Pope to address Jews after bishop denies Holocaust

From http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20090207/twl-oukwd-uk-pope-jews-bd5ae06.html.

First, note that I have no real public opinion on the subject matter. My concern is more along the lines of how the media is reporting the supposed "Holocaust denier" Bishop. It's how the public is fed controversial information that bothers me.

The supposed Holocaust denier, in one article (here: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.7316af55c8e17993ea8a569358ebb283.721&show_article=1 ) states:

"I believe there were no gas chambers... I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers," Williamson said.

"There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies!"

Yet the press outright labels him a holocaust denier in the headlines. Clearly, though, he is quoted as not denying the extermination of Jews. Why does the media do this? Being a "denier" implies so much more than what this man believes (even though what he believes is clearly, without a doubt, insulting to survivors and their families.) I find the reporting irresponsible and think that the headlines frame the debate incorrectly. The press gives me absolutely no real indication of what this man's motives are for understating the number of deaths in concentration camps.

My point in this post is not to take sides on the issue. I'm simply suggesting that the "debates" people have after reading headlines are somewhat misguided, and it's as if the press wants us to argue the wrong things intentionally. Is it any less of a tragedy when numbers as large as a few hundred thousand are used to describe the number of dead people? No, it isn't.

Moreover, it's the "headline mislabeling" effect that I think is used to drive the US population into debating the wrong things when issues like war come up. To this day, there is no legitimate, large-scale anti-war movement because the press has managed to muddle the debate. It's clear that the press in this country is trying to distract us.

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