Anti-Defamation League defames Hatebreed, misses the irony

Posted by aubin on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 1:30 PM (EDT)

With their frequently tenuous relationship with the truth, CNN, the news channel has called long-running hardcore/metal outfit Hatebreed a white power act in this article. Here is the original quote:

At any given time, about 100 to 150 white power bands are in the United States. The bands' own names defiantly express feelings of hate or violence: Aggravated Assault, Angry Aryans, Attack, Definite Hate, Final Solution, Force Fed Hate, Fueled by Hate, Hatebreed, Hate Crime, Jew Slaughter and White Terror, among others.

Courageously, the author - Lonnie Nasatir of Anti-Defamation League's Upper Midwest Region - removed the accusation from the story without acknowledging it.

Update: Well, the story was amended to acknowledge the mistake; this doesn't really excuse the sloppy and shockingly irresponsible behavior by the author and by CNN, neither of whom apparently felt that typing a band name into Google would be worth their time.

Bands in this story

Hatebreed

News (62 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Dante3000 (rich) (August 8, 2012)

Bands that express racially motivated hate such as Good Clean Fun, Wesley Willis and the Dragnews, Reel Big Fish, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Atom and His Package and dozens of other bands that appear to have pages on the google!

Heathbar (August 8, 2012)

"Rock 'n Roll McDonald's" is a slap in the face to all well-meaning, tolerant people.

loki13 (August 8, 2012)

Also this songs must be racist - "White Riot", "Kill all the White Man", "Guilty of Being White", "White Minority"

bastard_squad (August 8, 2012)

Oh what a feeling, Toyota!

mattramone (August 8, 2012)

Rock over London, rock on Chicago. Chevy, like a rock!

lostcausegiveup (August 8, 2012)

Wesley Willis was quite clear about his feelings on The Batman.

fattony (August 8, 2012)

And certain parts of the cheetah's anatomy.

RaganYouth (August 8, 2012)

have you heard this Fuel for the Hate Game

xchemicalx (August 8, 2012)

Does it count if shitty hardcore like Hatebreed evokes feelings of hate and violence in me?

wellthehux (August 8, 2012)

nope

loki13 (August 8, 2012)

Wait it's "Jew Slaughter"? Thought it was "Jews Laughter"...gotta find another band for that bar mitzvah...

kylewagoner (August 8, 2012)

hahahahaha

notfeelingcreative (August 8, 2012)

If that was a Bart sad influenced joke I applaud you. Eh whatever I applaud you regardless.

hashbrowns (August 8, 2012)

winner

Cormstorm (August 8, 2012)

Hahaha 10/10

Mystereohasmono (August 8, 2012)

Game over man, game over.

Heathbar (August 8, 2012)

Agreed. Close the internet for today.

megalife (August 8, 2012)

comment of the month right there. 11/10

endundone (August 8, 2012)

Hahaha, nicely done. 10/10

BobbyFree (August 8, 2012)

Seriously, you made my day. My cousin grew up in the same neighborhood as 'Jew Slaughter' (a wonderful neighborhood that espouses the greatness and superiority of the white race, known locally as 'Felony Flats'--famous for its artisan meth) and I was unfortunately exposed to their music in some very 'Winter's Bone'-ish situations at way too young of an age. Time and time again, I have thought about how those were some of the most disgusting places I have ever found myself and I would feel sad that I have ever heard such an ugly band. Now, finally, I can laugh about it. Thank you.

loki13 (August 8, 2012)

My work here is done. I shall retire on top!

jimmynorville (August 8, 2012)

god damn it, I could have gone my whole life without knowing there was a band called "Jew Slaughter" here...

BobbyFree (August 10, 2012)

Yeah, I would assuage your anger and say they're long gone but I just googled them and apparently they're out of prison and ready to record a follow-up to 2001's "Alcoholocaust" Great, just what Felony Flats needs!

tittus (August 10, 2012)

I hate having to explain to people why im laughing so hard

returnofdebs (August 8, 2012)

Anything that leads to derision of Hatebreed is okay by me.

misinterpreter (August 8, 2012)

This.

mattramone (August 8, 2012)

They hate women, not blacks. Get your facts straight, OBUMMER NEWS NETWORK.

skolarx (August 8, 2012)

I was wondering where you'd land jokewise on this. Slightly disappointed since I don't think Hatebreed is even aware of women in general...

heretic (August 8, 2012)

Somethings transcend news and are just "duh".

But seriously, Hatebreed sucks.

Cos (August 8, 2012)

I guess the ADL doesn't like the troof of that hawdcawe reality of the streets!

Cos (August 8, 2012)

Also, does anyone else get the impression the author just googled "bands with the word 'hate' in their names" for this story?

nickvicious (August 8, 2012)

That, or she saw a kid with a shaved head with a Hatebreed shirt on and put 2 and 2 together. (spoiler: it's 4).

kidecono (andrew) (August 8, 2012)

My favourite bit was when they said Oi! came out of the original skinhead subculture in Britain. Y'know, a full fifteen or so years after that subculture emerged. Christ.

