What a Difference a Word Makes

Wile it is clearly the case that it is a safe bet that one should avoid ever making positive statements about Hitler, a word here or there in a sentence can mean quite a bit, as this story (Schwarzenegger Stays on Message as Wife Extends Support) from todays' NYT demonstrates:

The book proposal presented what it called verbatim excerpts from the filming of "Pumping Iron," in which the actor said he admired Hitler because he "came from being a little man with almost no formal education up to power. And I admire him for being a good public speaker."

Mr. Butler said in an interview late Thursday night that he had found original transcripts of the interviews and that Mr. Schwarzenegger went on to say of Hitler, "I didn't admire him for what he did with it."

The NYT has a longer version of the story with more quotes from the Butler intereview here.

The most interesting thing about this bit of info is to see how the press and by Schwarzenegger's opponenets over the next several days.

The LAT does repot the same info in today's paper.

As does the Bee, which provides the following:

Butler was quoted as saying he had never "witnessed or heard Schwarzenegger making remarks that are derogatory to anyone of the Jewish faith."

He also said his quotes in the book proposal weren't accurate and provided this from his original transcripts of interviews with Schwarzenegger:

"In many ways, I admired people -- it depends for what. I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for his way of getting to the people and so on.

"But I didn't admire him for what he did with it. It's very hard to say who I admired and who are my heroes. And I admire basically people who are powerful people, like (President) Kennedy, who people listened to and just wait until he comes out with telling them what to do. People like that I admire a lot."

Butler added that the quotes "were not in context and not even strictly accurate."

Charles Gaines, who wrote and narrated "Pumping Iron," the Butler-directed movie starring Schwarzenegger, also told The Bee earlier that he never heard Schwarzenegger praise Hitler.

Posted by Steven Taylor at October 4, 2024 08:39 AM | TrackBack