Thursday, May 31, 2012

NYTimes Misses An Error

In this puff piece on J Street in the NYTimes (yes, yet again), "Divergent Path on Israel Helps Lobby Group Grow", they correct one error but miss another.

The first error - and correction - is here:

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 30, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated the party affiliation of Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois; he is a Republican, not a Democrat.

Can you spot the second almost at the beginning?

WASHINGTON — There was a time not so long ago when political contributions from Americans supportive of Israel inevitably veered toward those Congressional candidates who were the most hawkish and outspoken in defending Israel and its security.   No longer. While aggressive defenders of Israel still dominate the debate, more moderate voices in the Jewish community — led by J Street, a Washington lobbying group — are expanding their ability to generate money and political capital for pro-Israel candidates who favor a less confrontational approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other issues.  This week, J Street is expected to land one of its biggest names when it announces its endorsement of Senator Dianne Feinstein, the veteran Democrat from California who is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, an important forum for Middle East intelligence.

Yes, it is the use of the term "moderate" to describe J Street.

To be fair, the item does include


...charges from some American Jewish leaders and Israeli officials that the group’s moderate positions — it supports increased diplomacy, a two-state Israeli solution and continued aid to the Palestinian Authority — made it “anti-Israel.”   “These are people who cannot be considered friendly to Israel,” said Morris J. Amitay, a former executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee...Josh Block, another former Aipac official, called J Street “a gnat” in the Israel debate and “a fringe organization with no credibility.”...Representative Gary L. Ackerman, Democrat of New York, who broke with the group last year over its support for a United Nations resolution criticizing Israel’s West Bank settlements as illegal.   For J Street defenders, the vitriol is a sign that the group is beginning to have an impact.       
    

But through the liberal progressive prism of media bias at the NYTimes, "moderate" is midway between irrationalist and insensibility, I presume.

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