Melder's Musings

Paul Harvey: paying tribute to slavery, nukes, and genocide.

I present another story from radio today. Having spent a few years in it, I'm rather fond of it. Unfortunately, one of the medium's best has suddenly killed all the respect and admiration I once held for him.

ABC radio (subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company) personality Paul Harvey, one of the most widely listened to commentators in the United States, presented his listeners on June 23 with an endorsement of genocide and racism that would have been right at home on a white supremacist shortwave broadcast. While, thankfully, I did not hear his comments that day, I have FAIR to thank for the transcript.

Harvey's commentary began by lamenting the decline of American wartime aggression.

"We're standing there dying, daring to do nothing decisive because we've declared ourselves to be better than our terrorist enemies...more moral, more civilized," he said.

Drawing a contrast with what he cast as the praiseworthy nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, Harvey lamented that "we sent men with rifles into Afghanistan and Iraq and kept our best weapons in their silos" (suggesting that America should have used its nuclear arsenal in its invasions of both countries).

Harvey concluded:

"We didn't come this far because we're made of sugar candy. Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and across this continent by giving smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans. That was biological warfare. And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this land from whomever.

"And we grew prosperous. And yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves. So it goes with most great nation-states, which, feeling guilty about their savage pasts, eventually civilize themselves out of business and wind up invaded and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry up-and-coming who are not made of sugar candy."

Harvey's evident approval of slavery, genocide and nuclear and biological warfare would seem to put him at odds with Disney's family-friendly image. The media conglomerate syndicates Harvey to more than 1,000 radio stations, where he reaches an estimated 18 million listeners.

Disney recently signed a lifetime contract (said to be worth $100 million) with the 86-year-old Harvey. He is one of only two people to hold that distinction. The other is KTRK-TV's Marvin Zindler (whose muckraking is the story behind The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas).

I'm troubled by more than Harvey's comments. I'm troubled by Disney's double standard.
In 2004, Disney forbid its Miramax subsidiary to distribute Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11, even though Miramax was the principal investor in the film. A Disney executive told the New York Times (on May 5, 2004) that it was declining to distribute the film because, "Disney caters to families of all political stripes and believes Mr. Moore's film...could alienate many."

One wonders whether Disney executives are worried about alienating families who oppose slavery, nuclear war and genocide.