New York, NY, September 6, 1995...In response to a protest by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a division of Time Warner & Sony has agreed to remove a video on Hitler from a catalog offering a collection of "some of the greatest speeches delivered by world leaders." Besides the words of Adolf Hitler, The Speeches Collection includes Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Harry S. Truman, as well as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Winston Churchill. The company assured ADL that in the future it would revise its catalog proofing process as well; the League praised such prompt action.

Citing complaints it received, the League wrote Time Warner, Inc. challenging the Summer 1995 Sound Exchange catalog's grouping of the Nazi dictator with major figures of the free world, and calling them "our nations' leaders." ADL also questioned advertising copy which used "the term `nostalgia' as one reason for purchasing videos of speeches given by the man responsible for millions of deaths in World War II." ADL called on Time Warner to "reconsider the appropriateness of this promotional approach" in the future.

Susan Hayes, Director of Customer Service for Sound Exchange, A Time Warner & Sony Company, said in a letter to ADL that Sound Exchange "decided to pull the item and any associated items from future catalogs. It is not our intention to antagonize or offend our customers," she continued, and "to avoid similar errors in the future, additional proofing processes have been implemented."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.