Margaret Brennan Blasted for Saying Nazis Used Free Speech

Margaret Brennan did not express her point as well as she could have, but she was not blanketedly wrong. 

Hitler and the Nazis did take advantage of free speech in Germany to demonize Jews and others during their rise to power. Free speech ended after the Reichstag fire. 

Hitler and the Nazis did take advantage of free speech in Germany to demonize Jews and others during their rise to power.

Her claim is wrong on every level.  Weimer did not have free speech and literally shut down hundreds of NAzi newspapers. Hitler wasn't even allowed to speak in certain German states at various points.  

THe idea that the "weaponized free speech" caused the holocaust is incredibly dishonest.  As David Sachs said:

the media is so committed to the narrative that “Trump is Hitler” that anything the administration does must be portrayed as fascist. Hence, if VP Vance gives a speech urging the Europeans to live up their values on free speech, it must now be the case that free speech is a Nazi value. History must be retconned accordingly. Goebbels himself would be impressed by the audacity of this Big Lie!

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Media credibility died at the Biden Trump debate when the extent of the coverup was revealed. Brennan has done nothing but bury the corpse deeper. 

time

Hitler exercised his constitutional right to free speech and freedom of assembly to hold rallies across the country and spew invective in all directions—against Bolsheviks, social democrats, immigrants, Jews, even fellow rightwing nationalists. H e chided the ruling elites. If God had intended aristocrats to run the country, Hitler said at one rally in fall 1932, “we’d all have been born with monocles.” He vowed to make Germany great again. He promised a Third Reich bigger and better than the previous two. 

 
Hitler fomented outrage and discontent. He endorsed a public referendum backing the “Liberty Law,” proposed legislation that called for the abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles. The German signatories to the treaty were to be executed for treason, along with any government official who implemented the treaty’s provisions that included onerous reparation payments. It was reported, falsely, that the German government was drafting German teenagers and selling them into slavery abroad to service reparation debts. Hitler sowed lies and hatred, and harvested votes.

As anyone can see, Hitler went on to speak prolifically during the ensuing and far more critical period of 1928-1933. And if we look past Hitler, and to the local level, Nazi pubs continued to host speeches throughout the period, at least weekly at any given tavern, and often more than once per week. Meeting halls rented themselves out to larger Nazi rallies with regularity. Street marches in uniform were under blanket ban for a short time (in the aftermath of the Hitler Putsch), but then allowed again. At times, specific rallies or speeches might be banned, but this was common on both sides of the political extremes, and usually linked to specific incidents of violence.

The author also cites the fact "in a two year period, they shut down 99 [Nazi newspapers] in Prussia alone". While granting that it's possible, I find this hard to believe as well. I reviewed their cited source -- Oron James Hale's "The Captive Press in the Third Reich," a fantastic work on the internal Party politics and administration of its print media -- and I have not found the 99 bans figure. I could have missed it. But the overall content of that work heavily implies that the statistic is either false or misleading.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/og7p07/comment/h4ixh4q/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

The Weimer Republic did not have free speech.  Hate speech was not legal, hence all the examples of Nazi papers being closed by the government. 

Again, the idea that free speech caused the Holocaust is incredibly, incredibly stupid and there's a reason you can't actually connect the two.  

This is a perfect example of Greg's seed about common sense.  Because Vance defended free speech, Progressives are now equating free speech with fascism and blaming it for the holocaust.  By all means, spend the next four years calling Trump a fascist while attacking free speech. That will go over wonderfully. 

The Weimer Republic did not have free speech.

Of course they did. 

I think she misspoke a little by leaving herself open to the criticism that she said free speech led directly to the Holocaust, but she is not wrong in general. Hitler took advantage of free speech to gain power. 

Not sure of the larger point you're trying to make, but Vance is correctly telling the European powers that be that they are slipping down a slippery slope with all this censorship of free speech.

Brennan is just another in a long line of uneducated leftwing fools pretending to be journalists

Hitler gave hundreds of speeches between 1928 and 1933.

hitler-archive

Again, he was not completely silenced but he also didn't have American style free speech. Nazi papers were shut down. Hitler was banned from speaking at various times/places.  

It's all a red herring anway.  The holocaust was not caused by free speech.  The regime that committed the holocaust  was about as anti-free speech as has ever existed and used that power to suppress any opposition to the holocaust , or any of their policies.

Brennan embarrassed herself again because she's an ignorant Democrat with a platform who was incensed that JD Vance spoke up to defend free speech. She did what democrats do and offered the knee jerk response of  equating whatever Trump or Vance supports to Nazism. 

Some Republicans have been critical of leaders appearing on her show given her obvious partisanship and cheerleading for democrats. But's her combination of arrogant heavy handedness with laugh out loud ignorance ends up putting her Republican guests in the best possible light.

Now Democrats will rally to her defense and attack free speech. Just amazing to watch play out. 

Brennan embarrassed herself again because she's an ignorant Democrat with a platform who was incensed that JD Vance spoke up to defend free speech.

It’s fun watching her get flustered when guests don’t respond the way she wants.     It happens all the time.    She’s not good at this.    Not at all.

I miss Bob Schieffer.

Not sure of the larger point you're trying to make,

Let me help you with that.

They lost an election, so now it's time to start talking about Nazis.

It's an utterly fucking ludicrous comparison, and when it gets shot down as such, they try to soft peddle it.  They say moronic shit like "there are parallels" or some other idiocy.  Now we're softening it further, talking about small pieces of history like they have any pertinence whatsoever to the current day.

The red herring is yours. No one is arguing against free speech, especially CBS. Well, maybe Trump is. 

Sure. Attributing the holocaust to free speech is a pro free speech argument.

Attributing Vances speech as a defense of free speech is your problem. It was another strongman tactic. He wasn't defending free speech, he was trying to strongarm the European countries into quaking and allowing hate speech. There was an implied threat against their laws. He might as well have walked in and said, "These are our demands. Do as I say or I'm taking away your car keys." 

It is amusing to watch all the right wingers come on and whine about something that was more a mistake of phrasing than anything else.

They be sensitive to the topic. 

A pretty snowflake

They be sensitive to the topic.

there's no better sign of your desperation than resorting to that ploy. 

and no sign of yours other than it worked

JD Vance was defending Google, Meta, X, and other US based social media platforms.  The EU has been scrutinizing US social media and threatening more stringent control or outright bans.  The social media platforms claim that restrictions, regulations, and bans are an attack on 'free speech'.  But it's really only about money.

Brennan is nothing more than an idiot opportunist.  Apparently she is too stupid to understand that Vance was really talking about money and influence.  Vance was regurgitating the 'free speech' defense of social media platforms without actually mentioning social media.