Twice in the past few days, the Grey Lady has been “forced” to apologize for publishing political cartoons that have been deemed anti-Semitic, or as otherwise framed, contain anti-Semitic tropes. Do they offend? That’s up to the viewer.
First was their required Trump smack.
Whether this political cartoon is anti-Semitic, or perpetuates anti-Semitic tropes reminiscent of those used in furtherance of the Holocaust, is not the issue for the New York Times. They admit fault for having published them, which raises their curious apology.
The Times published an appalling political cartoon in the opinion pages of its international print edition late last week. It portrayed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as a dog wearing a Star of David on a collar. He was leading President Trump, drawn as a blind man wearing a skullcap.
The cartoon was chosen from a syndication service by a production editor who did not recognize its anti-Semitism. Yet however it came to be published, the appearance of such an obviously bigoted cartoon in a mainstream publication is evidence of a profound danger — not only of anti-Semitism but of numbness to its creep, to the insidious way this ancient, enduring prejudice is once again working itself into public view and common conversation.
Bad production editor. Bad, bad, production editor. But then, they did it again.
The Times goes on to explain why anti-Semitism is wrong. It duly notes, inter alia, that only days ago, a shooter killed in a synagogue,
On Saturday, a gunman opened fire during Passover services at a synagogue in San Diego County, killing one person and injuring three, allegedly after he posted in an online manifesto that he wanted to murder Jews.
Of course, everyone already knew this, and it wasn’t necessary for the Times to tell us that this was wrong and horrible. But why is the New York Times selling its readers on the wrongfulness of what it did?
The responsibility for acts of hatred rests on the shoulders of the proponents and perpetrators. But history teaches that the rise of extremism requires the acquiescence of broader society.
See anything there about the fact that the New York Times posting anti-Semitic political cartoons was its fault, not “broader society”?
As anti-Semitism has surged from the internet into the streets, President Trump has done too little to rouse the national conscience against it. Though he condemned the cartoon in The Times, he has failed to speak out against anti-Semitic groups like the white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” He has practiced a politics of intolerance for diversity, and attacks on some minority groups threaten the safety of every minority group.
Trump is literally Hitler, as the Times has made abundantly clear many times, but Trump didn’t make the New York Times publish these political cartoons. Nor could Trump have stopped them from doing so, prior restraint and all, plus it’s not as if that bad, bad production editor asked Trump what he thought about the cartoons beforehand.
As the world once again contends with this age-old enemy, it is not enough to refrain from empowering it. It is necessary to stand in opposition.
What heartwarming words from the publisher of the cartoons at issue, the paper of record, the New York friggin’ Times. Except all the words murdered to demonstrate how deeply the editorial board despises anti-Semitism have to do with the wrongful acts of others. Few have to do with the crux of the apology, and even those were largely to shift blame to some anonymous bad, bad production editor, who somehow managed to bring the great paper to its anti-Semitic knees with nobody noticing.
Yes, we’re well aware of what’s wrong with shooters in synagogues, or mosques, or anywhere else they position themselves to murder the innocent. But what does that have to do with the New York Times? Not much, apparently, as it passively admits to the “numbness [of] its creep.”
No one needs the NYT to inform us of the bad things other people do in their apologia; We’re already aware of anti-Semitism “working itself into public view and common conversation.” And we have the New York Times to thank for it. Even if the cartoons weren’t very funny, at least the pseudo-apology is good for a laugh.
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Nice interlocking posts today, Scott. Except that my muse said the title of this post should have been “Uncomfortably Numb” (shes such a perfectionist..its almost annoying)
But would that have made it too obvious? Or would it have been brilliantly parallel?
The interconnection is already obvious , so yes to the second question. But it may just be my weird fearlessness of being corny, projected on to you… like that bad, bad editor, my muse has no shame.
One other thought. Do you honestly believe those toons got in under the ‘woke ones’ radar ? Looks more like a lowbrow cry for attention from a dying journalistic format.
When one believes hard enough, it’s hard to see things through dispassionate eyes.
Remember when the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, and suddenly all these learned commentators were trying to convince us it was normative, in American culture, to teach boys it was acceptable to publicly masturbate into a potted plant? If you do wrong, it shows that you’re an evil person who must be destroyed. If they do wrong, it shows there’s a problem with society at large. It’s one of those irregular verbs of American public discourse.
It’s hard to be passive-aggressive when apologizing. It takes a great paper to pull it off.
Admittedly, I may be a little slow, but I’ve looked at that second cartoon for a good long while and still don’t understand it or what point it’s trying to make.
But it’s clear what is needed is a national conversation on anti-Semitism.
Nor do I, but then, I’m not easily offended so it’s easy for me to miss the point.
My short (artists?) interpretation of the second one. Nety , the selfie-styled, new Moses.
I don’t see it as anti-Semitic at all….its a slam on Net-en-ya-hoo’s narcissism. The woke are stupid.
Me too. I suspect some young diversity hire is at the bottom of this.
Current prime minister of Israel doesn’t know what he is doing because he is analogous to a blind Moses.
At least, that’s what think it means.
SHG,
If I were on the news side of the Times the editorial side would be a constant embarrassment. Not only is the editorial side frequently vapid but the lack of intellectual honesty in the editorials as well as many of their columnists is stunning. The non-apology about which your write is Exhibit A.
So, this morning as I read your piece I engaged in a thought experiment. Please don’t mock me, I am old and frail.
What if the Times decided to kill the editorial side and devote every penny of those resources to the news side? By and large, the news side of the paper does superb work. More of that great work at the expense of the editorial side would be welcome both because we would get more high quality news and because it would mercifully kill off the fatally metastasized opinion side.
I suppose this is a pipe dream bordering on the deranged. But what do you expect from the likes of me?
All the best.
RGK
PS I love the edit function. As you know, I can’t proof read, speel or write coherent first drafts.
Are you sure news and editorial are as separate as one might think? I’m not. At least editorial admits its nature.
“Five Star Final” (1931), starring Edward G. Robinson gives depth to your thought.
SHG,
No, I am not sure.
I do, however, want to believe that the news side still maintains a spirit (perhaps weakened) of old time journalistic independence. But, as in many things, I may well be terribly naive, perhaps buttressed by the fact that it takes a very long time to travel from Lincoln to NYC by stagecoach.
All the best. Your humble servant,
RGK
They cocked this up, so it is TRUMP’S fault. OF COURSE!!
Had this been an affront to women or blacks or Muslims or illegals or the “LGBT community,” somebody would have been canned. Since the cartoons were only anti-Semitic (and of course, also caused by Trump), there was no need to go further than pointing out that they were caused by Trump.
The NYT editors are like idiots, wrapped in imbeciles, wrapped in morons.
To be fair to the production editor, sometimes it is rather tricky to tell if someone is being condemned for being white or for being Jewish.
Anti-Netanyahuism equals anti-Semitism means … no more anti-Netanyahu editorial cartoons in mainstream US publications. That’s unfortunate, but I suppose we shouldn’t be sticking our noses into Israel’s internal politics.
Is that the question, or is it the ability to challenge Netanyahu without going anti-Semitic to get there? It’s hard to do good political cartoons that nail their point without overshooting the mark.