ANTISEMITISM, THE NEW YORK TIMES, AND FAKE NEWS

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I am giving Trump, Barr, and Mueller a rest today. There is other stuff going on in this world.

Last week, there was a major kerfuffle when the New York Times published a grossly antisemitic cartoon in its international edition. While the paper apologized, explaining that it was a series of editorial mishaps that led to the publication, Times Op Ed columnist Bret Stephens, on April 28, 2019, noted that the cartoon,

 "[i]n another age might have been published in Der Sturmer. ... For some Times readers--or as often, former readers--the answer is clear: The Times has a longstanding Jewish Problem, dating back to World War II, when it mostly buried news about the Holocaust, and continuing into the present day in the form of intensely adversarial coverage of Israel."

This rang a bell with me. I still read the Times but I agree with Stephens. As fortune would have it, while looking for something else, I stumbled upon this blog segment I posted here almost five years ago: 

"August 18, 2014:

Lately I have become persuaded The New York Times is  back to its WWII mode in bending over backwards to hide the fact that its publisher is Jewish. As it did during WWII in its now well-recognized failure fairly to report on the Holocaust, and its failure to editorially condemn this country's refusal to admit refugees who were therefore consigned to the death camps in Europe, the Times appears to be on not-so-subtle campaign to make clear its disinclination to write anything that might be construed as helpful to Israel in reporting on the Gaza war.  I have long ago stopped reading editorials in my favorite (read "only") newspaper, but I now suspect its news reporting as well.  Bits of bias on this subject are everywhere:

Last week the paper described the terror-tunnels between Gaza and Israel as "allegedly" built by Hamas!  The clear implication of the "alleged" qualifier was that Israel's assertion that Hamas built the tunnels was open to question.  After this absurdity was called to their attention (by me, and I am sure many others), the news writers switched to "said to be" built by Hamas. "Allegedly"?  "Said to be"?  Duh, why the qualifiers given that Hamas not only admits building the tunnels but boasts of their construction?  Outfuckingrageous.

Then the other day, the paper reported the number of Gaza casualties, and the percentage of them that are non-Hamas fighters, without attribution, i.e, as absolute facts, despite clear dispute about both numbers. In the same article the paper reported the casualties were the result of Israeli shells and missiles that "Israel says were aimed Hamas rocket sites and tunnel entries."  "Israel says." One small step removed from "Israel alleges, " or "Israel claims,"  but which means the same thing. Again, an assertion of that the claim is open to question. Subtle, huh?

And this is followed by three successive front page "soft news" stories:   

The first about an Israeli medal winner from WWII who gave back his medal because of the Gaza war.  While the front page "medal" story detailing civilian casualties was a long one, only one or two sentences gave it all away.  A short paragraph buried in the middle of the long detailed story reveals the gentleman had no issue with Israel's conduct of the war until his relative in Gaza was injured!  This is front page news?

The next day's paper had a  long story about three men in Israel who arranged for kidney transplants in Costa Rica, where payment for such transplants is not necessarily illegal.  The article was highly critical of the sale of body parts. That the brokers were Israelis was not incidental: their Israeli citizenship was part of headlines for this front page news piece.  And that was not exactly a slow news day.  There were renewed problems in Ferguson, follow- ups on the Perry indictment, continued travail in Ukraine, Ebola in West Africa, etc, etc.  

Today's front page soft news story is about the difficulties of the Gaza residents are having with so many houses destroyed during the war.  It points out that building materials, i.e., cement to make concrete, are in short supply because of Egyptian and Israeli embargos, but fails to mention that previous shipments specifically designated for building homes, schools, and hospitals were instead diverted by Hamas to the construction of the aforesaid "alleged" tunnels.

Sigh, I await the front page soft news stories of the Hamas leadership (located in Qatar) placing rockets in the midst of the civilian population, firing them into Israel, and then repeatedly refusing to agree to armistices despite the injuries to the civilian population when Israel allegedly struck back at the launch sites after warning the civilians to leave the area. I am not holding my breath.

Should I move to the NY Post? Cannot quite get there, but I am making progress."

A bientot.

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