Leave the Hitler’s Alone

I have always considered George Stroumboulopoulos and by association, his program the Hour, to be a news program that acts under the Watchdog model of media. Stroumboulopoulos guides his hourly program in such a way that expresses his own opinions within the reporting of the current news. It is George’s clever criticisms and segments dedicated to exposing these ‘"truths" about the world that serve as an outlet for this media watchdog specifically in “Disinformation – 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know.”



The issue of Hitler is one that is timeless in both relevance and interest. The effect of Hitler’s reign was grand scale and consequently transcends to audiences on a mass scale. To hear any “news” on him, decades after the terror he imposed would perk the ears and eyes or almost any audience. When I first heard that Hitler’s blood relatives were still alive I was intrigued by this story.

However, after hearing it my opinion changed drastically. I have enclosed a transcript of the video that played under the Disinformation segment of 50 things You’re Not Supposed to Know, that the Hour feels it is our right to know. While I appreciate the fact that a news program strives to drag our highly censored minds into the proverbial light, I actually felt this story was one better left in the dark. I never thought I would take the stance of defender against anyone with association to Hitler. But as the report dictated, the four remaining men (only three of which are alive now) made a pact not to subject any future offspring to the burdens of bearing relation to such a monster. I feel such a drastic life choice is indicative of their own struggles growing up in the shadow of what their predecessor had done. Despite their somewhat distant blood relationship to the fascist dictator, what business is it of us as audiences and readers, to know where they are living and working?
How could this information possibly benefit us when it would clearly only draw further criticism than already endured to the remaining members? It is my belief that by continuing to discuss and immortalize Hitler even now, we are continuing to pay homage to his will. We are giving him exactly what he wanted, to be immortalized long after his time and at the expense of four boys (three remaining) who had the misfortune of being born into the wrong bloodline. The Hour indirectly trivializes the lives of these men, accounting for only three of the four brothers, but identifying the state and occupation of the two they were able to discover.

While old footage of their distant relative’s evil reign fill the background and remind us of the darkness he caused, a sole reporter sits at a table and tells the story of the Hitler family bloodline. Their lives are being accredited to a few simple sentences, most of which identifying them and making them vulnerable, labeling them only as Hitler’s bloodline and a slight mention of a brotherly pact. I feel the impact and the sacrifice that went into the creation of the pact speaks volumes regarding their character and their sense of self-loathing of the family they were born into. They have collected decided to end the Hitler bloodline forever.

We all know for better or worse we cannot choose our families. If we found out in 20 years that Robert Pickton had blood relatives living somewhere in America would that be any more or less relevant? I realize the impact of these men situations is incomparable, but the point remains the same. Why are we so eager to seek out these people who are not accountable for what preceded their family’s history? While I am uncertain this report will hold a negative impact, the odds are in favour of that. The story has been viewed over 1,000 times from the website alone. These men know where they come from; do we need to remind them? If the victims have suffered enough, when is it enough for those victimized in a different way by the same animal?

Disinformation Segment – 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know

Did you know that Hitler’s blood relatives are alive and well in New York State?
Hitler never had any kids so we tend to take for granted that anyone related to him is still alive, Adolf had an older half brother who had a son, Pat Hitler who moved to Germany as a young man to take advantage of his Uncle’s rising political stature. Pat grew tired of being overlook by his uncle who was only giving him minor jobs. So Pat moved to America and in the height of World War II as the war raged on, Pat joined up with the U.S. Navy, in order to fight against his uncle Adolf. Afterwards he changed his name to blend in with the rest of society. That is until a reporter named David Garner was given the task to find him and interview him and after several years it was no easy task to find him, Garner found out he was living in a small town in the State of New York. Showing up unannounced on his doorstep, Garner learned that Pat had died in 1987. His widow Phyllis confided that it was indeed Pat Hitler and also let it be known that they had four sons. She then quickly clamed up and asked them to leave. After much legwork, Garner found the four sons named, Alexander, Brian, Howard, and Lewis. Howard, a fraud investigator for the IRS died in a car crash when he was 32 in 1989. Brian and Lewis continue to this day to operate a landscaping business in the small community of Long Island. I was told Phyllis old Garner that the four brothers made a pact to never have children so they would be spare them the burden of being related to a monster. Adolf Hitler’s blood relatives are alive and well in New York State.

