With Pope Benedict’s upcoming trip to Israel, The CMR Institute of Media Studies is instituting the “Hitler Youth” Watch.
Our trained professionals (monkeys who like to pretend to read the newspaper) are standing by and counting the number of times the media is able to include the term “Hitler Youth” into their news reports on Pope Benedict’s trip next week to Israel.
You can bet the media’s going to bring the Hitler. Sometimes they’ll slip it in as a biographical note in the 12th paragraph. Other times the media will play it prominently because some loudmouth mentions “Hitler Youth” because they’ll know the media will cover it if they say it. Other times it will be a “both sides” angle on reporting which will say that some people love Pope Benedict while others blah blah “Hitler Youth” blah blah. You get the idea.
The Associated Press already got their Hitler on when just today they managed to actually compliment the Pope while connecting him with Hitler. Not an easy task. Kudos to the AP for that one. Here’s the sentence from the AP report:
Despite the dispute, Jewish leaders say Benedict, who served in the Hitler Youth corps as a young man in Germany and then in the army before deserting near the end of the war, has an excellent record in fighting anti-Semitism. He has already visited synagogues in Cologne, Germany, and New York and is expected at Rome’s central synagogue later this year.
And there’s sure to be some surprises along the way as to how they fit that little “fun fact” into stories and it’ll be fun to watch.
Now the CMR monkeys are fairly responsible but if you see any interesting mention in the media of “Hitler Youth” pertaining to Pope Benedict, please let us know in the combox.
Currently, there are 146 Google News references to “Hitler Youth.” Let’s all watch and see if that number goes up. We will using the CMR patented Hilter-Youth-O-Meter to keep track of all the references. Check back often as we will keep the Hilter-Youth-O-Meter updated!
Update: The media is already up to 245 references to Hitler Youth. This is going even faster than I thought it would.Haaretz has a pretty unfair reference today that seems to forget that joining “Hitler Youth” was mandatory and young Ratzinger was a child.
“We expect that Pope Benedict XVI’s speech at Yad Vashem will include a reference to the memory of the Holocaust in the present as well as in the future,” said Avner Shalev, Yad Vashem’s chairman of the directorate.
Shalev recalled that Benedict spent his childhood as a member of the Hitler Youth and later was drafted into the Wermacht. “It is impossible to claim that these things do not have an impact,” he said. “A person’s habitat bears an influence on him, despite the fact that immediately after the war he disengaged from these things and devoted himself to studying religion.”
May 7, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Haven’t seen that today. I did see that some Islamic leaders are still awaiting an apology for the Regensberg speech. You know, the one where the Pope quoted an dead emperor about Islam being a ‘violent religion’ and then the Islamic world erupted into violence. Ya, that one.
May 7, 2009 at 8:25 pm
They only became violent because the dead emperor’s comment framed the news coverage in an unfavorable light.
For example, the only reason all of those cars in France were set ablaze is because the street lights were burnt out and the residents were worried about an increase in crime, because none of them are armed with guns, knives, swords or machettes. Those riots.
May 7, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Whan your son becomes pope, the press of the day will be printing about how he belonged to the Obama Youth.
May 7, 2009 at 10:11 pm
The McClatchy on line report brings up the Hitler Youth, but at lease concedes he was compelled to join. They also took a swipe at Pius XII.
May 8, 2009 at 4:11 pm
The NYTimes offers a mixed bag, but mostly negative sensationalism: Pope Arrives in Mideast in Chance to Mend Fences“Benedict sparked global outrage in January by revoking the excommunication of a schismatic bishop from an ultratraditionalist sect — a Briton, Richard Williamson, who had recently been filmed denying the scope of the Holocaust. Many Jews had already viewed Benedict with some suspicion, given that he is a German who was forced into the Hitler Youth and the German Army in World War II.
After Jews and Catholics alike said the church’s moral authority had been eroded by the Williamson episode, Benedict issued an unprecedented personal letter in March explaining his motives. And in Israel, he will likely be able to draw on reserves of good will for his many years, as a cardinal, improving once tense relations between Catholics and Jews.
…
His visit comes three years after he offended many Muslims with a speech in Regensburg, Germany…
…
In recent months, tensions have brewed between Israel and the Vatican over a plaque in Yad Vashem criticizing Pope Pius XII for not doing enough to save Jews during the Holocaust. Pius, who served from 1939 until 1958, is on track for sainthood.”
May 8, 2009 at 5:51 pm
At least these stories are actually about the Pope. They could be working harder:
“Clark Gable was one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars throughout the 1930’s, while future Pope Benedict XVI was a member of Hitler’s Youth.”
“American car production reached its lowest levels since 1938, when Joseph Ratzinger was enlisted in the Hitler Youth organization.”
“Today’s special is Eggs Benedict, which are NOT a former member of the Hitler Youth, but you may want to avoid them anyway, just in case.”
Wheeeee, fun!
May 9, 2009 at 2:29 pm
The Telegraph says he “had” to join the HY as a “child”, but it makes the trip look like one long round of misery
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/jordan/5297039/Israel-demands-Pope-Benedict-XVI-condemn-Holocaust-deniers.html
May 9, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Its okay, soon we’ll have obama’s youth, and then in fifty years they’ll be complaining about the pope (haha if we actually ever had a pope to come out of the US) being in that.
May 10, 2009 at 2:31 am
OK. We’re up to 553 already and it’s only Saturday night.
May 10, 2009 at 3:42 am
Corriere della Sera had an article yesterday about how the Israeli police was at capacity as there was a “plausible” death threat against the Pope by…Jewish extremists.
Meanwhile, in Jordan Mohammedan extremists (Islamic brotherhood) also threatened the Pope on their website. So, it would appear both Schlomo and Mo-mo have it in for our beloved Pontif. Let us all (as usual) pray for his safe voyage.
May 10, 2009 at 9:17 pm
To give credit where it is due, the Jordanians have done a very good job so far. The vespers and Mass were beautiful. The Mass in particular was superior to the one in DC. I wish the TV coverage could’ve gone into a little bit about Jordan. How are the Christians there doing?
May 11, 2009 at 12:16 am
Dymphna – the Christian community throughout the Middle-East is dwindling. CNN writes about it in the conext of the Pope’s visit here http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/05/10/pope.mideast.visit/index.html
From my own experience, Christians are treated poorly in Israel these days. Even the hassidic Jews prefer dealing with Mohammedans over Christians. And the regular Israeli populace has been conditioned to see all Palestinians as equally loathsome, regardless of their religion. I can’t speak about Jordan though.
May 11, 2009 at 8:19 pm
The Today show on NBC had a “hitler youth” comment today while reporting on the Papal visit.
You can see the video clip here, it’s just 30 secs or so into it…
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/30679901#30679901
May 12, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Over 1,500 references. Good thing you didn’t make this a drinking game.
February 26, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Have faith in the human race, would ya? I mean, really. What makes you think there will actually be an OBAMA YOUTH? Some of you may be stupid enough to fall for that…but I'm not. And not all of the human race is. Get over yourself.