Bespoke Suited Victimologist Bret Stephens, shames the Goyim, for the heresy of insufficient loyalty to the Zionists Fascists State.
Queer Atheist comments.
Eli Clifton’s revelatory essay at the Responsible Statecraft site, regarding Bret Stephens, doesn’t just offer insights into the career of this Neo-Con, but about how he conducts himself, as a political actor.
Headline: NYT fails to disclose columnist’s side gig at pro-Israel advocacy group
Sub-headline: Bret Stephens promised to disclose the affiliation if there was any ‘overlap’ with subjects he writes about for the Times.
New York Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens never hid his feelings about Israel, or the support that he believes Jewish Americans owe to the Jewish state. “Thank God I was born a Jew because I’d be a raging anti-Semite,” he once said, trying to explain his frustration with his fellow Jewish Americans for insufficiently, in his view, supporting Israel.
Indeed, that sentiment of unconditional support for Israel was on display last week when the Times published his lengthy defense of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. His column made no mention of Israel’s evictions of Israeli Arabs from Sheikh Jarrah and argued that “the U.S. does not have a vital interest in creating a Palestinian state,” a view that runs counter to the assessment of then-CENTCOM Commander David Petraus’s 2010 Senate testimony in which he observed, “The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel.”But Stephens, and The New York Times, did hide something else: Stephens has a glaring conflict of interest between his Israel-related commentary for the Times and his side gig, working for an organization “committed to the future of a U.S.-Israel relationship that safeguards the security of the Jewish State and connects future generations of Jews with our shared values.” That’s just one of the goals of the Maimonides Fund, a pro-Israel advocacy group where Stephens recently took up the role of editor-in-chief of Sapir, Maimonides’s “journal exploring the future of the American Jewish community and its intersection with cultural, social, and political issues.”
Stephens’ opining on U.S. support for Israel seems to pose an undisclosed conflict of interest with his outside role at a group dedicated to promoting the “U.S.-Israel relationship.” It also comes fresh on the heels of Times columnist David Brooks drawing a second salary from The Aspen Institute, a role that was funded by Facebook. Brooks ultimately resigned from his second job after Buzzfeed reported on the potential conflict of interest.
In March, the Jewish Telegraph Agency spoke with Stephens about his dual-roles at Maimonides and The New York Times. “Stephens said the Times is aware he’s editing Sapir and that he anticipated no conflicts,” reported the JTA.
“Given the format (a journal of ideas), style (long-form ‘think pieces’), themes (Jewish dilemmas of various sorts), and purpose (helpful ideas for Jewish leaders), I do not think there is any overlap with subjects I might plausibly cover for The Times,” Stephens said in an email to the JTA. “If there is, I would certainly disclose and discuss it with my editors.”
But that avoidance of a potential conflict of interest was short-lived. Stephens’ article last week concluded that “the goal of U.S. policy is to support Israel’s efforts to defang, deflate and ultimately disempower Hamas.” Neither Stephens nor The New York Times provided any disclosure that he was currently employed at an Israel advocacy group that “aims to connect Jews to their people and their heritage and to contribute to the vitality of the State of Israel.”
That seems like precisely the sort of “overlap” Stephens promised he would “discuss” with his editors. Either Stephens didn’t flag the potential conflict of interest or he did and the Times decided it wasn’t worth disclosing to readers.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/05/17/nyt-fails-to-disclose-columnists-side-gig-at-pro-israel-advocacy-group/
Since the essay was so brief, I thought it important present it in its entirety.
Headline: A Foul Play by Progressives Over Israel’s Iron Dome
There’s little doubt that Congress will pass and President Biden will sign legislation to provide $1 billion in funding for Iron Dome, the Israeli-American missile defense system. Steny Hoyer, the majority leader in the House, promised as much after a handful of progressive members managed this week to get the funding stripped from a must-pass bill to keep the U.S. government afloat.
The Israel-bashing progressives won the news cycle, but Hoyer intends to bring Iron Dome to a vote in a stand-alone bill. It will pass with overwhelming bipartisan support.
That’s the good news. Whatever the tensions between the Democratic Party and Israel, they aren’t anywhere near the point that the mainstream of the party would begrudge the Jewish state funding for a technological marvel that, over a decade of operation, has saved countless civilian lives by shooting down thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately at Israel by Hamas and other terrorist groups.
The bad news: You will almost certainly not see Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York, Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan or their fellow travelers in the House progressive caucus paying any serious reputational cost for this supremely foul piece of political grandstanding.
…
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/opinion/israel-democrat-bowman-jayapal-tlaib.html
Mr. Stephens writes an Opinion Column for the New York Times, but is also employed by the Maimonides Fund.
But Stephens, and The New York Times, did hide something else: Stephens has a glaring conflict of interest between his Israel-related commentary for the Times and his side gig, working for an organization “committed to the future of a U.S.-Israel relationship that safeguards the security of the Jewish State and connects future generations of Jews with our shared values.” That’s just one of the goals of the Maimonides Fund, a pro-Israel advocacy group where Stephens recently took up the role of editor-in-chief of Sapir, Maimonides’s “journal exploring the future of the American Jewish community and its intersection with cultural, social, and political issues.”
The glaring question of conflict of interest, appears to be elementary, except to Mr. Stephens and The New York Times?
Queer Atheist