PHILADELPHIA, March 16 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania official has apologized for comparing a documentary filmmaker to a Nazi propagandist, authorities said.
Teddy Borawski, the chief oil and gas geologist for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, issued the apology Tuesday to Josh Fox, whose film "Gasland" examined potentially serious water-contamination issues related to hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.
Last week Borawski was speaking to a chapter of the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Association when he called the film "propaganda."
"Joseph Goebbels would have been proud," Borawski said. "He would have given [Fox] the Nazi award. That, in my opinion, was a beautiful piece of propaganda."
Fox, whose father and grandparents are Holocaust survivors, called Monday for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett to fire Borawski.
On Tuesday, Borawski issued "my sincerest and most heartfelt apology" to Fox.
"I used very poor judgment trying to compare the work of a filmmaker to the propaganda spewed by Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi regime in World War II," he said.
Corbett characterized Borawski's remarks as an "inappropriate analogy" and said disciplinary action would be taken.
