Expert in Nazi Propaganda Omits James Wall’s Affiliation With Neo-Nazi Publication in Wikipedia Article

James M. Wall meeting with Martin Luther King in 1967. (Screenshot from The Link.)

James M. Wall, former editor of The Christian Century, is notorious for his hostility toward Israel and its supporters in the United States.

On his blog, Wall has referred to Israel’s supporters in the United States as a “fifth column” and for a while, he was associate editor for a website called Veterans News Now, a publication that promotes hostility toward Jews throughout the world and has promoted the work of David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan. His behavior is a huge embarrassment for his former employer, The Christian Century, the flagship publication of mainline Protestantism in the United States.

CAMERA has written extensively about Wall’s descent into the netherworld of antisemitism on a number of occasions, including articles that can be seen here and here. Articles on the failure of Christian Century and the United Methodist Church to hold Wall accountable for his hateful writings about Israel and its Jewish supporters can be seen here and here.

All this is worth recounting because a few weeks ago, a well-known historian, Randall Bytwerk, who taught for many years at Calvin College in Grand Rapids Michigan, apparently wrote an article about Wall at Wikipedia.

The article, which can be read here, is a pretty straightforward text, detailing his career as a journalist, movie critic and Democratic politician and activist. The documentation demonstrating that Bytwerk wrote the Wikipedia article in question can be seen here and here.

What is amazing is that the text makes no mention whatsoever of Wall’s affiliation with Veterans News Now, which was so embarrassing to Christian Century that it was forced to issue a statement about the controversy here.

It is almost impossible that a historian would miss this controversy (even after a quick Google search), and no responsible historian would omit it from an article, but Bytwerk did. After the controversy broke, National Vanguard, a neo-Nazi publication came to Wall’s defense, as did Veterans Today, another racist publication affiliated with Veterans News Now. (No links.)

What makes Bytwerk’s omission even more astounding is that he is an expert on Nazi propaganda and is the curator of Calvin College’s online archive of German Propaganda. Veterans News Now, where Wall served as associate editor, traffics in many of the antisemitic tropes that the Nazis used and would be familiar to Professor Bytwerk.

Did Randall Bytwerk not know about the controversy surrounding James M. Wall’s affiliation with Veterans News Now and his unwholesome enmity toward Israel and its supporters which manifested itself as his career progressed and came into full bloom in his retirement?

How could he miss it?

In any event, CAMERA supporters can be glad because Wikipedia can be edited by its readers. It may take some effort, but the information about James M. Wall’s transformation from a respected mainline Protestant journalist into a purveyor of hate can be inserted into the Wikipedia article by anyone with a computer and a modem.

It is a sad subject, but the fact is, James M. Wall tarnished his legacy all by himself and no encyclopedia article about his life can legitimately ignore the issue.