“Error In Judgment”
By Mitch Berg
Oops.
An Editors' Note to appear in Monday’s international edition. pic.twitter.com/1rl2vXoTB3
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) April 27, 2019
Before it disappears down the memory hole forever, here’s the cartoon:
I’ll say this – even Steve Sack isn’t this depraved.
(SACK: “Hold my kombucha”).
April 30th, 2019 at 8:15 am
It’s a weird cartoon.
If Netanyahu is Trump’s guide dog (US blindly following wherever Israel leads), why is he a wiener dog? Is it a pun on kosher hot dogs? Whoever heard of a Dachshund as a guide dog, aren’t they supposed to be German Shepherds, except those remind us of Nazis who killed Jews, so is making Netanyahu into a German dog some oblique reference to The Final Solution?
Or is Netanyahu supposed to be a pet, Trump’s lapdog (Israel a yappy pup on the US’s leash)?
Why was it an error of judgment to publish it? Because it’s offensive? Everything in that paper is offensive to somebody. What makes this cartoon particularly offensive? The fact it’s anti-Jewish? But wasn’t that obvious when it was proposed for publication? Why was it okay to publish at the time but now we realize it wasn’t okay – what morals, what values, which of our principles changed in the meantime? If it was always wrong and we always knew it was wrong, why’d we do it? Just got caught up in the moment, like a dorm full of freshmen, immature children who lack experience and judgment? What happened to the layers and layers of fact checkers and editors?
It’s a weird cartoon.
April 30th, 2019 at 10:47 am
Weird for the Times to print this, not for a European paper or even the Guardian.
April 30th, 2019 at 10:48 am
JD – they weren’t sorry they ran it. They are sorry they got called on it.
April 30th, 2019 at 10:59 am
Every now and then they slip and show their real feelings. The idea that this cartoon wasn’t given the okay at very high up people at the paper before printing is ludicrous.
May 1st, 2019 at 12:16 am
There are cartoons that get questioned, I’ve seen a fair number of them over the past 10 years. This is just hateful. This is, as some have told me, Stormfront worthy or worthy of some hateful depictions I’ve seen come out of the Middle East and yes, I once saw a cartoon out of the UK that was pretty awful but that cartoon above follows the negative “tropes” scenario, it’s downright offensive.