can someone explain this to me?

[hatam_soferet]

What I don't get, right now, is why we're all being super-sad about the kids who bowed to homophobic bullying and killed themselves, but super-judgemental about the paper who bowed to homophobic bullying and apologised for announcing a gay wedding. I must have seen a dozen posts in the last hour badmouthing that paper.

If they got bullied into doing what they did...why are we blaming them? Aren't they also victims of bullying? Okay, if they actually changed their minds and decided that Teh Gheyz are Ebil, that's one thing. We can be judgemental about that. But why aren't we first asking them just what these mysterious rabbis threatened? Telling them that it doesn't matter what the rabbis said, we'll support them? Pushing to know who these rabbis are?

Why are we blaming the victim?

Can we stop it, please?

Comments

It's not okay. They're journalists.

[(Anonymous)]

I see this point. However, as journalist, I can't understand this decision. Journalists do no apologize. It is unethical. We correct factual inaccuracies, always. But we don't apologize for them. What NJ Jewish Standard did is beyond understanding for the rest of us journalists, even us Jewish ones.

See my post at Jewschool for more on this.

Re: It's not okay. They're journalists.

[hatam_soferet]

Oh, rubbish. Being a journalist somehow makes you infallible? Because you earn money being published you never say anything you have to apologise for? I'm not buying that.

[kerrypolka]

Yes, "no apologies, ever" is a fairly bizarre flag to plant. We all screws up sometimes; the important things are to figure out where the screw-up happened and fix it. Sometimes fixing it requires an apology.

- another (paid!) journalist's opinion

Re: It's not okay. They're journalists.

[ajollypyruvate]

"We correct factual inaccuracies, always. But we don't apologize for them."
What? Who told you this? There are hundreds of "CityTimes reported [blargh] on [thisdate]. CityTimes was in error. [blargh] is actually [blech]. CityTimes apologises for the error" out there practically daily and have been for at least 3.5 decades.

Re: It's not okay. They're journalists.

[hatam_soferet]

I think he means more along the lines of "Mr D wrote an editorial last Monday in which he expressed opinions only held by jerks. Mr D would like to apologise for his lack of gentlemanly restraint. Mr D is on vacation."