's racist writing:

"Newspapers: 90% of All United States Newspapers Are Owned and Run by Jews

And They Are Using Them to Elect the Presidents and Congressmen They Want--For Their Plan to Wipe Out White Americans. According to President Clinton, the Jewish/Colored Democratic Party Has Reduced Whites Already from 88% in 1964 to 72% in 1998. Using this Progression, Whites Will Be Reduced (via This Genocide) to 49% in 2040 to 24% in 2085 and to 9% in 2125. After that, Whites will have Been Exterminated Entirely. This is Made Possible Because Pro-Zionist-Soviet-Jews and Not the Tolerant Christian Whites Control the Press of Our White, Christian Nation. They Are Using Their Presses To Tell Us What To Think, To Destroy our Ethical Ways and Our Culture, to Promote Racist Civil Rights Agendas Designed to Destroy Whites, and to Promote Israel's Policies in the Middle East." http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-controlledpress-newspapers.html#anchor47841

Weltner publishes his credentials as a certified librarian with an English MA. He describes his site as "the Internet's Largest Scholarly Collection of Articles on Jewish History" and that the "637 million pages served demonstrate our focus on professionalism". Anyone can say they have 'scholarly' work and post it on the internet despite its blatantly racist undertones. This reinforces everything we have said in class about the need for people to be sceptical of sources. Although this is drilled into our heads as students, sites like this can reach those who don't make clear distinctions between good scholarship, and eccentrics who claim to have 'scholarly facts' that substantiate their own agenda. Although it would be nice if every hate site were wiped off the internet, it is unrealistic to think this will happen. It is also unfortunate that the first site (it fluctuates, it was 3rd when I typed it into Google) that came up when you type in Jew in Google is this biased site filled with propaganda. Simply changing the order or removing the site, isn't enough as there will always be people posting hateful/or simply false information. People need to be vigilant about the information they accept. Another interesting thing I was thinking about was whether or not the fight against this website somehow validates it by recognizing it, instead of treating it as something not worthy of anyone's time? Is the whole controversy getting Weltner more publicity and a larger audience? Hopefully, the effect is the opposite and this example will highlight the need to be wary of any source, no matter how legitimate it may seem.




1 comment:

pstewart said...

Google actually ended up issuing a statement and apology over this one, which is either a first for them (they usually don't talk about the implications of their results) or something fairly close to a first.

I remember when it first broke awhile ago, setting off a counter-Googlebombing campaign which is the reason the Wikipedia article is currently the top result (and why jewfact.org was the #1 hit beforehand, as that was the main target for fixing the results).

And you're right on people claiming credentials they don't have, of course. I've administered a few semi-big online forums over the past few years, and the number of people I've run into who claim to have doctorates from fictitious schools is surprising and depressing in equal measure. (Then again, I've seen a few of those offline as well.)