Link to the video on the Hour website: http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1326

"Somewhere there's a box full of replacement parts to all the tenderness we've broken or let rust away. Somewhere sympathy is more than just a way of leaving. Somewhere someone says 'I'm sorry.' Someone's making plans to stay."



We’ve had two runs of the news show now, and my fears about screwing up came true, but did not matter as much as I thought. Apparently we have been credited as being the first class in many years to actually go to air on time. That is not to say that things went perfectly after that, you could say that in fact, the opposite took place but we’re still learning. The hardest part, I’ve found is to anticipate disaster, the things that can go wrong will, along with 5 other things that had never even crossed your mind.

Being a PA is a crazy, stressful job, but crazy in that fun way. That race to the 5pm clock to have everything done, to know everything that people ask you and be everywhere your producer needs you, and that your contribution is crucial, is fun for me. I love that kind of high stress energy where you’re working your ass off but you love it at the same time. Even on the switchboard, you’re a necessary part of something greater than you, and that feeling that people are depending on you to change things at the command of the director and with no screw ups (which hasn’t happened yet, but I’m going to get there!) is imperative. Especially considering the director on my shift is someone incredibly smart and whom I respect and I want to do the best I can to help his show run smoothly.

The 5 o clock Thursday craze aside, us Journalism New Media students are attempting to decide out placements and indirectly (or directly, depending on the position) plan our futures. It’s an intimidating thought, one I’ve been putting off for many years, but I suppose one I can no longer hide from. I, like all of my classmates I’m sure, want my placement to lead me into a job so I can start making money, get myself out of debt and start planning my life. My aims are for CTV, Global or City TV but who knows what will happen, it’s still too early to tell.

On a more relaxed note, there are some upcoming events that I’m crazy excited for. The highly anticipated, long awaited Incubus concert is less than two weeks away, on February 4th. It’s been around 2 years since I saw them at the ACC with Dana and this time, the lovely Matt Danko will be accompanying me. Speaking of Dana, she is still in Vancouver and I’ve been trying my best to get her home. Hopefully, I will have more luck with this when I visit her for reading week. Much to the dismay of my Visa and my parents, my flight is booked and I’m going to spend 6 days with Dana, I’m really looking forward to it, not only for the chance to travel, (which I’ve always wanted to do and seldom have), but also to see the friend I’ve missed so much since she left in May.

"It's not as easy as willing it all to be right, got to be more than hoping it's right, I want to hear you laugh like you really mean it, collapse into me tired with joy..."

This has indeed been an interesting first three days of second term, and here’s why. Monday’s class of Current Affairs (see previous blogs to reaffirm my passionate despise of the course and primarily, the teacher himself). Our class trudged on down to Toronto to the CBC building to see Kenton in his place of work because apparently he’s under some drastic time constraints for his latest assignment. His first words to us were that while his editor friend told us our final projects from last term were some of the best he had seen come out of the class, he wanted to ensure us all that, it was in fact not true and our grades will reflect that. Awesome! Sadly I think I have become impervious to his constant ridicule, sad but true, I’m getting used to his abrasive, borderline insulting manner.

Yesterday was slightly more interesting, I’m taking a mandatory Media Theory course this term which is taking back to my University days of hell involving Chomsky and Baudrillard, etc. I’ve never been fantastic at the whole theory thing, but I managed to scrape by and get my degree, so hopefully I can pull something out of my ass for this term as well.

I started my volunteering at Rogers Cable 10 in Mississauga as well. The evening I signed up for is a live airing of the program, ME TV where people in the area come in and talk about local interests. Last night’s had a local singer who won some Mississauga talent competition for 2006, some impersonator, and some little girls’ hockey team. While perhaps not the most interesting piece of television I ever viewed, for a volunteer position at a local cable station, I found it rather enjoyable. I was camera one operator and wore my fancy head set, I’m happy to report that I didn’t screw up on my first day, like I assumed I would do. It’s a learning environment and people are willing to help you out, so I think I will keep going back.

I’m very fearful for my life in terms of tomorrow. Tomorrow our class goes live at 5 on the net for the first installment of our weekly broadcasts. I’m the PA (Production Assistant), which for those who may not know, is in charge of counting down the start and finish, and ins and outs of video footage, etc. Basically the timing of the show depends on me and I’m prone to fuck ups, so you do the math. Pray for me, perhaps if I live to tell about it I’ll post how terrible it was.