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Thursday September 27, 2007

When (bad) Jews are in the news

by joe eskenazi

I recently took up a new sort of religion — they call it Ed Judaism. I showed up for synagogue in San Francisco, but it turned out the shul was really in Burlingame. Har-de-har. If the above joke sailed over your head like an errant Barry Zito curveball, here’s the background: San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew — who is Chinese — has been in the center of a media maelstrom after it came to light that:

His wife and children live in Burlingame and none of his San Francisco “neighbors” ever recall seeing him at his alleged city domicile — and the FBI alleges he received $40,000 in marked bills in a bribery attempt. This week, the Feds added mail fraud charges to the pile.

After initially reporting about a “Jew money scandal” and “Jew investigation,” the San Francisco Chronicle quickly opted to break newspaper style and slip Jew’s first name into the mix, lest the paper’s headlines read as if Louis Farrakhan crafted them.

But by then the Jew was already out of the bag.

At a supervisors meeting immediately after the scandal hit the news, one of Jew’s colleagues was overhead to quip about how voters in the heavily Chinese Sunset district would “never elect a Jew again.” (No name put to the quip, but I’d be shocked — shocked — if it didn’t rhyme with Shmom Shmammiano.)

It wasn’t too long before the Chronicle’s attempt to avoid Jew-baiting headlines drew allegations of favoritism and political correctness.

Writing for the online magazine Slate, polemicist and tippler Christopher Hitchens noted that while Jew gets a first name in his headlines, disgraced British newspaper tycoon Conrad Black received no such treatment. Headlines across the world read “Black convicted.”

“Is this discrimination on a subtle level?” queried Hitchens. “Or should Mr. Jew be glad that he has such a short first name?”

The answer: Yes.

If anyone thinks such pedestrian matters as name lengths don’t haunt newspaper layout people, think again. I was working at the old San Francisco Examiner in 1999, and I can assure you that there was cheering — cheering — from the newspaper’s copy desk when Ehud Barak (five letters) defeated Benjamin Netanyahu (nine letters) to become Prime Minister of Israel. Names like Eduard Shevardnadze, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Gen. Phraya Phahol Pholphayuhasena (former leader of Thailand) may be fun to say, but they are distinctly not fun to fit into headlines.

As for the politically correct angle, that’s likely true, too. A headline such as “Jew money scandal” fits all too neatly into the oldest of anti-Semitic stereotypes. Hitchens’ example of “Black convicted” is not nearly the same. I doubt we would see any heads reading “Black accused of laziness” or “Black out of a job.”

Anyhow, it’s not surprising the Chronicle was quick to amend its headline policy because this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened.

Back in 1998, Chron sports columnist Tim Keown was so outraged that Latrell Sprewell — you may remember when he throttled former Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo — was suing the National Basketball Association for $30 million and defamation of character he wrote, “What’s the name of Sprewell’s law firm anyway — Juden, Juden and Juden?”

Of course, Keown wasn’t channeling Der Stürmer. He was just making a joke about boorish former San Francisco Giants pitcher Jeff Juden. The columnist wrote a heartfelt apology and the situation was resolved as neatly as the conclusion of “The Comedy of Errors.” But the pain that could be induced from a poorly worded phrase — particularly one that evoked memories of anti-Semitic dictums — was lost on no one.

So while the decision to firmly plant an “Ed” in front of every “Jew” headline may draw a sneer from Hitchens, it’s hard to argue against it. Headline writers penning masterpieces such as “Jew money scandal” aren’t being anti-Semitic. But when readers scan serious headlines and gasp or burst out laughing, you’re doing something wrong.

So, to answer the big question, is this situation bad for the Jews? Of course. But it could always be worse — a scandal could have enveloped a supervisor named Ed Black Jew.

Joe Eskenazi really does live in San Francisco. Contact him at joe@jweekly.com

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