Odds and Ends for Tuesday: Not-So-Giant Ratings, Aliens and Spaghetti Sauce, and Nazi Propaganda11/18/2014 In its first week on the air, Search for the Lost Giants drew just shy of 1.6 million viewers in live plus same day ratings, of whom 500,000 were in the adults 18-54 demographic. In preparation for tonight’s episode, I took a look at last week’s ratings and was surprised to see that they did not budge. In its second week on the air, Lost Giants attracted just about the same 1.6 million viewers, with the same 500,000 adults 18-54 viewers, according to A.C. Nielsen. The numbers actually declined modestly, from 1.598 million to 1.571 million, even though this week the show was not airing against election coverage. Its Tuesday companion series, Curse of Oak Island declined by 500,000 viewers to 2.1 million live plus same day viewers, of whom just 700,000 were 18 to 54 years old, down from 1.1 million in its first week. In other words, young people are tuning out Oak Island and remain largely uninterested in Lost Giants. The failure of Lost Giants to grow week-to-week indicates that there audience for this type of program tops out around 1.5 million, which is roughly the same number of viewers who watch competing series like America Unearthed (last reported at 1.1 million, on a smaller network), Finding Bigfoot (last reported at 1.1 million), Ancient Aliens (1.2 million on History Channel reruns; H2 doesn’t release figures for original episodes), and Ghost Hunters (1.2 million). Lost Giants is artificially boosted by its lead in, which remains inexplicably popular. I wonder how much overlap there is as viewers with paranormal interests move from one show to the next. The steady ratings for Lost Giants must be particularly upsetting to History, which devoted significant resources to promoting the series last week across its media properties, including a heavy rotation of promotional spots during America Unearthed. Ads for the show also chased me around the internet, implying that History is using targeted online advertising as well. Speaking of advertising, have you seen the commercial for Bongiovi pasta sauce featuring UFO researcher Stanton Friedman? It apes the look of fringe history TV, particularly the tedious “disclosure” news conferences and features Friedman expressing his love for jarred tomato sauce. As the Magonia blog put it, Friedman is certainly enhancing his reputation as a serious researcher. On the other hand, being the goofy guy who loves jarred tomato sauce is better than being part of the Nazi apologetics and anti-Semitism that are gradually overtaking so much of fringe history. Do you remember when Scott Wolter was on Coast to Coast AM last week? He was on after the show did several hours on the Nazis with Peter Levenda, the occultist who writes about esoteric Nazism and is also almost certainly the author of the Simon Necronomicon. Levenda doesn’t just write about Nazi occultism, he also writes about the supposed “magickal” connection of H. P. Lovecraft to the hidden realms of the occult. He’s currently promoting his most recent book, The Hitler Legacy: The Nazi Cult in Diaspora, How It Was Organized, How It Was Funded, and Why It Remains a Threat to Global Security in the Age of Terrorism. Levenda, unlike other conspiracy theorists, chooses to link Nazism to Islamic fundamentalism, so in that sense he has found a new way to employ the Nazis as all-purpose bogeymen behind modern crises.
On the other hand, the fringe usually prefers to try rehabilitating Hitler. The Red Ice Radio Network is probably at the forefront of Nazi apologetics, having given over so much of itself to Nazism, as I previously documented. This has continued unabated. One of its affiliated shows, Radio 3Fourteen, gave air time to Carolyn Yeager to promote Holocaust denial and her belief that the Allies exaggerated the Holocaust to discredit the Nazi economic model. She also advocates racial unity among white people and a revival of European heritage. The main Red Ice Radio program, in turn, has given recent air time to Veronica Clark, a woman who claims that the West has exaggerated Nazi racism and that Nazism is a pan-racial ideology enjoyed by people of every color. She also discussed her belief that Nazism was demonized for taking a stand against a vast conspiracy run by, yes, of course, Freemasons and Jews. The show also had on Arthur Topham, another conspiracy theorist who believes that the Jews are trying to get him. He promotes awareness of what he calls “forced Zionism” and undue Jewish and/or Israeli influence in Europe and North America. According to Red Ice, he’s currently facing trial in Canada for anti-Jewish hate crimes. And heaven help me if you have six hours to watch this, but the longest of the Hitler apologies, Adolph Hitler: The Greatest Story Never Told, which was heavily promoted on Red Ice Radio, is available on YouTube. It is wall-to-wall pro-Nazi propaganda, and rather horrifying in its worship of Hitler. I mention this because today I’ll be recording an episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show podcast in which I’ll be discussing fringe history and its intersection with race, nationalism, racism, and ethnic heritage. I’ll have more details about when and where you can listen to the show in the coming days.
