Will Smith's Hitler Comment Brouhaha

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

Where would the Anti-Defamation League without celebrities making remarks that can be twisted into controversy?

While the rest of us spent the last few days putting the finishing touches on holiday baking, gift buying, and attending family functions, actor Will Smith was trying to convince the Anti-Defamation League that a quote used by a Scottish newspaper was nothing more than a statement taken out of context.

The rapper turned actor was quoted in the Daily Record as saying, "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'Let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good.'"

What the newspaper neglected to reveal was that Smith's remark was given as an example to back up the reporter's hypothesis that, "Remarkably, Will believes everyone is basically good." It was not--as some websites alleged--an assessment by Smith that Hitler was a good person.

A few "entertainment news" websites latched on to Smith's comment and ran with it, prompting the Anti-Defamation League to get involved and causing the actor to take time away from his holiday activities to issue a statement to the media on Christmas Eve regarding the newspaper interview.

Smith wrote: "It is an awful and disgusting lie. It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation."

Smith's statement added: "Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous, vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet."

Today a representative from the Anti-Defamation League praised Smith for taking "immediate steps to clarify his words and unequivocally condemn Hitler as an evil person." The ADL added that they welcomed and accepted the actor's statement. The group also responded by saying that Smith's recent incident "is why all celebrities bear a special responsibility to weigh their words carefully."

Do you agree with the ADL's statement? Or, are you like me and wondered why the group didn't address the entertainment news groups that clearly twisted (or at the very least read into) Smith's remarks to suit their own agendas?

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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