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4. JHR Volume 13

Smith Steps Up CODOH Ad Campaign

Bradley Smith, intrepid chairman of the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH), attracted nationwide notoriety in late 1991 and early 1992 as a result of his success in placing advertisements calling for open debate on the Holocaust issue in student newspapers at several major universities. After something of a lapse, Smith has recently put new life his CODOH ad campaign. Some highlights:

• A syndicated College Press Service (CPS) article about Smith’s campus ad campaign appeared September 16 in The Setonian, the student paper of Seton Hall University (South Orange, New Jersey). This short article is based in part on an interview with Smith.
• Smith’s CODOH ad was published in the September 27 issue of the Christian News, a traditionalist Lutheran weekly paper published in Missouri.
• The text of Smith’s ad appeared September 28 as a guest editorial in the Record, student paper of State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.
• In Ann Arbor, the text of Smith’s ad appeared October 6 as a “viewpoint” guest opinion essay in the Michigan Daily, student paper of the University of Michigan. In the same issue, an editorial sharply denounced Smith’s piece as irrational and “absurd.” A few days later, activists of the “National Women’s Rights Organization” held a campus rally to denounce the paper, which they called “a tool of fascists,” for publishing Smith’s essay,
• A rather lengthy College Press Service article appeared October 1 in the Northwestern Chronicle of Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois). The article is based in part on interviews with Bradley Smith and anti-revisionist author Deborah Lipstadt.
• Smith’s CODOH ad appeared in the October 14 issue of the Georgetown Voice of Georgetown University (Washington, DC). Michael Berenbaum, project director of the US Holocaust Memorial Council (which operates the new federal Holocaust Museum), responded to Smith’s ad with a guest opinion essay in the paper.
• Smith’s CODOH ad appeared in the October 15 issue of The State News of Michigan State University (East Lansing).
• Smith’s CODOH ad was published October 21 in the Rough Rider, student paper of Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon. This is the first publication of the ad in a high school paper. In response to protests from some parents, the school principal confiscated the remaining copies of the issue.
• Also in Portland, Smith’s CODOH ad appeared October 24 in The Oregonian, the state’s most influential and largest circulation newspaper. This is the first publication of the CODOH ad in a major metropolitan daily.
• Smith’s CODOH ad was published, in slightly abbreviated form, in the October 26 issue of The Stanford Daily of Stanford University. Accompanying it was an error-ridden and prominently displayed editorial commentary that was highly critical of the ad.
• Smith’s CODOH ad ran in the student newspaper of Ohio University (Athens, Ohio), October 28.
• Smith’s CODOH ad appeared November 2 in The Miami Student of Miami University (Oxford, Ohio).