GENOCIDE DENIER NAMED STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN

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GENOCIDE DENIER NAMED STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN

http://asbarez.com/113581/genocide-denier-named-state-dept-spokesman/
Thursday, September 5th, 2013 | Posted

by Ara Khachatourian

Doug Frantz

WASHINGTON-Doug Frantz, the notorious Genocide denier and former
Los Angeles Times managing editor who lost his job when he blocked
the publication of an article about the Armenian Genocide penned by
journalist Mark Arax has been appointed the new spokesperson of the
US State Department, a White House memo reported.

Frantz's stint as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the State
Department will not be his first with Secretary of State John Kerry.

He worked as an investigation for the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee when Kerry was chairman.

The Armenian-American community came to know Frantz when in April
2007, as LA Times managing editor, he killed the publication of a
front-page story penned by Armenian-American journalist Mark Arax
about the Armenian Genocide resolution pending in Congress at the
time. In a memo to Arax, Frantz said the author's ethnicity posed a
conflict of interest.

This sparked a controversy and prompted the Armenian National Committee
of America-Western Region and other community leaders to launch a
grassroots campaign against Frantz and the LA Times demanding an
explanation and his resignation from his top post at the newspaper.

After an overwhelming response from the Armenian community and numerous
meetings by Armenian leaders with LA Times top brass at the time,
Frantz resigned in June 2007 and went to Istanbul.

Frantz has had long-standing ties to Turkey. He was stationed
in Istanbul for several years, first as bureau chief for The New
York Times and then as investigative reporter for the Los Angeles
Times. He had developed close contacts with various Turkish officials,
including the Turkish Consul General in Los Angeles who boasted in a
taped interview with Arax at the time about his special relationship
with Frantz who in May 2007 went to Istanbul to moderate a panel that
included a notorious genocide denier.