We read:
"In a brief “Note to Readers” published Tuesday on the front page of The Jerusalem Post, the newspaper announced that it had parted ways with a columnist who wrote last week on his blog that terrorist attacks on Israelis were “justified” because Palestinians living under Israeli occupation since 1967 “have a right to resist.”
The note from the English-language daily read in full: “Due to a professional disagreement with Larry Derfner connected to his personal blog, he will no longer be working at The Jerusalem Post.”
According to Mr. Derfner, he was fired by the newspaper even after he had published a lengthy apology on his personal Web site for what he described as a poorly worded attempt to shock Israelis into considering the possibility that the continued occupation of Palestinian land seized by Israel provokes terror attacks.
Source
Derfner is an old extreme Leftist from way back and the paper was under no obligation to give him a platform
11 comments:
Sounds like a form of censorship, so Jon himself excusing it sounds rather like a contradiction to the whole point of his own site!
Well, it's quite refreshing (and extremely rare) to see a media outlet showing signs of patriotism. This is not something we're used to seeing in the West, especially in places like the UK and US.
Someday, perhaps a thousand years from now, when people finally become intelligent and rational, (hopefully) they will realize that too much freedom can eventually have the same effect as too much water, or too much fire, or too much wind. It can destroy all in it's path.
Well, if you only like freedom of expression when it suits you, then you're just partisan.
Sounds like a form of censorship
Not in the least. In this case, the man was paid to write according to his employer's wishes (else why would the employer pay?).
He wouldn't do that, so they stopped employing him. He is still perfectly free to promote his message elsewhere. Censorship, true censorship, would be if he were to be punished for that (e.g. in Cuba) but such is not the case here.
As an analogy - and a pretty tight one, at that - should a backup singer in a band be fired if they insist on singing the wrong song during a concert? After all, the backup singer has the right to freedom of expression, right?
If your argument here is the best you got to tar JJR with, you got nothing.
If you disagree, then I ask you to stand behind your words and send me money for my comments, equivalent to a typical journalist's salary. If you don't, you will have "censored" me in precisely the same manner as the man in the original story.
If they did that hear the terrorists supporting ACLU would be on their case
Yeah rite Stinky. If it had been an old "rightist" journalist fired in the same way for some apparently supportive words about Israel in some place like Lebanon or Jordan, then the newspaper in that country would have been condemned here for typical *leftist* censorship!
And btw Stinky, the journalist wrote his opinion in his OWN blog not in his employers newspaper!
So I guess there should be no free expression allowed on one's own personal blog in cyberspace if one is "enslaved" by an employer who has a different agenda!
Anon,
Methinks you doth projecteth too much.
Stinky - And methinks thou art found wonting in a meaningful response, which forsooth suggesteth thou haveth none! Hey noney no!
Anon,
Actually, I still await your answer to my original q above as to how this story is any different from my asking you to pay me for contradicting you.
Answer and ye shall receive.
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