Thursday, February 24, 2011

Censorship on Jewish News Sites


As it has been reported on February 18th 2011, Milton  "Yehoshua" Balkany, a rabbi who ran a school, as well as having political connections, was sentenced to four years in prison for last year's unsuccessful extortion attempt on SAC, a multi-million dollar hedgefund. Balkany was convicted of this crime in November of 2010. After  reading the news on the secular news websites, I decided to see how Vos Iz Neias dealt with the sentencing. VIN is a Jewish news website that normally posts stories from secular news sources. The  VIN article this time however took the Wall Street Journal article, but also added in their own words and other people's words to make Balkany look favorable in the eyes of those who read the article. One person who said words in favor of Balkany was Zev Brenner. Zev Brenner is a Jewish radio talk show host who had Balkany on his show soon after the initial arrest. Balkany did not let Brenner get a  single word out, and instead spoke over him every single chance he got. However, the VIN article is not what disturbed me most. What disturbed me most was the comments. All the comments were in Balkany's favor, in fact some comments even called him a tzadik (righteous person). I decided to respond to a poster who called him a tzadik by saying that it is an outrage to call Balkany a tzadik. I was thinking, since when was a person who committed a crime considered as such? I tried to keep my comment as level headed as I possibly could, since I went to Balkany's school and I had a miserable time there. When I pressed the button to post it said that comment would need to be approved before being posted. My comment was never posted. I am pretty certain that I did not violate the VIN rules for posting comments, if so then why was my comment not posted? Was it because of the VIN ban that Haredi (ultra Orthodox) rabbis signed onto, because it supposedly promotes Lashon Hara (slander)? Or, is it because a person is considered a tzadik if he gives tzedakah (charity), despite the fact that he committed a crime? What VIN should worry about is how the article and the comments that went through the approval process reflect on the Jewish community. This applies to the comments posted on secular news sources also.What will non-Jews think when they given the impression that the Jewish community condones criminal activity? Instead of condoning or ignoring criminal behavior, the Jewish community should address it and discourage it. Judging from how VIN censored the comments I would say that it was protecting Balkany from criticism just because he was Jewish and had the "Rabbi" title. I guess that everyone is entitled to their ignorance.

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