Well the NY Sun is no more. Today's its last issue. Seth Lipsky announced that he could not find another partner, for that fearsome front line of Steinhardt, Hertog, Kovner, and Tisch. Israel is everything to Steinhardt and Hertog. "I cannot exaggerate my visceral bonds to Israel," Steinhardt wrote in his (charming) autobiography, No Bull. It is amazing that the Times story on the Sun's demise doesn't mention Israel, but this is the Emily Post etiquette when dealing with neoconservatives, Do not mention Israel. Again I must cite my one interview with Lipsky a couple years ago when at the bar of the Harvard Club I asked him what the paper was about and he gave me a laundry list of issues, including fiscal conservatism and municipal watchdoggery, and finally I had to say, What about Israel. Oh of course, he said, we care about Israel. That's a hidden agenda, or an unstraightforward one. Israel was everything to the Sun. Lipsky was reported to have Jabotinsky's portrait on his wall. Too bad the Times is recruited in the subterfuge. Journalists should talk about what matters most to them.
A couple of my friends sent me crowing emails. I'm not crowing. I always feel for the inkstained wretches who are out of work, and the loss for the discourse. The Sun did a lot of good journalism.
Though again I'd note that the Iraq war chickens are coming to roost. One of the men hunting for money for The Sun was Ira Stoll, who is said to have written this editorial in Feb. 2003 saying that those who demonstrated against the war should be investigated for treason. A disgusting statement. Tim Noah called it "fascist rantings." And as Lucianne Goldberg said (in a different context), That's when they drank the Strontium-90.
One other point. I liked calling The Sun the New York Moonie newspaper, likening it to the Washington Times, published by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, or one of his tentacles. Well the Times has outlived the Sun. And why? How about a spiritual answer. The Sun really did promote war. I'd note that whatever else he does in the world, Moon was the force behind the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace, which has sponsored the Middle East Peace Initiative, which has sponsored conferences of Muslims and Jews. A good thing. Light and darkness. (Thanks to Chris Varley for the Middle East Peace Initiative info.)
Related Posts
- Neocon Gotterdammerung (New York Sun May Close)
- Steinhardt’s Hebrew Charter School in Brooklyn–What’s the Agenda?
- Speak for Yourself, Seth Lipsky
- ‘New Yorker’ Makes Adelson Out to Be Nutjob Likudnik– and Fails to Describe His Broad Following in the Jewish Establishment
- NYT’s Cohen ’shamed’ by Israel’s actions
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Clearly it was a mistake to try to be more pro-Israel than the New York Post. Even if it were possible, it was superfluous.
The Sun's been called a vanity press. It was intended to give its contributors' work more legitimacy. Most of the people who read those articles did so on the Internet, often at other sites, not in the paper.
But as Arthur Carter of the Observer said, "Everything is a vanity press until it makes money." Some of the book reviews were pretty good. The paper probably won't be missed or remembered fondly by many people, though.
This is a good day for American journalism (not yet an oxymoron but periously close…).
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