> Tuesday, April 26, 2005

> More on the Wuss

> The Electronic Intifada has an article written by the convenient critic
> mentioned in the Daniel Okrent column on Sunday, an "Alison Weir"

> Amid the usual ravings is the following, an account of an exchange
> between Weir and Okrent:

> "I pointed out that since this was a conflict between a state whose
> identity and purpose of existence was to be a Jewish state, it seemed
> to me that the number of Jewish-American reporters covering it should
> be balanced by approximately an equal number of Arab/Muslim-American
> reporters."

> The proper response from Okrent, if he had even the tenth of the guts
> usually found in a salamander, should have been, "Get the hell out of
> my office, you anti-Semitic piece of crud." Or, if he wanted to be
> polite, he could have said "The Times does not discriminate on the
> basis of race, religion, or ethnic origin" and then pitched her
> head-first out of his office.

> Instead, according to the account on EI, Okrent engaged in a dialogue
> with this bigoted slime. What followed was the following exchange
> between slime and wuss:

> "Okrent said that it was impossible to find equal numbers of
> Arab/Muslim journalists of sufficiently high quality to balance out the
> number of Jewish reporters available to cover it, and ignored the
> suggestion that other groups be included in the reportorial/editorial
> pool. "

> Does that mean that if you do find enough Muslim newspeople that they
> can then supplant Jewish reporters? Well, maybe. According to this
> report, "He said that there shouldn't be an 'ethnic litmus test' and
> that Jewish reporters shouldn't be excluded just because there weren't
> enough Muslims for the Times to employ."

> Weir goes on to say that "we came away with the very strong impression
> that Okrent, who is himself Jewish, felt basically that only Jewish
> reporters could cover this issue."

> Even if Okrent didn't mean that Jewish reporters can be excluded if
> there "were enough Muslims," there is a larger question here. Why is he
> humoring this bigot?

> As if we didn't know. Hurry up, Calame!

> posted by The Media Muse at 9:49 AM