tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post4514941239806468205..comments2023-09-30T08:07:26.165-04:00Comments on Mystical Politics: Ethan Bronner and the Public Editor of the New York TimesRebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17626228106192215280noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-59768383915528183682010-02-08T14:57:48.781-05:002010-02-08T14:57:48.781-05:00Rebecca,
It is hard to imagine that, other than s...Rebecca,<br /><br />It is hard to imagine that, other than someone who goes by the sound of the name of its owners, that anyone would call <i>The New York Times</i> reflexively pro-Israel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-2366954484767082982010-02-08T13:25:59.825-05:002010-02-08T13:25:59.825-05:00I think it's Freedman (not Friedman), for this...I think it's Freedman (not Friedman), for this particular writer. <br /><br />My ex-friend was unaware that the owners (or some of them) of the Times had become Episcopalian, although I do wonder if she would have believed that the conversion really made a difference. <br /><br />We didn't actually have a discussion on this issue - we were having a conversation about the New York Times and coverage of Israel and she said something about the Times being pro-Israel because its owners were Jewish. I was so astonished by this claim that I replied with the statement about the Times downplaying the gravity of the Holocaust while it was happening. I should have directly challenged her on her anti-semitic statement, but I was so astonished I didn't know what else to say.Rebeccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17626228106192215280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-38099489071857773362010-02-08T09:46:56.205-05:002010-02-08T09:46:56.205-05:00Oops. The Wikipedia-type source can be found here...Oops. The Wikipedia-type source can be found <a href="http://philosopedia.org/index.php/Arthur_Ochs_Sulzberger_Jr." rel="nofollow">here</a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-24240170452305597002010-02-08T09:46:00.112-05:002010-02-08T09:46:00.112-05:00Rebecca,
You have intrigued me to look a bit into...Rebecca,<br /><br />You have intrigued me to look a bit into Sulzberger's background. If <a href="http://www.nndb.com/people/638/000024566/" rel="nofollow">this</a> is accurate, he is Episcopalian. On the other hand, this Wikipedia-like source indicates, based on the interesting book, <i>The Trust</i>, as follows:<br /><br /><i>Arthur Jr. and his sister Karen were confirmed at Manhattan’s St. James Episcopal Church, and although Arthur (“Pinch”) read books about Judaism and erratically attended Jewish services he told Tifft and Jones that in London as an Associated Press reporter during the 1970s he held a Passover seder in his flat. His grandmother Iphigene, who happened to be in Britain, came as an honored - and somewhat nonplussed - guest. "I consider myself Jewish. No one else would, but I do," Arthur Jr. told an oral historian for the American Jewish Committee several years later.</i><br /><br />My Dad called the NY Times owners non-Jewish Jews. That seems to be just about right. Samuel Friedman - no relative, so far as I know - <a href="http://www.samuelfreedman.com/articles/jinterest/jpost04152006.html" rel="nofollow">indicates</a>:<br /><br /><i>Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the publisher in the mid-20th century, "probably would just as soon not have been Jewish," his daughter Judith told Tifft and Jones. The next publisher, Arthur Ochs ("Punch") Sulzberger, married an Episcopalian and had their children baptized and confirmed. One of them is the current publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., nicknamed "Pinch."</i><br /><br />As for your friend, he would no doubt be from the Anti-conversos party.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-26145825809959889802010-02-07T18:20:33.980-05:002010-02-07T18:20:33.980-05:00Thank you for your comments. I actually don't ...Thank you for your comments. I actually don't know if the current Sulzberger is Jewish, and I suspect that to people like my ex-friend, it didn't matter - the newspaper just had the reputation of being owned by a Jewish family.Rebeccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17626228106192215280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-38696820797629814892010-02-07T02:46:19.142-05:002010-02-07T02:46:19.142-05:00Rebecca,
I agree with Mr. Keller (and you) in thi...Rebecca,<br /><br />I agree with Mr. Keller (and you) in this. And, on top of that, Ethan Bronner is actually a good reporter. <br /><br />And, while I would not call the NY Times instinctively pro-Israel, it certainly is not hostile to Israel. And, the reporting does make the effort to show what all involved think, something lacking almost entirely from, say, the coverage in British newspapers, where the coverage is voluminous but openly partial.<br /><br />By the way, I do not think that the current Mr. Sulzberger is Jewish. Perhaps many other in his family and in the Ochs family are Jewish but, as I understand it, he is not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com