Shortly after Adolf Hitler took power in Germany in 1933 his Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, a vicious anti-Semite, assembled 300 Berlin journalists to instruct them on the Nazi’s new National Press Law.

From that point on the journalists would have to be a licensed member of Goebbels’ newly formed Reichsverband der Deutschen Presse (press organization) and that they would be disqualified if they had even one Jewish grandparent.

The main purpose of the meeting was to inform the journalists that no editorials would be allowed unless approved by the Nazi Party (Goebbels’ himself).

Joseph Goebbels-Nazi Minister of Propaganda

The reason for the overt censorship was the potential to weaken the power of the Reich, either in Germany or abroad by saying something uncomplimentary to the regime.

Goebbels’ stated:

“I don’t see why you should have the slightest difficulty in adjusting the trend of what you write to the interests of the State. It is possible that the Government may sometimes be mistaken-as to individual measures-but it is absurd to suggest that anything superior to the Government might take its place. What is the use, therefore, of editorial skepticism? It can only make people uneasy.”

Shortly after the meeting the Reich enacted the death penalty on anyone who published “treasonable articles” just in case the journalists thought Goebbels’ advice could be safely ignored.

The source of the above information is The Boys in the Boat-Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown.

The book was given to me by a friend who knew of my interest in WW2 and history in general. The nine Americans mentioned in the title is a reference to the US Rowing Team that took part in the 1936 Olympics-the same Olympics that a black man named Jesse Owens would win a Gold Medal-an affront to Hitler’s master race baloney.

The quote by Goebbels’ sets up the atmosphere in which the Americans would eventually compete for a Gold Medal in rowing.

The Nazi’s sought to make the 1936 Olympics a showcase for Aryan superiority.

In the last two years or so I’ve made it a point to not discuss politics in this blog unless it was pertinent to whatever historical subject I was writing about. So today I make an exception and may make further exceptions as the situation demands.

The meeting Goebbels’ had with the Berlin journalists ought to chill freedom loving Americans to the bone because if you think it can’t happen here you are badly mistaken.

Just the other day the so-called Department of Justice redacted the transcripts that clearly recorded the Orlando killer’s allegiance to ISIS. Why censor really available transcripts unless you want to control the message?

President Obama has called Radical Islam and references to it as “political talking points” and Josh Ernest, our very own Minister of Propaganda lies with impunity assisted by an accomplice media to such an extent you would think they were threatened by the death penalty for questioning “the Government” who sometimes makes mistakes in regards to measures.

The Department of Justice, the entire Obama administration and the accomplice press are further assisted by a host of ignorant Americans who do not realize or seem to care that their liberty is at stake and that it’s only a matter of time before “the government” further shreds our Constitution and forces us to comply “for the good of the state.” The fact that a majority of American journalists do not seem upset by any of this speaks volumes about their lack of journalistic integrity.

USA Today reports today that the DOJ has backed down and released a unredacted transcript of the Orlando ISIS murderer.