You have to love the confused thinking of San Francisco Chronicle columnist John Carroll. To his way of thinking, condemnations of the New York Times by President Bush are really appeals to anti-Semitism!

Also, the name of the New York Times contains the word "New York." Many members of the president's base consider "New York" to be a nifty code word for "Jewish." It is very nice for the president to be able to campaign against the Jews without (a) actually saying the word "Jew" and (b) without irritating the Israelis. A number of prominent Zionist groups think the New York Times is insufficiently anti-Palestinian, so they think the New York Times isn't Jewish enough.

So let me get this straight -- refering to the New York Times as the New York Times is really an act of bigotry even though the name of the paper is the New York Times. And at the same time, this appeal to hatred also scores points with members of the disfavored group because they don't believe the New York Times hews sufficiently to their beliefs. Incredible! Anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism all in a simple mention of the name of a newspaper.

Maybe he could have appealed to liberal black Democrats like Jesse Jackson by calling it the Hymietown Times once or twice.

And by the way -- my mention of Carroll's newspaper is in no way an accusation of homosexuality -- merely an accurate statement of his place of employment.

(H/T Colossus of Rhodey and The New Editor)

Posted by: Greg at 03:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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