I had never heard of “A Night at the Garden” before this week. Upon watching this seven

minute short, I was baffled as to why. The 2019 Oscar Nominated short, directed by

Marshall Curry, is as chilling as it is informative. I was sucked into the film within seconds.

It weaves together American nationalism, the German Nazi regime, and the socio-political

culture clash of the two. To see these two worlds collide was shocking to me. Somehow, I

knew that America had its own racist and xenophobic past, but intertwined with Nazism?

That was a shock. My first instinct was to contextualize what I was seeing. The whole film

is purely made from unnarrated archival footage, so context is key. To find out the film is

set in the late 30s in New York was a shock. Additionally, to see 20,000 American citizens

engage in behavior so racist, xenophobic, and nationalist, especially for a country they’re

not even in, was baffling to me. I wondered about the kind of Americans portrayed in the

film, those so attached to a country they didn’t even live in. They were moved by a speech

condemning Jews. In New York, of all places, a hub for so many Jewish people; a haven.

Without any context, this film appears almost as German propaganda. We see a young,

Jewish protester mocked, humiliated, and dragged away which is disheartening to say the

least. This film is intended to shake one’s perception of America, and to connect it to the

present. One is reminded of America’s own gruesome racism and just how recent it is.

The protagonist of the short, Fritz Kuhn, mentions a “Jewish controlled press.” What he is

loosely referring to can (falsely) be identified as an oligopoly, where a small amount of

companies run the media. Kuhn’s foundational argument is that the media is solely

controlled by these Jewish run companies and that they spew “fake news” that profits them

only. Essentially, this is thinly veiled racism. This relates also to agenda setting, which is

where the media decides what is and is not important, therefore feeding the general public

what is deemed necessary. If there really is a “Jewish controlled media” then according to

Kuhn, all news is biased, false, and should not be listened to. Instead, German propaganda

is the only reliable source. Margaret Talbot’s “Revisiting the American Nazi Supporters of

‘A Night at the Garden’” links the film’s central topics to the current state of American

affairs. The concept of “fake news,” one dear to Trump is one that is deeply rooted in “A

Night at the Garden.” How is “Jewish run media” so different than the so-called “liberal run

media” from the likes of CNN and MSNBC, according to the Trump administration? The

film’s perverse use of American iconography such as the American flag and images of

George Washington do little to stymie the thin line between nationalism and racism. Kuhn

explicitly says “Our government must be returned to the ideals of the American people who

founded it,” creating a direct link from America to the Nazi party and ideals. Similarly,

Trump has shown his own biases towards support of racist parties and candidates. As Talbot

states, one so-called advantage to the living through the Trump administration is that “it has

compelled a reckoning with aspects of our country’s past that, for a long time, many

Americans preferred not to acknowledge.” Although this is true, it is an almost pessimistic

statement and ideology. Is it, in fact, true that in order to face our past, we must have to had

such an ineffective president? In order to admit, as a country, and as a people, our

problematic past, we must have to enter more trauma into our historic canon? To summarize,

Americans should not finally come face to face with our ugly past because of a horrific

leader. We must always strive to remember fully, no matter what the conditions.

“Fake news” is a newly coined term, that represents years worth of ideology, as exemplified

earlier with Kuhn. Gatekeeping is an old term, and one that rings in many’s ears in today’s

modern buzz. From the fifth estate of modern journalism to Twitter reports of news, how can

one filter and cut through the noise? Gatekeeping is a news practice that has been in use for

tens of years. It is when an agency (a news organization or corporation) decides what

information is important enough to spread and report. When I first heard about gatekeeping,

I was furious. Enraged. Passionate. How can an agency with so much power, and so many

underlying angles be omnipotent enough to decide what the public deserves to know?

How much of a role does the media have in our perception of America and of our news? Do

we view Trump the way we do because of the media we consume? This is on fact very true,

and called selective exposure and perception. Someone who watches CNN will view him

very differently than someone who watches FOX. We are influenced by what we choose to

watch, and our own implicit biases while watching. We must hold the gatekeepers

themselves accountable for what they have done, and be the watchdogs for the information

we truly want to hear about.