With critics of the New York Times continuing to call for action against the Times and the editors responsible for publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon, the New York Times International again published a cartoon critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hours after the Times apologized for the first cartoon.
Some are saying the above is a revised version of an earlier cartoon,
but they are two separate cartoons – both by Norwegian cartoonist Roar Hagen.
above: the original March 25(left) and the April 10(right) cartoons.
While many are calling the Hagen cartoon anti-Semitic,
other are simply noting that the Times has printed an anti-Netanyahu cartoon.
Either way one has to question the wisdom of the Times International editor that approved
printing the Bibi cartoon while the fall-out from the first cartoon is peaking.
In related news, The Daily Beast is reporting that the New York Times is severing its ties with CartoonArts International, the syndicate that supplied the offending cartoons.
The New York Times decided on Monday to cease the Times’ relationship with the syndication service that supplied an anti-Semitic political cartoon that ran in last Thursday’s international print edition of The New York Times.
The Daily Beast continues:
A Times spokesperson told The Daily Beast exclusively about the paper’s decision to stop using syndicated cartoons, especially from CartoonArts, the New York-based syndicator that has been providing the Times and other newspapers with more than 30 cartoons weekly through the Times Licensing Group for several decades. (Emphasis added)
Does this mean that they will now only print in-house political cartoons – exclusively?
The Times has responded to The Daily Beast about the second cartoon:
After a request for comment, Eileen Murphy, the Times’ head of communications, emailed this statement: “The cartoon that ran in the international print edition of The Times last Thursday was clearly anti-Semitic and indefensible and we apologize for its publication. While we don’t think this [second] cartoon falls into that category, for now, we’ve decided to suspend the future publication of syndicated cartoons.” (Again, emphasis added)
The original cartoon was grossly offensive, but now the right is just trying to turn it into a political cudgel, and pretend that any criticism of the Government of Israel is “antisemitic.” It’s just a game to them, and they see an opening.