Also, would it be so difficult to write 'White power skinheads, who represent a tiny minority of skinhead culture as a whole...' or something to that effect? Ridiculous.

loki13 (August 8, 2012)

Wait a second...BUZZ-media...it's all starting to make sense now...Secret front for skinhead propaganda.

Mystereohasmono (August 8, 2012)

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsR/14332-8694.gif

Heathbar (August 8, 2012)

You've been keeping that one in your back pocket. Well-played. KEVIN!

endundone (August 8, 2012)

Dude, you're on fire today.

BUZZMEDlA (August 8, 2012)

Thank you for your interest in Buzz Media. We as a company do not seek to push ideals of any particular subculture, only to present news and media that we know you and our shareholders will take interest in.

Misanthropee (August 8, 2012)

Considering the abiding popularity of RAC, "tiny minority" may be way off. Hell, Stormfront alone has many thousands of members and a better Alexa ranking than Absolutepunk. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if a good third or more of all self-identified skinheads were WP/RAC.

Misanthropee (August 8, 2012)

*of course things may be very different in Britain considering the absence of Alabama/Mississippi/Georgia.

Mystereohasmono (August 8, 2012)

Goddamn Alexa data maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

Misanthropee (August 8, 2012)

It may be bullshit but it's all we got fer free. At the very least it must say SOMETHING that Punknews is 80,000 and Stormfront is 20,000.

Misanthropee (August 8, 2012)

Punknews is 60, my bad.

Mystereohasmono (August 8, 2012)

Compete says Org avg is 22k uniques a month, Stormfront is at a whopping 117k.

Misanthropee (August 8, 2012)

Conclusion: Lotsa Nazi skins out there. Their numbers are just underestimated because they're so far underground.

Mystereohasmono (August 8, 2012)

That's what I took away from it.

givemeamuseumandillfillit (August 9, 2012)

This means nothing. Absolutely nothing. I encounter a lot of non-sharp skinheads and they're _definitely_ not "underground".

Just so you know, the supporter forum for a local soccer team here has 650k uniques a month. There are at least 3 other teams (that you've never heard of) with similar numbers and we just hit 10 million in total population over here. 117k worldwide for such a prominent forum is nothing. How many active posters do we have here? It has to be less than a hundred.

kidecono (andrew) (August 8, 2012)

Pageviews and active involvement are two very different things. Also, Stormfront probably gets a lot of pageviews from left wingers keeping an eye on the enemy. I know I hit the BNP website every so often, to keep up with the latest trends in idiotic racist lies.

Misanthropee (August 8, 2012)

The thing about Stormfront though is it's set up to discourage casual visitation. It took me FOR-EV-ER to finally get a repped account there that didn't immediately get banned for accidentally posting something not sufficiently goofy. And, once again according to useless Alexa, just for comparison the average time on site for Stormfront is double that of Punknews, whose stats are surely skewed by Echos and Skibz.

But yeah, there are indeed a lot of people like me infiltrating them, it's just not easy. There's more openness on Al Qaeda boards.

kidecono (andrew) (August 8, 2012)

I doubt Nazis are particularly concise, and I imagine some of them aren't the best readers. Maybe that's it?

Misanthropee (August 8, 2012)

This is absolutely plausible. I'm guessing they're not the savviest bunch with computers either.

Misanthropee (August 8, 2012)

Scratch that, I KNOW they aren't from being on Stormfront.

xherojuanax (August 8, 2012)

I'd be interested in reading the arguments you've set off there. Can non-members view the boards?

Misanthropee (August 8, 2012)

Fortunately you CAN browse a lot of the hilarity there without being logged in, which is actually kind of stupid considering like all its members are constantly advocating violence. However I try NOT to start arguments there, then they'll ban me and I have to make another account and cycle my VPN and assorted other horseshit. I'm a lurker.

Skibz777 (August 8, 2012)

I only have 655 posts according to my profile...?

Strummerboy (August 8, 2012)

not everyone on stormfront is a skinhead though, probably not even half. Most of them are just hardcore racists who enjoy a mob mentality, not specifically skins. And there's the added hits you'd get from people who are curious as to what it is, given its controversy, as well as people like myself and a lot of my friends who just go on there to laugh at nazis or subtly ridicule them

Mystereohasmono (August 8, 2012)

Anyone remember the band Dewey Defeats Truman?
http://www.silvergirl.com/DeweyDefeats.html

elliot (August 8, 2012)

The only thing Hatebreed hates is a lack of PERSEVERANCE *dun-dun-dun dun-dun-dun dun-dun-dun dun-dun-dun*

captainmicrowave (August 8, 2012)

The most accurate description of Hardcore I ever heard came from a random guy at some zine store, who declared to me that "A Youth of Today show is basically a bathhouse without the water"

skolarx (August 8, 2012)

That is fucking beautiful

skolarx (August 8, 2012)

Wait, I don't get the irony. The article doesn't even mention their hatred of thumb amptuties...

(disclosure, I know full well the band, however horrible, is against racial hatred, and I even remember hearing about one of their shows here in Detroit where they had a bunch of white power skins kicked out, not that there has been a single person here sticking up for them from what I could tell but I wanted to throw that out there just in case)

headforthehills (August 9, 2012)

There should be more white power bands anyway. Might as well just start adding random names to the list.