Polish Americans Outraged By Joke on Fox TV Show

A joke that aired on the new Fox television show "Back to You" suggesting that Poles are Nazi collaborators has enraged some Polish Americans. They are calling for the owner of Fox, Rupert Murdoch, to apologize.

The chairman of the Polish American Congress's anti-bigotry committee, Frank Milewski, said he wrote a letter in response to the episode calling on Mr. Murdoch to meet with Polish Christians who survived Nazi concentration camps and Poles who have been honored by Israel for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust.

"We can't figure out why someone would make such a statement," Mr. Milewski said, calling the remarks a "fraud of history." "People are very upset," he said. In the episode, which aired Wednesday, a character played by Fred Willard heckles a Polish character on the show to convince him to join a bowling team, saying, "It's in your blood, like eating kielbasa and collaborating with the Nazis." In a statement, the Fox Broadcasting Network apologized to "any viewers who may have been offended."

"While the comments in question were outlandish, they were entirely in keeping with this character's ignorance and cluelessness. He's an 'equal opportunity offender' who speaks before he thinks," the statement said.

Angry viewers responded to the episode with posts on the show's Web site under titles such as "cruel irresponsible joke" and "Polish jokes hit a new low." One commenter, who identified herself as Danusha V. Goska, wrote: "It is a truly evil fabrication with a disgusting intellectual history and a morally corrupt agenda."