23 Comments
EP
11/18/2014 05:05:52 am
"Levenda, unlike other conspiracy theorists, chooses to link Nazism to Islamic fundamentalism"
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spookyparadigm
11/18/2014 07:12:37 am
Was going to post something similar. Though one could say the same thing about certain factions in South America and places like Colonia Dignidad. But there actually is something to at least examine there, it isn't a totally made up connection.
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EP
11/18/2014 07:22:20 am
There is definitely a South American connection as well, though they mostly went with the anti-communist side of Nazism. Many Nazis who went to South America went there to hide, which made political activity rather problematic, especially given the US influence in the region. Of course, South America also had its own homegrown fascists aplenty... 11/18/2014 07:23:56 am
I think the problem is that Levenda pushes the idea of the Nazis as an occult power more than a political ideology. I'm not sure how one could be a fundamentalist Muslim and also an esoteric Hitlerist.
EP
11/18/2014 07:29:38 am
Hey, if Savitri Devi could be an esoteric Nazi and a Hindu... :)
Byron DeLear
11/19/2014 04:18:37 am
There is of course the perspective that sees religious ideology as more of a political too and merely a means to mobilize foot soldiers.
Byron DeLear
11/19/2014 04:20:29 am
er... "tool."
terry the censor
11/19/2014 06:25:10 am
@Byron
Byron DeLear
11/19/2014 08:28:58 am
@terry the censor. Now, now! We, of course, have an exacting standard here as compared with others chat spots --- haven't you noticed?
Byron DeLear
11/19/2014 08:30:23 am
er... "other" not others
spookyparadigm
11/18/2014 07:17:27 am
As for Friedman as a celebrity spokesman, I don't find it problematic so much as baffling. Maybe it's a personal connection between the company and him or something.
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EP
11/18/2014 07:28:16 am
Stephen Hawking has appeared in a bunch of commercials. I find anything odd about a celebrity scientist appearing in a commercial, regardless of whether the scientist is mainstream or fringe.
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11/18/2014 07:51:47 am
It's just a weird commercial. Who would by spaghetti sauce because a UFO researcher said so? I can't tell if they're trying to parody testimonials or just made an incompetent commercial.
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EP
11/18/2014 08:07:18 am
That's a general problem with celebrity endorsements, isn't it? On the other hand, surely Dan Aykroyd's Crystal Head Vodka infomercial sold you at least a little:
terry the censor
11/18/2014 03:54:23 pm
> just made an incompetent commercial.
Tom Mellett
1/14/2017 09:35:48 am
Ah, but what if this brand of spaghetti sauce is the favorite of the Skeptics' ET creature: "The Flying Spaghetti Monster?" Friedman and his group are clearly trying to entice the Monster to make an appearance and then they can cash in on the UFO disclosure.
Walt
11/18/2014 07:44:58 am
Speaking of advertising, have you seen the commercial for the next AA? They spell "receive" incorrectly. It''s only on-screen for a second, but it's wrong. That's a new low, even for AA.
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Only Me
11/18/2014 12:50:22 pm
It's an effort by hostile extraterrestrial spies to make AA seem less credible. ;)
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EP
11/18/2014 01:03:36 pm
Curses! Foiled again! We'll get you next time, Giorgio! :)
terry the censor
11/18/2014 03:49:25 pm
The Friedman commercial also has a typo. It is in the burn-in at the 0:28 mark.
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John Dunham
11/19/2014 04:17:56 am
In a world of fact-free research who cares about typos
EP
11/18/2014 01:48:58 pm
By the way, both Carolyn Yeager and Veronica K. Clark (or Clarke) are disturbing beyond belief. Like, even by Neo-Nazi standards. Perhaps it is because they manage to come across as really sweet ladies (you know... aside from the whole vicious racism and despicable revisionism bit...). Carolyn Yeager has a "Hitler's Table Talk Study Hour" feature that just might convince you that Hitler wasn't really such a terrible guy after all (but not really, I hope):
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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