We still haven’t had a response from The Economist’s Editor-in-Chief John Mickelthwait. This after contacting him asking for his magazine to adopt recognized working definitions of anti-Semitism and drawing attention to the 30,000 of you who signed our petition in support.
We pointed out why a cartoon implying that Jews control the U.S. Congress had crossed the line. Within hours of our initial post, The Economist added an Editor’s note that stated:
The print edition of this story had a cartoon which inadvertently caused offence to some readers, so we have replaced it with a photograph.
But this did not represent an apology and left us wondering if The Economist had actually internalized why the cartoon had caused such offense. Perhaps we have an answer as the Editor’s note has now been updated to the following:
This story was originally illustrated by a cartoon that combined the Star of David with the Congressional seal. Some readers felt that the cartoon implied that Jews controlled Congress. That is not what we intended to imply, nor what we believe, so we removed the cartoon. We apologise for any offence that was caused.
We are pleased that The Economist has finally apologized and stated, for the record, that the magazine does not believe that Jews control Congress.
Having taken this step forward, will John Mickelthwait acknowledge our petition and the call to adopt the EU Working Definition of Anti-Semitism?
