Hitler and the lessons of today

HOWARD Rosenberg’s column ( “He Fought Our Fear and the Fear Won,” April 14) highlights another grim example of the fear’s effect on our freedom of speech in this country.

Ed Gernon lost his job as an executive producer of a CBS drama on the rise of Hitler when he dared to compare the climate of fear in post-World War I Germany, which aided Hitler’s power grab, with the climate of fear in Bush’s post-9/11 Ameri- ca.

An entire nation’s people gripped by fear has chosen to give up many of their civil rights (see Patriot Act) and plunge into a preemptive war because of the fear of what might happen if they don’t. It doesn’t get much scarier than that, does it?

Barbara Shields

Chatsworth

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I have told several friends recently that I feel what many Germans must have felt in the late 1930s.

I watch my government cynically manipulate public opinion with lies and innuendo, deliberately foster misplaced fear, stifle opposition with accusations of disloyalty, suppress civil rights and increasingly intertwine narrow economic interests with government war-making policies.

It is both ironic and predictable that “Hitler” producer Ed Gernon would be fired by such a juggernaut -- proving his point exactly.

Tom Armor

Los Angeles

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THE right to express one’s views is not equivalent to having the right to be insulated from any consequences for doing so, other than from one’s own government.

If viewers wish to avoid CBS’ presentation of the Hitler program because Gernon has offended them, then that is their right.

If they do so, it may cost CBS a great deal of money, affecting the interests of its shareholders and employees.

The logical conclusion to Rosenberg’s position is that Gernon not only has the right to say what he thinks, but to do so without consequences, even if it is detrimental to his employer. I will never accept that view of personal freedom. Freedom comes with responsibility.

Charles R. Green

Calabasas

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LET me get this straight.

An educated and articulate producer and Hitler historian says to TV Guide, two weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the following: “I can’t think of a better time to examine [pre-Nazi Germany] than now,” now meaning pre-war America; he then continues to opine that people should learn from the Hitler experience not to “stand by and let [war] happen because of the fear of what will happen if they don’t.” The producer is subsequently fired by CBS.

A few weeks later, Geraldo Rivera draws Allied Forces’ military plans in the sand for millions of viewers, and the enemy, to see. Fox News slaps him on the wrist.

Shame on CBS for overreacting to a thoughtful and relatively harmless statement; shame on Fox for encouraging treason.

Mike Kessler

Los Angeles