Nerditorial: KGMI and Godwin's Law

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1. - Godwin's Law

Thanks to Jean Melious, who followed up on my post on the January 19th broadcast of the Saturday Morning Live program on KGMI.

LINK to Jean's article 

LINK to my other post 

LINK to KGMI 

I didn't listen to the entire podcast until now, because I was unaware that there was a reading of Mein Kampf at the conclusion of the program.

Yeah... that Mein Kampf...

On further review, I discovered that Ms. Halterman read the following on the air...

..."The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." 

That comes from Mein Kampf... Adolf Hitler published in 1943...

For the record, Mein Kampf was originally published in 1925. LINK 

Then Ms Halterman read a quote from Ronald Reagan on the matter of gun control.

Then Ms Halterman urged listeners to keep a close eye on the Growth Management Hearings Board.

Jean Melious interpreted this rather unusual series of readings as being some sort of comparison of the GMHB and the Growth Management Act to Nazis. This seems like a logical interpretation in light of the fact that the reading was book-ended by extensive coverage of the GMHB in an editorial manner that was unambiguously critical of the GMHB in the context of government overreach.

I suspect that in the light of the Ronald Reagan quote on gun control, and the national conversation that is ongoing about gun safety, (and my many years of experience in broadcasting) it is also logical to assume that Ms Halterman was referring to that national gun safety debate. This is based on my assumption that Ms Halterman did a particularly poor job of establishing a segue between two editorially distinct portions of her show.

While there was brief mention of a segment called Common Sense... there was no meaningful reinforcing cue to the listener that one topic was over and a new topic had begun.

In radio programs, hosts routinely separate segments within a program with a sound effect, or a short clip of music, or a heavily produced montage of both (known as a "sounder") to tell the listening audience, "okay, we are talking about something else now."

This mechanism is used widely... and knows no ideological bounds of which I am aware... it is practiced by Rush Limbaugh... Ed Shultz... most NPR hosts... it is so routinely done that it virtually qualifies as a Best Practice in talk radio production. Professionals don't rely exclusively on commercial breaks to establish when a segment or topic begins or ends... as those breaks prove to be unreliable mechanisms for such a purpose.

So, it is unclear whether or not Ms Halterman was comparing the Growth Management Hearings Board to Nazis or if she was comparing the national conversation on gun safety to Nazis. But it did seem like she might have been comparing something to the Nazis.

While Saturday Morning Live on KGMI is not itself an online discussion... the question is... does the documented portion of this radio broadcast qualify as an example of Godwin's Law?

If you believe the reading was an attempt to compare something to the Nazis, then vote Yes in the comments below.

If you believe the reading was not an attempt to compare anything to the Nazis, then vote No in the comments below.

...and try not to compare anyone to Hitler in the comments, 

'Nerd Out.