Los Angeles cable TV companies have sparked angry Jewish protests by broadcasting a series of propaganda shows by a Canadian neo-Nazi on their public access channels. But both the companies and the City of Los Angeles, which franchises them, say they can do nothing to stop the broadcasts.
City regulations require cable firms to provide public-access stations, which must show virtually any video tape they receive on a first-come, first-served basis. Unlike New York, where state rules limit access to residents of the station's viewing area, L.A. has no residency requirement - leaving the home of America's second-largest Jewish community open to the Nazi broadcasts.
The half-hour hate programs, called "Another Voice of Freedom," are produced by Toronto-based Nazi apologist Ernst Zundel. The shows typically show Zundel describing the Holocaust as a Zionist libel against Germans. In one segment, he and another Holocaust denier visited Auschwitz and presented it as a recreational facility for Jews.
Nine southern California firms have broadcast the tapes. Continental Cable, which services the heavily Jewish Los Angeles West Side, has repeatedly scheduled Zundel's broadcasts for Saturday night prime-time hours. The tapes have also been shown on other stations scattered around the country.
The Los Angeles rules are based on Federal regulations that allow cable providers to reject programming containing libel, defamation and incitement. But the local stations believe those standards fall short of allowing them to ban Zundel's programming. The companies say the Jewish community should either persuade the city to change the franchise agreements, or challenge them in court. The city, meanwhile, insists that it is only implementing federal law, and that either Congress or the courts will have to decide the issue.
The Jerusalem Report has learned, however, that the cable companies' trade group has unofficially met with Jewish organizations and advised them on means to get Zundel off the air.