A Letter to the Editor
Dear Jewish Journal,
I am a Jew, and my great aunt survived Auschwitz. Last weekend, I listened to one of your editors at a private event brag about how in embracing bipartisanship, that you employ Dennis Prager, who discusses right-wing viewpoints.
I haven’t read Dennis Prager’s articles in the JJ, but I am familiar with his YouTube channel, PragerU. PragerU is a repository for hate and bigotry against women, against blacks, against Muslims, and Arabs.
Dennis Prager is not a right-wing pundit, he is an ambassador of hate and white supremacy who has even been called out by the Southern Poverty Law Center:
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/04/13/anti-lgbt-activities-roundup-4132017
Both my partner and I find this deeply disturbing. In the rush to embrace bipartisanship, you have lent credence to philosophies that are just flat-out wrong (factually and ethically).
False equivalence is a logical fallacy in which two opposing arguments appear to be logically equivalent when in fact they are not. This fallacy is categorized as a fallacy of inconsistency.
Dennis Prager is a hatemonger, but because he’s a Jewish hatemonger, you give him a free pass, and lend him credibility, and financial backing.
In an effort to embrace bipartisanship, you give credence to views that are factually and morally wrong, and that are harmful to many groups of people. If we were to follow this strategy for the Jewish Journal, what would happen if Richard Spencer or David Duke (and their supporters) demanded you hire a Jewish reporter who believes Jews aren’t real people? Or a holocaust denier like David Irving, in order to present “both sides”?
Your site makes the fundamental mistake that bipartisanship means ignoring morality, and in these times when philosophies are being misconstrued and weaponized, and innocent people are being killed by white supremacists in Portland and Maryland, we cannot afford the error of false equivalence to distort the truth, and take more innocent lives.
Anyway, that is my belief, and I felt it needed to be addressed. I hope you will discontinue your relationship with Dennis Prager.
Many Thanks,
A Concerned Reader
