Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

ADL Reports That Liberty Lobby Escalates Anti-semitic Campaign

August 5, 1974
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

Liberty Lobby, the Washington-based far-right propaganda apparatus which was charged by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith last month was using its national daily radio program to peddle bigotry, has escalated its anti-Semitic campaign with the promotion and distribution of two notorious hate tracts, the ADL said.

The two works, according to John L. Gold-water, chairman of ADL’s fact finding committee, are “The Myth of the Six Million,” a 119-page anonymous paperback, and a reprint of a 27-year-old fraudulent anti-Semitic pamphlet, “The ADL and Its Use in the Communist Offensive,” written by Robert H. Williams, an anti-Jewish propagandist in the 1940s and 1950s.

The ADL in a survey made public July 3 by Lawrence Peirez chairman of the agency’s national civil rights committee, had revealed that “This Is Liberty Lobby,” a five-minute broadcast carried by over 100 radio stations, was controlled by Willis A. Carto,a professional organizer of anti-Jewish groups and publications and founder of the 16-year-old Liberty Lobby.

In addition, Peirez had pointed out that the principal owners of the Mutual Broadcasting System, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin D. Gilbert, have been regular financial contributors to Liberty Lobby since 1966, and that a recent contract signed by “This is Liberty Lobby” with Mutual would make the program available to the network’s stations. Goldwater said that 33 Mutual outlets have already begun carrying “This is Liberty Lobby.”

HOLOCAUST TERMED “PURE POPPYCOCK”

The broadcasts regularly offer a free copy of “America First,” described by ADL as “a blatantly anti-Semitic pamphlet,” as a bonus for subscriptions to “the equally anti-Semitic monthly, ‘Liberty Letter.’ ‘ The July issue of “Liberty Letter,” in a column and ad on “The Myth of the Six Million,” described the book as containing “facts” allegedly proving that Hitler’s decimation of the Jewish people during the Holocaust “is pure poppycock.”

Goldwater said that in conjunction with its stepped-up anti-Jewish literature campaign. Liberty Lobby also issued a mass “emergency” appeal which libeled ADL as being “basically un-American” and urged Liberty Lobby followers to form committees to establish new outlets for the radio program. The mailing also offered the anti-Semitic Williams tract free to contributors.

The charges contained in the original ADL report accused Carto of setting up Liberty Lobby as a “front” for his “seamier operations,” including Liberty and Property, a clearinghouse for keeping informed on anti-Semitic activities; “Western Destiny,” a magazine with racist, Nazi-type articles, and Noontide Press, publisher of anti-Semitic, racist and pro-Nazi books, including “Imperium.” by the late Nazi apologist Francis P. Yockey. The Yockey book contains a dedication to Hitler and a laudatory 35-page introduction by Carto.

Goldwater said that Liberty Lobby mailings have inspired hate mail and abusive phone calls to ADL offices. He declared that “Liberty Lobby’s growing anti-Jewish campaign only reinforces the Anti-Defamation League’s determination to continue to expose the group’s activities.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement