NY Times Editorial Board Criticizes Paper for Publishing ‘Obviously Bigoted’ Anti-Semitic Cartoon

The New York Times editorial board has put out an editorial tonight criticizing the paper for the publication of an anti-Semitic cartoon in its international edition.

The Times put out a statement over the weekend expressing regret for the cartoon, then apologized in their second statement. Columnist Bret Stephens excoriated the paper in his column for running the “despicable” cartoon.

And now the paper’s editorial board has written a piece on how the Times must learn from history:

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.

The editorial notes how “particularly dangerous” such anti-Semitic imagery is now, and how criticism of Israel is not automatically anti-Semitic but “some criticism of Israel, as the cartoon demonstrated, is couched openly in anti-Semitic terms.”

They also call out the paper’s own history of silence on the issue:

In the 1930s and the 1940s, The Times was largely silent as anti-Semitism rose up and bathed the world in blood. That failure still haunts this newspaper.

The editorial says, ” Apologies are important, but the deeper obligation of The Times is to focus on leading through unblinking journalism and the clear editorial expression of its values.”

You can read the whole thing here.

[image via screengrab]

from Mediaite http://bit.ly/2WkFcoU