Newspaper Editors Give Students Inside Scoop on Covering Jewish News
Mar 24, 2009 By: yunews
Mar 24, 2009 -- All the news that鈥檚 fit to print takes on different connotations when discussing Jewish newspapers and their coverage of issues of interest to the Jewish community. This was the focus of a panel entitled, 鈥淛ews and News: Ethics in News Reporting,鈥 at the Wilf Campus and organized by uundergraduate students.
Ilana Hostyk, a Stern College for Women student who moderated the discussion, posed pointed questions to the editors from the top Jewish newspapers in the metropolitan areas including Jane Eisner, editor of 鈥淭he Forward鈥; Shlomo Greenwald, associate editor of 鈥淭he Jewish Press鈥; Josh Nathan-Kazis, editor of 鈥淣ew Voices Magazine鈥; and Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of the 鈥淛ewish Week.鈥
The event was sponsored by the YU College Democrats, Yeshiva Student Union and Stern College Student Council.
Among the questions driving the discussion were what makes an article or event Jewish; how does a Jewish paper handle stories that may reflect negatively on the Jewish community; and should Israel coverage be even-handed?
鈥淲e try to find a Jewish angle to news stories and we pride ourselves on being independent and telling stories factually in the very best tradition of journalism,鈥 said Eisner. 鈥淎s far as Israel is concerned, we all have our own emotions about Israel and it鈥檚 unrealistic to be objective about it, yet we refrain from bringing our own biases into our reporting.鈥
While the 鈥淛ewish Week鈥 covers the Jewish community, it isn鈥檛 a source of hard news for their readers. 鈥淲e strive to find unusual angles not found in other papers and we鈥檙e sensitive to community concerns,鈥 said Rosenblatt. 鈥淭he ultimate challenge is to strike a balance between 鈥楯ewish鈥 journalism and ethics.鈥
Not surprisingly, sometimes Halacha [Jewish law] plays a more dominant role in covering stories than journalism, Greenwald pointed out. 鈥淎s Jewish journalists, we shouldn鈥檛 be passive bystanders to controversy playing out in the Jewish community,鈥 the 鈥淛ewish Press鈥 editor said. 鈥淗owever, at the same time we must be committed to reporting news in a halachically appropriate way.鈥
As editor of 鈥淣ew Voices,鈥 Nathan-Kazis is more focused on coverage of Israel and generally has a left-leaning posture. 鈥淗ow can we cover Israel evenhandedly?鈥 he asked. The 鈥淛ewish Week鈥 supports Israel, said Rosenblatt, but that doesn鈥檛 preclude criticism of Israeli policies.
In contrast to 鈥淭he Forward鈥 or 鈥淛ewish Week,鈥 the 鈥淛ewish Press鈥 primarily carries opinion pieces, and is very pro-Israel. Eisner would like to see her paper鈥檚 role as a catalyst to bring Jewish people together. 鈥淪ometimes our role is to help Americans stay Jewish,鈥 she said.
鈥淚t was invaluable for us as students to see the moral rationale that guides each of the Jewish publications,鈥 said Perel Skier, a Stern senior. 鈥淲e got to see several different points of view and how that affects their selection of material and their treatment of Jewish stories.鈥
