Rupert Murdoch Apologizes For “Grotesque, Offensive Cartoon”
January 29, 2013 8:21 by Pesach BensonThe Sunday Times’ damage control continues. The paper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch tweeted an apology for Gerald Scarfe’s Holocaust Memorial Day cartoon.
Israeli officials voiced their displeasure with the Times, with one even hinting at punitive measures I happen to disagree with. The Times of Israel writes:
Earlier on Monday, Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein told Army Radio that the government would probably refrain from filing an official complaint with the London-based paper. However, he said, “We will think about how to act against the paper’s representative here in Israel.”
As the story spread through Western papers, the disproportionate reach of Haaretz‘s contrarian views caught our eye as well, noted in AFP, Al Arabiya, and Sky News coverage. The latter wrote:
But, writing in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, commentator Anshel Pfeffer criticised condemnation of the cartoon, which he said ‘was not anti-Semitic by any standard.’
He noted the cartoon included no Jewish or Holocaust imagery, was as biting as the cartoonist’s usual treatment of non-Jewish subjects and was not similar to traditional ‘blood libel’ cartoons.
Rupert Murdoch entschuldigt sich für “groteske und beleidigende Karikatur” « Medien BackSpin
5:48 pm
Jan 29, 2013
[...] HonestReporting Media BackSpin, 29. Januar 2013 [...]
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Jeffrey Sheff
8:26 pm
Jan 29, 2013
In my opinion, this would not have happened if Mr. Murdoch had maintained the same level of control over his papers that he had before the recent revelations. The Israeli government had better get used to a post-Murcdoch Times, and find another international sympathetic source to leak its headline stories to — even if it does not have a Sunday edition.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Ed Margolis
9:25 pm
Jan 29, 2013
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Andrés Rosendo
2:07 am
Jan 30, 2013
Haaretz… always contradicting history, its people and most basic standards of respect for Israel and the Jewish People
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Joe Kroser
3:55 am
Jan 30, 2013
I hopr that Murdoch has the guts to fire this idiot.
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Chi uccide gli ebrei ogni anno? « Bugie dalle gambe lunghe
10:17 am
Jan 30, 2013
[...] si scusa per la “grottesca ed offensiva vignetta” del Sunday [...]
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Brynn Olenberg Sugarman
11:01 am
Jan 30, 2013
A newspaper is only as good as its management.
Murdoch’s apology was too much, too little, too late.
The cartoon was both offensive, grotesque, and the usual nonsense
of blaming a lack of peace on the building of Jewish homes and not
on Iranian-supplied Arab missiles.
The fact that HaAretz whitewashed it is irrelevant, considering the fact
that they themselves employ self-haters like Amira Hass and Gideon Levy.
To truly show his regrets, Murdoch has only one course of action to take:
dispose of Scarfe.
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Devorah
6:03 pm
Jan 30, 2013
Has anybody noticed the one glaring, shining result of all this, disgusting as it is? Here it is mathematically: One truly offensive cartoon targeting a nation, plus one aggressive, though completely diplomatic response from a sane watchdog (meaning HR), times peaceful public cyber-outcry times a few thousand, equals one public retraction/apology. Then there’s the other equation that never adds up: One offensive cartoon targeting somebody’s “prophet,” plus a grand fatwah of violence, multiplied by riots, shootings and firebombs to the power of 10,000, equals lots of dead people. Hmmm…Kol Hakavod HR!
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Ed Margolis
4:08 am
Jan 31, 2013
H.R’s graphic response was the appropriate response to the offensive cartoon. In Syria, Assad’s thugs broke a respected cartoonist hands as a lesson for criticizing the government. In Egypt a female cartoonist was indicted for blasphemy for using images of Adam and Eve in a cartoon satirizing President Morisi and the Muslim brotherhood.
HR’s readers demand more than a great response and the apologies df Murdock and Scarfe . They demand blood. The offensive cartoon appeared on the first Sunday following the election. Scarfe didn’t know that it was Holocaust Memorial Day.
He has been chastised. Jews don’t aspire to the rioting and vengence of the Islamists. We are better than that.
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Ben
10:53 pm
Feb 02, 2013
Israel friendly Murdock have to apologize for the Jewish-anti-semite! Polite commentators have not noticed this.
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unknown
10:41 pm
Feb 07, 2013
I think that Rupert Murdoch is a hypocrite for saying that the Muslims were over reacting over the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad however issues an apology to Israel for the cartoons published. This shows double standards and is very unfair, he should also apologise to the Muslim world as the cartoon depicted their prophet who to them has a much higher status than these politicians in a horrible manner.
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