Removing the Women, Missing the Bigger Picture
Jacob Posted:
The above photograph was taken in the Situation Room of the White House on the eve of the Pakistan raid that led to Osama Bin Laden’s death. Der Zeitung, a Hasidic Jewish newspaper based in Brooklyn, published the photo with some very obvious changes. The version printed by Der Zeitung edited out the two women in the picture: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Director for Counterterroism for the National Security Council Audrey Tomason.
This sort of censorship and tweaking of reality is an example of the misogyny and fundamentalism that all religious institutions must seek to avoid. By distorting truth to conform to their own worldview, Der Zeitung is not practicing ethical journalism and is doing a disservice to their readers. A Washington Post article connects the dots between this example of extremism in the orthodox Jewish community and the treatment of women in Islamic fundamentalism.
The statement issued by Der Zeitung in response to the controversy said that, “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.”
Of course, the problem with all fundamentalism is the strict adherence to a code of conduct without bothering to ask questions or rationalize. A completely literal interpretation of religion can lead to an oppressive mindset that perverts and undermines the original intention of righteousness in thought and action. All people should have the right to think for themselves and it is the responsibility of newspapers to present objective facts, not whitewashed versions of facts that do nothing to challenge the status quo.