An Alabama Robocall Invokes Ugly Tropes
Alabamas Senate race received an ugly new wrinkle on Tuesday night, thanks to an apparent series of robocalls seem to be designed to fan resentmentsof the press, of Northerners, and perhaps of Jewish reporters.
Local news station WKRG reported that one of its viewers received a robocall from a man impersonating a Washington Post reporter. In it, the man offers to pay women thousands of dollars if theyll make false accusations against Roy Moore, the states former chief justice and the Republican candidate to replace Jeff Sessions in the Senate.
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Impersonating a journalist to smear the entire profession is a nasty enough maneuver on its own. But the Alabama robocall also seems to draw upon the dark motifs of antisemitism to accomplish its goal. The fake Bernsteins nasally, high-pitched voice and forced New York accent evoke antisemitic caricatures and stereotypes. (The real Bernstein, for the record, sounds nothing like this.)
Theres a long, ugly history of intertwining anti-Semitism and attacks on media outlets. Historian Victoria Saker Woeste, writing in The Washington Post, described the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a virulent anti-Jewish tract first published in tsarist Russia, as the first modern instance of fake news. The pamphlet claimed a cabal of Jewish leaders had taken control of the media as part of a plot for world dominion.
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Yet more possible anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head, met with silence.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)Sorry, just read the piece. At first I said to myself "Leonard Bernstein has been dead a long time..." Shows how old I am...
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)It occurs to me that Leeanne Tweeden's account does not have to be credible even to conservatives to be effective. Of course, many will eagerly believe her, or pretend to.
But no matter how many other eyebrows might be lifted, her story might also suggest to people that the Alabama women's stories could be just as questionable. Fox certainly isn't telling its viewers how carefully the stories of the Alabama women were investigated for credibility before publishing.
When they can't hide from their actions and fool people into believing the Democrats did "it," the Republicans' standard fallback technique is to confuse people into thinking both sides are bad.