Why Greg Gutfeld is Mad at Me about Ukraine and the Holocaust

Greg Gutfeld is mad at me. Why? Because I compared his conspiracy theory that journalists are exaggerating Ukrainian suffering, to the accusations made during the Holocaust that Jews were exaggerating their suffering. I stand by that comparison, no matter how many times the host of Fox’s highly-rated “Gutfeld!” show calls me to express his displeasure.

When you write articles on controversial issues, you occasionally receive hostile responses from those whom you criticize. An official of the Chinese embassy in Washington once called me to complain about an article in which I urged a boycott of the Beijing Olympics because of Chinese human rights violations. He said he was “instructing” me to stop writing such articles. I suppose in his country, that sort of thing can be intimidating.

A temperamental pundit once accused me of being “un-American” because I criticized the American government, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, for shutting our country’s doors to most Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. My accuser had a very strange definition of patriotism.

And then there’s Greg Gutfeld, one of Fox’s highest-rated talk-show hosts, who was upset enough at an article I recently wrote for the Jewish Journal that he personally called me.

“I have just one question—why did you f—ing write this?!?,” he asked, in language he would never be allowed to use on “Gutfeld!,” or on “The Five,” which he co-hosts.

But amidst the heated language, Gutfeld inadvertently strengthened my argument, by trotting out yet another conspiracy theory. This had all started because he was angry that I had characterized something he said as a baseless conspiracy theory—and on the telephone with me this week, he alleged a new, and equally baseless conspiracy. There seems to be a theme here.