Hasidic Newspaper Apologizes for Editing Clinton Out of Situation Room Photo
A Hasidic newspaper reportedly has apologized after editing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and one other female adviser out of the iconic photo showing President Obama and his security team watching the raid on Usama bin Laden’s compound last weekend.
The photo of the White House Situation Room was widely published after it was released by the Obama administration a week ago. Perhaps the most enduring image in that photo was that of Clinton with her hand over her mouth.
But the version of the photo that appeared in the Brooklyn newspaper Der Zeitung, an Orthodox Jewish publication, did not show Clinton, or Audrey Tomason, director for counterterrorism, who also was in the room.
In a statement obtained by The Washington Post, Der Zeitung apologized for the alteration and said it has “conveyed our regrets and apologies” to the White House and State Department.
The newspaper explained that the editor who made the change had not seen the White House conditions for publication, which stipulated that the photo “may not be manipulated in any way.”
“Our photo editor realized the significance of this historic moment, and published the picture, but in his haste he did not read the ‘fine print’ that accompanied the picture, forbidding any changes. We should not have published the altered picture,” the newspaper said in its statement.
The statement went on to say that while Clinton has served “with great distinction,” the newspaper does not publish images of women “in accord with our religious beliefs.”
“Publishing a newspaper is a big responsibility, and our policies are guided by a Rabbinical Board. Because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women, and we regret if this gives an impression of disparaging to women, which is certainly never our intention,” the statement said.
miami beach bum
Terrible chilul hashem, any way you look at it. Dont publish any photo at all if thats how you believe, but what they did was judt plain wrong. And they didnt apologize for doing it; they apologized if they hurt anyones feelings. Nice.
And they call it a News paper
Even though this is an insignificant newspaper the incident reflexes the rediculous mindless lockstep thinking that ultra orthodox apply.
Good
I was upset when I saw the headline – thinking that the apology was in response to the ‘outrage’ by all the liberal faux feminists, but relieved when I realized that their apology was for the one thing they should be sorry for – improper use of the photo.
grammar
Wow, their quotes do not make grammatical sense…
“We regret if this gives an impression of disparaging to women…”
“in accord with our religious beliefs…”
Bar Seichel
The Hashgacha Pratis is obvious. Hilary y’sh was the first major public personage, while her husband was president, to openly voice that there should be a palistinian state. She is nothing but a bas amalek, with the chutzpa of her ancestor, openly voicing a hitherto taboo wish amongst normally sane elites.
Babishka
This was an incredibly stupid “news” story created by people who obviously have no life. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, there are now several thousands times more people who are outrageously outraged than there are actual readers of “Der Tzeitung”
Good for a laugh
Erasing Hillary Clinton is not such a bad thing. I think she deserves a little erasure and it’s kind of amusing that this happened to her. Don’t know about Audrey Tomason.
CH-er
Wow this is almost as bad as not letting women vote in CH. Shame on this paper for attempting to rewrite history to reflect their agenda…..
overboard
wow! what an embarrassment to have anything related to that sect. Besides, whoever issued that statement on behalf of the newspaper should go back to grammar school.
my thoughts
Everyone has a right to their belief. Even if you may disagree with it and ultimately it was wrong and illegal, it is not so absurd. Women were not meant to be public figures according to yiddishkeit. (With the rare exception) stop thinking with a goyshe mindset and think with a Torah perspective. I’m a woman and am NOT insulted by this “archaic, backward” thinking….because if you think it is archaic, backward and whatever else the goyshe mindset tells you to think then YOU have the problem. You need to begin thinking like a frum jew.
Milhouse
#3, why should they be sorry for editing the photo? What was wrong with that? Just because the government asked them not to? Why should they obey that request — and that’s all it was.
What-s next? The Beis Rivkah newsletter?
Yashar koach #10 (from #7). I agree 100% but didn’t know how to put it into words. Too many new lawyers (whether professional or in spirit) in the community who think that what they learn from the goyim is more “sophisticated” and therefore more acceptable than Torah values, rather than just seeing it as a blessing from Hashem that they have the means to earn a parnassah and raise their family in a Torah way.
Esther Chin
Maybe the photo editor did not read the “fine point” simply because he can´t read.
Esther Chin
Maybe the photo editor did not read the “fine point” simply because he can´t read.
G Steinem
Were any of these Chasidic editors born of women? Do they ever have to look their mother or sisters or daughters or wife in the face?? Certainly it is wrong to publish non-tzniusdik photos of women, but a common-sense line has to be drawn somewhere with regard to the other half of the world’s population! Empirically speaking, it is well known that in spite of their alleged adherence to a stricter tznius code, much is lacking in their actual behaviour in this area.
The real issue at hand
This was not a major newspaper and has a miniscule constituency. When comparing it to the media of all the major Muslim countries, which do more than not showing pictures of women, it is laughable. The real issue here is the continued malicious focus of AOL, MSN, The New York Times, CNN et al on the Jewish world.
Duby
for all you people out there who think its “Soooo terrible” — i hate to break it to you, but some of our very own websites (i wont name names) do the EXACT same thing and dont deny it. we have chabad news sites that refuse to publish photos of women AND will cut/photoshop them out if they are there. Is it really that different? Sure, they might not cut out HIllary Clinton, but they cut out women for the same reasons.
And to the above commenter about women voting in Crown Heights- i like how you casually threw that in. :) :)
Nobody
Milhouse, it was more than a request – it was a license. Printing the photograph like that is a copyright violation, unless they did it with the intent of saying something bad about Clinton, or some other free speech/fair use type excuse, which they didn’t. They were just working with their brains off, not paying attention to the conditions under which they were granted the permission to print the photograph, and just reflexively removed the women from the photograph.
A better solution would have been to crop the the photograph to the left side. You would have to read the fine print on the conditions to know if that is considered a “modification” or not.
Let the Women Vote
Crown Heights should let women vote!!!! Not letting the women vote is on the same page as erasing them from the pages of newspapers. I hope to see woman’s vote count in the next Crown Heights election.
Tova
Using the Torah as an excuse to demean and degrade women is just terrible. Women may have a separate role in Judaism — but this crosses some serious lines.
Milhouse
#18, you couldn’t be more wrong. Government works HAVE NO COPYRIGHT. The White House had NO RIGHT to impose restrictions on the publication of this photo, so the “fine print” was no more than a request.