Protests Greet TV Debate on Genocide

February 28, 2006
Los Angeles Times
By Maria Elena Fernandez and Matea Gold, Times Staff Writers


A taped 25-minute panel discussion that is to follow a PBS documentary about Turkey's role in the massacre of Armenians during and after World War I, scheduled to air in April, has prompted protests by thousands of Armenian Americans and two congressmen.

But Angelenos will not get a chance to see either the one-hour film, "The Armenian Genocide" by filmmaker Andrew Goldberg, or the debate featuring two academics who deny that a genocide took place and two who maintain that it did, because KCET-TV does not plan to air them.
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KCET was not swayed by protests, Zachary said Monday. Station executives, he said, had never planned to air Goldberg's documentary because they preferred the French film's comprehensive take on the topic.
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"Our decision has nothing to do with the controversy whatsoever," Zachary said. "The approach of the documentary we've selected is much more interesting…. We're spending a lot of money to acquire this film. The easy thing would be to take the PBS film at no cost."
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Although more than 14,000 people have signed an online petition urging PBS not to distribute the discussion produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting and taped a month ago, PBS executives have received only about 200 e-mails on the subject, said spokeswoman Lee Sloan. She said PBS has no plans to withhold distribution of the program, but several stations across the nation, including KOCE in Orange County, are choosing to air the documentary without the panel discussion.
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Goldberg said he was puzzled by KCET's decision to air a French documentary instead of his film, adding that the station hosted a fundraiser for his movie in 2004 at which he raised a substantial portion of its budget.

"It's bizarre," he said. "Why they would choose to run a foreign film in the place of my film, and then not air my film at any other time, is a mystery to me."

In fact, Steve Dadaian, the Western region chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, recommends viewing Goldberg's film, which includes a rarely seen interview with Rafael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish lawyer who coined the term "genocide."
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The panel discussion was moderated by National Public Radio host Scott Simon and taped last month at a studio in Washington. One of the participants, Colgate University humanities professor Peter Balakian, said he repeatedly tried to have the session canceled but was told by PBS that the documentary would not air without it. [...].

Finding himself between "a rock and a hard place" because he believed that the film was too important to be killed, Balakian agreed to participate.

"This is so ethically horrid," he said. "It's as if we are trying to reshape history and create another side when there is no other side. We figured if we had to put ourselves in such an unethical situation, there was something to be gained by a scholar of Turkish origin and a scholar of Armenian origin speaking together. But the panel is an absurdity, something right out of the world of George Orwell."
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Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.