Judi Rudoren continues to hold her ground against the right-wing onslaught against her for tweeting Mondoweiss and Ali Abunimah, as well as recommending Peter Beinart’s new book (these are really the charges?). The Washington Free Beacon‘s Adam Kredo interviews her and begins in the most (appropriately) McCarthyite way possible:
The New York Times’ incoming Jerusalem bureau chief, Jodi Rudoren, won’t say if she is a Zionist.
“I’m going to punt on that question,” Rudoren, who is Jewish, told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview yesterday. “I’m not really interested in labels about who I am and what I think.”
He later presses her on the fact that she retweeted a mention from Sami Kishawi of the Love Under Apartheid campaign:
On the issue of her journalistic objectivity, Rudoren said her tweets do not reveal an innate bias against Israel.
“People can say whatever they want. I think my fairness is what I have,” Rudoren said. “You’ve just written something very critical of me and now I’m talking to you. I’m going to talk to all kinds of people.”
Late yesterday, Rudoren promoted a message from a Twitter user whose profile reads: “I dabble in the art of Zionist-busting.” The tweet linked to a website called, Palestine: Love in the Time of Apartheid.
Asked if she considers Israel an apartheid state—as critics of the Jewish state so often do—Rudoren declined comment.
“I don’t have an assessment yet,” she said. “I’m not sure I’ll ever answer that question in the way you’ve just framed it.”
Rudoren replies to the Kredo piece over Twitter:
Folks: What I told @freebeacon re whether I’m a Zionist was simple: the only “ist” I use to describe self is “journalist.”
— Jodi Rudoren (@rudoren) February 16, 2012
Right Wing Zio Crazies(RWZC) to Jodi: So, Jodi, “some people say” that you are a raving anti-semitic, drug addicted, communist – your comments?
Jodi: What the F?
RWZC: No answer? Hmm. When did you have your last drink?
Jodi: This is nuts, why are you doing this?
RWZC: Doing what? Im just asking questions……
She actually sounds pretty awesome– deflecting the attacks in a cool, judo like way rather than (as I surely would) countering belligerence with belligerence. You go, lady.
Rudoren: “I am a journalist”. Is she a “woman-journalist”? A Zionist-journalist”?
I know women who are (classical) music composers. Since women are rare in that community, they are often asked to speak on the topic of “Women Composers.” The best (or at least most printable) remark in a refusal to speak farther in answer to this request to speak is: “I am sometimes a woman and sometimes a composer, but I am seldom both at the same time.”
The Times could have used someone that doesn’t have to
be subjected to this ideological scrutiny; choose a Lutheran
or a Catholic and be a responsible newspaper.
For the longest and most complicated conflict of last century,
they choose anther Jewish representative. How fitting.
Who cares if she tweets Abunimah, she is biased whether she
is an anti-Zionist or a Right Wing settler empathizer.
The New York Times needs be responsible if they want to
survive the charges of nepotism that will ensue. This is like
the government selecting Bernake over Greenspan. It’s a
family thing, la cosa nostra…
On the issue of her journalistic objectivity, Rudoren said her tweets do not reveal an innate bias against Israel.
what a slimey pr*ck. does that moron kcredo even know what ‘innate’ means? or is he suggesting that anti-isreali sentiment is an essential, immutable characteristic of ruderon’s personality? (it seems more plausible that zionists have an innate obsession with race and innateness, if that’s a word.) and make no mistake, there is a not-so subtle inference of ‘self-hatred’ in this comment, anti-israeli criticism being one example of the ‘new anti-semitism’. (i hate to admit it, but the goldenbergs and kcredos of the world have me rooting for ruderon. not that she won’t have every opportunity to disappoint in the future.)