It’s an easy solution to all our ills. Bad politicians—it’s because of the media. Homicide rates are increasing—it’s those pesky journalists.
Sure, some news programs and publications focus way too much on negative news or reveal more than we need to know about celebrities’ personal lives. Overall, in America we’re blessed with First Amendment freedoms and some of the world’s best publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
The BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES, the leading independent Jewish publication in North America, has been accused of lowering its standards in the past year during its historic enterprising journalism on the allegations of sexual molestation by prominent local rabbis.
Executive Editor Phil Jacobs has had the courage to use his name publicly, and protect the victims of these crimes providing anonymity. Interestingly, our website allows people to comment anonymously on our blogs and all news stories. Scores of people have blasted Phil and the victims anonymously. They don’t have the courage to put their names in print, but those same people chastise the victims of horrible events for not wanting to go through the embarrassment of putting their names in public.
Most reputable news organizations from the New York Times to ABC News won’t divulge the names of sexual crime victims. Should the JEWISH TIMES be held to a different standard than the nation’s leading media?
These anonymous writers asked why we would print the address and work place of the most recent alleged perpetrator, Yisroel Shapiro. Well, if there were someone accused of molesting little boys living on your street or working in a place where you shop, wouldn’t you want to know about it? Of course you would. That’s why there are public registers for these people.
There are other complaints about the timing of our stories. But the fact is, the man was served with papers and it became news. That’s what we do. We write news stories. Any day now, Yisroel Shapiro is expected to enter a plea bargain. As they said about Sen. Larry Craig, innocent men don’t plead guilty. We didn’t cause this misery to Mr. Shapiro, but we will do our best to ensure that he can never again hurt a little boy.
Now other news sources are picking up our stories. So far, there have been pieces in the Baltimore Sun and on WJZ-TV, providing further evidence that we keep publishing valid and valuable news stories.
Some people will say that we created an embarrassing situation in front of the non-Jewish community. Well, until we broke the stories the entire community was pathetically ignoring this serious situation. Since we brought the stories to light, the community has really started to change – for the better. Blame the media; that’s fine. Because the reality is that thanks to the very hard work of Phil Jacobs, more young Jewish children are safer from predators.
The story isn’t over yet. The authorities are investigating other rabbis that we have written about, so there may be even more charges filed.
We also are investigating evidence about another prominent rabbi. Sadly, we haven’t published that yet because 20 years later, his victims are still fearful of the stigma of sexual molestation and the power that rabbis hold.
But, this rabbi, along with any other, should take note that that as long as there is a free, independent Jewish press in Baltimore, we will be the watchdog for this great community. And their sick crimes may still become public.
Posted by on 12/21/07 at 02:35 PM | Comments (4)Comments
Why is it that your paper doesn’t even mention the work of the Awareness Center? They are based in our city, right in our community. The Awareness Center is the first organization that ever did anything for those of use who have been molested as children. They are really the only organization that works for us, verses working as a PR campaign for the vaad and or the Associated.
I know that Phil has consulted with the Awareness Center, yet pretends that the organization does not exists. So I’m going to pretend your paper doesn’t exists.
I’ve canceled my subscription because of your lack of honesty and integrity. I’m going to suggest to my friends that they do the same thing.
Posted by Chava on 01/30/08 at 08:18 AMI am proud to be a subscriber to a Jewish newspaper that is committed to exposing the danger of child molestation in our community. It is truly pikuach nefesh to have parents and children become aware of who presents a threat of sexually abuse—especially when that information is deliberately kept from them by rabbis who are more concerned about the “reputation” of an offending colleague and his family than innocent children and their naive, trusting parents. This demonstrates why the independence of this Jewish newspaper is invaluable.
Posted by Claire on 01/12/08 at 05:35 PMI forgot to ask, when is your paper going to do a story on Rav Eisgrau? He’s been up on the net for years already
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/eisgrau_eliezer.html
Posted by Jonah on 12/21/07 at 11:48 PMI’m surprised your paper isn’t working with The Awareness Center. They have been exposing cases in the Baltimore community for at least 5 or 6 years. I think the two organizations should be working as a team.
Posted by Jonah on 12/21/07 at 11:44 PM
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