Timothy Ruddin: Jerry Brown and his Joseph Goebbels Gaffe
[Timothy Ruddin is a columnist for the LA Times.]
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown doesn't deny that he recently compared his Republican rival Meg Whitman's approach to political advertising to that of the fanatical Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
Brown, however, told a San Francisco radio show Thursday that he made the remark in "a private conversation.... Nobody had a pencil." He said, "Nobody said, 'By the way, is this a statement that you're making to the public.'"
Welcome to the new political world, Mr. Attorney General. It's changed almost beyond recognition since your days as governor, when you used to socialize at night in bars and private homes with journalists and legislators, and could rely on everybody keeping what was discussed to themselves. The 24-hour news cycle, the Web and cellphones with cameras have functionally abolished privacy in politics.
Doug Sovern, the Bay Area radio reporter who made a story of the remark, told the Associated Press that he was out riding his bike when he encountered Brown jogging through Oakland. They paused to chat, and Brown criticized the volume and tone of the political ads with which Whitman — the billionaire former EBay CEO — papered the airwaves. "By the time she's done with me," Brown said, "I'll be a child molester. She'll have people believing whatever she wants about me. It's like Goebbels. Goebbels invented this kind of propaganda."...
Read entire article at LA Times
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown doesn't deny that he recently compared his Republican rival Meg Whitman's approach to political advertising to that of the fanatical Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
Brown, however, told a San Francisco radio show Thursday that he made the remark in "a private conversation.... Nobody had a pencil." He said, "Nobody said, 'By the way, is this a statement that you're making to the public.'"
Welcome to the new political world, Mr. Attorney General. It's changed almost beyond recognition since your days as governor, when you used to socialize at night in bars and private homes with journalists and legislators, and could rely on everybody keeping what was discussed to themselves. The 24-hour news cycle, the Web and cellphones with cameras have functionally abolished privacy in politics.
Doug Sovern, the Bay Area radio reporter who made a story of the remark, told the Associated Press that he was out riding his bike when he encountered Brown jogging through Oakland. They paused to chat, and Brown criticized the volume and tone of the political ads with which Whitman — the billionaire former EBay CEO — papered the airwaves. "By the time she's done with me," Brown said, "I'll be a child molester. She'll have people believing whatever she wants about me. It's like Goebbels. Goebbels invented this kind of propaganda."...