Your Editorial of Dec. 30, 2016, “Crossing lines, free speech,” spends three columns admitting you published an anti-Semitic trope, two columns comparing it to publishing incendiary material from the Trump campaign and one short paragraph that asks the question every publisher must answer — to wit, “The question is where do you draw the line.
This is admittedly a subjective decision.”
Rabbi Michael White’s cogent reply to the O’Kelly letter answered the question.
“An editor with an ounce of decency, with even the smallest modicum of journalistic responsibility, would have tossed this piece of trash where it belongs.”
The Board of Sid Jacobson JCC wholeheartedly agrees.
In an era of fake news, where disinformation subverts the truth and divides us from each other, news organizations have a responsibility to fact check.
Not printing ignorant or hateful ideas does not pretend they don’t exist.
On the contrary, it makes a more profound statement that hate, innuendo and ignorance are not valued by you or your constituency.
Comparing an anti-Semitic rant to the news generated by a presidential candidate is false equivalence and without merit.
You are wholeheartedly correct that the decision of where you draw the line is subjective.
Our community has seen throughout its history that morality, integrity and justice get blurred when truth is expendable.
Society withers and people’s lives get put at risk.
The O’Kelly letter and your apologia place us all at risk.
When you think about where to draw this line, study history.
Then think again.
Michael Rosenbaum
President
Sid Jacobson JCC
David Black
Executive Director
Sid Jacobson JCC
