Walmart.com stops selling 'Protocols'

» Wal-Morons from Joe Grossberg
As Backspin reports, Walmart.com had been selling "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" with the absurd disclaimer, "We... [Read More]

Tracked on Sep 27, 2004 11:23:57 PM

My husband and I have long refused to shop at Wal-Mart because of their labor policies, gun policies and business practices. This is one more reason!

Posted by: Lisa at Sep 26, 2004 1:14:28 AM

I am a big supporter of Isreal and always will be but I take issue when it comes to my First Ammendent rights in any events I would not take the time to read let alone purchase the book, and I DO shop at Wal-mart and have a daughter and sister-in-law that works for them as cashiers and they have better wages and benefits than some of the factories in the area.

GOD BLESS ISREAL

Posted by: Glenn at Sep 26, 2004 4:25:21 AM

You support Wal-mart AND First Ammendment rights? Wal-mart and Sams Club censor the books they sell. If you look at their book selection, you find an large quantity of Left Behind books (which are frankly frightening that people would read this garbage), King James Bibles, Christian books of all sorts, conservative political books and whatever bestsellers meet their idea of appropriate. Which is fine, except that they don't offer liberal political books, Torahs or other Jewish literature and they don't sell books that they don't like.

I'm not sure where you are or the state of your local economy but I do know that our government has had a policy of deliberately dropping wages (allowing illegal immigration is just one tool they use) so that manufactoring jobs are not as good as they used to be. I'm glad your family members have had a a positive experience at Wal-Mart but consider this... Wal-Mart's primary targets were small towns which had primarily small, locally owned stores with fairly decent jobs. Wal-Mart comes in and puts them out of business, replacing those store owners with minimum wage jobs. Furthermore, because Wal-Mart buys the latest crap from abroad (I remember the ads when Wal-Mart was all Made in America years ago and its not anymore, if it ever was) and Wal-Mart has incredible purchasing power, that has been one more hit on our manufacturing base.

I don't think it is worth shredding our economy any further just so I can get Le Crap a dollar cheaper.

Posted by: Lisa at Sep 26, 2004 5:27:39 PM

this is not about first amendment rights. Walmart is a privately owned company which has the right to stop selling anything they want. this is not the government denying free speech. that would be different. I've seen stores (Target for example) which sell loads of Liberal leftist books and sell very little Christian, or right wing books. but that is their right to do so. they are not government owned. they are privately owned. we cannot enfringe on an owner's right not to sell what he/she does not want to sell.

Posted by: Steve at Sep 28, 2004 9:55:56 AM

Okay, this is the issue the way I see it. The Protocols, which I've read (and yuck), are responsible for some of the most reprehensible acts humankind has ever foisted on itself. The Holocaust, of course, being the worst. If you haven't read "Mein Kampf" by Hitler, read it. You can pick it up at Barnes and Noble. Anyway, Hitler based most of his theories on the idea that the Protocols were true.
I think stores have to step lightly around publications like this. This isn't Anne of Green Gables or some little inconsequential book like that. The Protocols and Mein Kampf and so many other books are virulent and prejudicial. I realize that many large stores don't take things like this seriously but they should. How can a store justify selling the Protocols and claim they don't know what it's about? Are they illiterate, or just ignorant?
I don't shop at Walmart much. I don't really think this type of story will induce me to shop there less. It just reminds me that sometimes corporations care more about profits than anything else.

Posted by: marn at Oct 5, 2004 5:54:41 AM

I will not shop again at any Walmart, even though one is near me, and I otherwise like the stores, because of the antisemitism at the top levels of the company. To allow The Protocols to be sold as non fiction and then claim that it might be true should be enough to cause the ultimate destruction of the mighty ignoramouses at the company. An apology and substantial commitment to Jewish groups to educate the public about such hate filled and dangerous publications would be a starting point, but not nearly the restitution deserved.
I would be no less astounded if Walmart posted a big banner proclaiming, "Let's kill all the Jews" outside each of its wretched buildings.

Alan

Posted by: Alan Gold at Oct 24, 2004 10:01:01 PM

I have no problem with Walmart or anyone else, selling Mein Kampf. Hitler and his followers, loathsome as they are, have the same right to promote their political views that I do.

The Protocols are NOT a document of political advocacy. They are a forgery which purports to be the work of certain Jews, whose purpose is to inflame and outrage the reader against those Jews. They are, in other words, a deliberate slander designed to promote religious hatred.

The First Amendment protects political advocacy. It does NOT protect slander. Once a document has been shown to be fraudulent, its publication is beyond the protection of the First Amendment unless it is accompanied by an unambivalent statement that it is fraudulent.

The Protocols have been clearly known to be a forgery created by the Czarist secret police for decades now. Walmart's identification of them as fraudulent is not only ambivalent, it clearly implies the possibility that they are genuine. This makes them a party to the slander contained in the Protocols.

An analogy: CBS made public documents during the 2004 campaign which purported to show that George Bush's service record during the Vietnam War was less than honorable. It took about a week before those documents were exposed as forgeries.

During that week only, it was legitimate for the media to write about the documents as if what they purported to show MIGHT be true. But once the forgery was exposed, the game was over. Now, writing about them without a clear statement that they were forged committed exactly the same fraud that the documents themselves committed -- that is, they slandered Bush dishonestly.

It seems clear to me that Walmart is at worst giving aid and comfort to those advocating the mass murder of innocent people on the basis of their religion and at best showing monumental insensitivity to those who value religious freedom. I have spent my last dime there -- not because they sold a book, but because they have countenanced and thereby advanced a fraud.

Posted by: Norman Shatkin at Dec 1, 2004 1:37:05 AM

F.Y.I. Target's online store has the same type review of the Protocols. I myself have already contacted them and strongly suggested they either stop selling it or at very least change the review so it is not quite favorable and to include a statement admitting that the book is a forgery. They might not listen to one person however, so I suggest that anyone reading this go to Target.com, view the book to see for yourselves and then contact Target and ask them change it.

Posted by: Steve at Feb 22, 2006 3:15:13 PM

I find this frightening. It is strange that they do not refuse to sell this hat filled filth, but they do refuse to sell America: The Book bacause of a little nudity. I am glad we oviously live in a soceity that promotes Anti-Semitic values while proudly promotes it's own hypocritical values. God Bless America(sarcaism)!!

Posted by: Andy at Mar 20, 2006 12:38:52 AM