The Forward Almost Got It Right

I had to scan back in my e-mail to notice the blatant self-promotion in the Forward’s mailing from Friday: “Forward Got It Right,” referring to their coverage of the Crown Heights Pogrom of 1991. Yes they were right, the NY Times was guilty of outright prevarication and the Anti-Defamation League was “temporizing,” but it’s hardly something of which to be proud. The truth was obvious, and as the facts emerged, regarding both the riots and the orders given to police, it helped cement David Dinkins’ place in history as one of the worst mayors NYC had to endure since the heyday of Tammany Hall.

Reading the Forward’s article, it becomes very clear… the Forward being right was indeed newsworthy, but only because it is one of the very rare instances in which the Forward has reported accurately and fairly about charedi Jews. And of course, the Forward went on to endorse the incompetent incumbent because he was both a Democrat and an African-American, against the challenger and eventual victor, Rudy Giuliani, who was better qualified from every angle and proved to be as excellent as Dinkins was awful.

Expect the same from the Forward in the 2012 Presidential race, KeKelev Chozer al Keyo.

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8 Responses

  1. Shanks says:

    The remarkable downturn in crime in New York City started under David Dinkins. The Forward looked at Giuliani with a skeptical eye for various reasons and indeed, Dinkins qua Democrat was closer to their political worldview. But I’m interested in understanding how Rabbi Menken thinks Dinkins being black had anything to do with the Forward’s endorsement over Giuliani.

  2. cohen y says:

    This is not the appropiate time or place,but the fact that a certain neighborhood got decent reporting should not be construed as much.
    1.The media (yes, even the media)can get a bit weary and tired of anti reporting.It shouldn’t last that long.
    2.The segment has always reserved for themselves good media PR. R’ Hutner, when once queried why that grouping had such succesful propaganda had this to respond ‘they were the last ones left in russia with the Bolsheviks’.

  3. Arthur says:

    I find it quite ironic that comment #2 of Choen Y in reference to “THE Forward Almost Got It Right” appears right above the post entitled “Another Take on Baseless Hatred”.

  4. Lawrence M. Reisman says:

    The Forward article was written by Seth Lipsky, who was the editor in 1991. It also mentions David Twersky, the associate editor. What no one at the Forward mentions is that these two were removed from their positions by the Foward’s management for being too far to the right of the Forward Association’s membership. The new management is more to the left; I wonder if they would have “gotten it right.”

  5. cohen y says:

    Arthur is in the right.It shouldn’t have been written.

  6. Yaakov Menken says:

    To credit Dinkins with the downturn in crime is a feat of historical revisionism. What Dinkins managed to do, by simply hiring many more cops, was stop the spiral upwards that reached its peak during his term. During the last year of the Dinkins administration, the homicide rate remained higher than it was at the end of Koch’s last term — the “improvement” was only compared to his own terrible record.

    Giuliani, on the other hand, brought in Bill Bratton, zero tolerance, and CompStat. He achieved a 60% reduction in homicides by the end of his first term, and by the end of his second had reduced it by two-thirds — to the lowest rate since 1965.

    Dinkins told cops to let the rioters “vent” in Crown Heights; Giuliani would sooner have called in the National Guard. New York magazine, hardly known as a right-wing publication, correctly predicted that Giuliani would be almost unbeatable for reelection due to his crime reduction success.

    The support of liberal Jews for anything smacking of affirmative action needs no elaboration.

    And kudos to Y Cohen for his acknowledgement of the correction.

  7. Shanks says:

    Every crime statistic but murder was down from 1989. Murder was up by 200, but we were discussing crime, not murder. I’m not attributing the downturn in crime to him, and I think Giuliani did much better than Dinkins via the former’s his crackdown, but I’m just noting when the downturn was starting. I’m certainly not a Dinkins apologist.

    I was wondering where that “vent” quote is from?

    I still don’t understand how you think Dinkins being black had anything to do with the Forward’s endorsement over Giuliani.

  8. Yaakov Menken says:

    What I wrote remains entirely true. “What Dinkins managed to do, by simply hiring many more cops, was stop the spiral upwards that reached its peak during his term.” The lack of any real progress is most clearly demonstrated by the homicide rate, which remained higher than it was under Koch. To say that “the remarkable downturn in crime in New York City started under David Dinkins” is either revisionism or an accident of statistics. He did nothing to lay the groundwork or set change in motion. We can credit him for reversing some of the worst decisions made early in his administration, but his only contribution to “the remarkable downturn” was the good fortune of having a competent successor.

    There are a host of references to the vent quote; although Dinkins has denied he said it, it was consistent with his attitudes elsewhere and it was obvious that police had been told, at some level, to stand and watch. If someone wants to deny that the Forward kowtows to political correctness and shows a reverse racism common to liberal Jews, that’s fine. I’m not going to debate the location from which the sun rises, either.

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