New York Times Tries to Blame Jews for Opposition to Iran Deal - from TRUNEWS

The New York Times is under fire for attempting to blame opposition to President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal on Jews.

The newspaper published a chart showing Democratic members of Congress opposed to the deal, which of those members were Jewish and the percentage of Jewish residents in either home states or districts.

Times staffers appeared to be implying that those members of Congress were putting either their Jewish faith or Israel ahead of America because they opposed President Obama.

Times editors released a note the day after the release of the chart claiming they were not implying anything by pointing out the Jewish faith of some members but noted their faith was valid for news reporting:

The New York Times chart on Democrats in the Senate before their revision.

“Under Times standards, the religion or ethnicity of someone in the news can be noted if that fact is relevant and the relevance is clear to readers,” the editors wrote.  “The positions of Jewish members of Congress, and efforts to influence them one way or another, were a legitimate subject for reporting, since many Jewish Americans on both sides of the debate were particularly concerned about the deal’s impact on Israel’s security. Some members of Congress alluded to their perspective as Jews when they announced their positions on the deal.”

“But the chart did not include this context, or make clear that Jewish voters and lawmakers, like other Americans, were sharply divided on the issue,” they continued. “Its emphasis may have left the impression that their Jewish identity was a decisive factor for Democrats who opposed the deal, an assumption that was not supported by reporting.”

The editors revised the chart and removed the column showing if the Democrat opposing the deal was Jewish.  However, they left a column that showed the percentage of times the Democrat voted against the party “below the 93.4% Dem. average.”  Also a column that showed whether that district had more Jews than the U.S. average.

Several of the Democrats listed were not Jewish and did not have strong Jewish constituencies, leading some media watchdogs to say the Times was trying to spin the situation to cover up the fact there was genuine bi-partisan opposition to the Iran nuclear deal based on the actual deal and not faith or blind support for Israel.

Several major Jewish leaders also called out the Times for pushing anti-Semitic stereotypes that “Jewish money” would be influencing lawmakers.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center

“It’s a grotesque insult to the intelligence of the people who voted for and will vote against [the deal],” Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which combats anti-Semitism, told the Washington Free Beacon.  “They have some explaining to do. Why’d they do it? Shame on the New York Times for the timing and implications of this piece.”

A survey of Americans taken by the Israel Project showed that 37% of Americans believe accusations or implications that a lawmaker acts in some way against the President’s deal based on their faith is clearly anti-Semitic.

 

The post New York Times Tries to Blame Jews for Opposition to Iran Deal appeared first on Trunews..

from Trunews. http://ift.tt/1JpBcnU
via IFTTT