The Board of Directors of the Alaska Broadcasters Association sent a Kenai area lawmaker a letter of discontent Thursday morning over misinformation he shared on his Facebook page last week that likened media and medical professionals who disseminate COVID-19 information with Nazi war criminals.<\/p>\n
On June 21 Alaska House Rep. Ron Gillham, R-Kenai, shared a photo of a World War II-era public hanging,<\/a> with a caption alleging the people being executed were members of the media and medical professionals in Nuremberg, Germany, who misinformed the public during the Holocaust. Along the top of the photo read: “Still so sure you want to force me to get the experimental vaccination?”<\/p>\n It turns out the photo, according to Project MUSE scholarly journal<\/a> and Agence France-Presse<\/a>, was actually taken of Nazi war criminals executed in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1946, and only one member of the media — a journalist who founded and managed an antisemitic newspaper — was put to death.<\/p>\n Additionally, the COVID-19 vaccines are not considered experimental<\/a>, nor is there a federal mandate<\/a> requiring people to get them.<\/p>\n In the letter, the board members wrote that they were “dismayed” by Gillham’s Facebook post, which has since been taken down, stating that it could potentially put Alaska journalists and medical professionals at risk.<\/p>\n “The image you shared with your followers clearly suggests violence against journalists who report on the COVID-19 pandemic and on members of the medical community,” the letter stated. “You cannot separate your private views from your new job — you are a public figure now and you are accountable to all of the people of Alaska. Your sharing of this hate message was dangerous and irresponsible.”<\/p>\n