Ron Kampeas has a brilliant post at the JTA on “Jennifer Rubin and Sabbath,” thoroughly undermining the claim published by the Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton that Jennifer Rubin was unable to correct her blaming the Norway massacre on jihadists because it was the Sabbath when she learned the truth. I do wonder: Does Pexton feel that he was lied to by Rubin? Will these discrepancies cost Rubin her job?
[Eric Alterman writes at Think Progress,] “Sunset—the moment that the Jewish Sabbath begins, moreover—occurred on Friday, July 22, 2011, at approximately 8:20 p.m. in Washington, D.C., and hence offered Rubin plenty of time to correct her mistake. I will not speculate as to why she did not take the opportunity to do so. (Rubin, Pexton notes, did manage to post four (four!) additional items to her blog between 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.).”
A friend points out to me that Rubin filed her last post that night at 9:07 pm — 45 minutes after candle lighting. I’m not sure when Breivik’s arrest was reported, but it was certainly earlier than 7:45 PM, when Ackerman filed his post — and before even the 18 minute rabbinical girdle assigned candle-lighting.
The same friend has scoured Rubin’s archives and found Sabbath postings. I’m not so interested in that — we all make Sabbath compromises. Rubin did that Friday night with her 9:07 post about the debt deal. The point is that this does not simply wash as an excuse; Breivik’s arrest was old news by the time Rubin signed off for the night.
And making Jewish observance an excuse when it clearly is not — well, it rankles. There’s way too long a history of Jews having to take risks to observe Shabbat for it to be used as a bad faith out.
Steve Clemons has also weighed in, here and raised the crucial issue of the absence of any pro-Palestinian voice in the MSM stables:
Fred Hiatt suggests that he brought her in to “balance” the progressives on the team. If balance is an issue, which it might very well be, where is the “Muslim” or Arab voice at the Post that defends as passionately the other side of the argument? Or if having a blog voice on the Arab side of the equation is too much, how about a genuine two-stater from the Israeli side whose love of Israel and commitment to Israel’s long term interests wouldn’t be savaged as traitorous?
