Whose Mother Should Have Been The Center of Attention?

I just sent this out to the New York Times:

Dear New York Times Executives and Editors,

A mistake was made.  In attempting to illustrate in a graphic fashion the murder of a sleeping soldier by a teenager driven by a nationalist agenda, a photograph of the mother of the murderer, portrayed in a sympathetic setting, was selected.

We all know it was a wrong choice.  We all know it displayed a lack of balance.  It was a poor professional selection and it will be taught for decades in photojournalism classes as an example of getting it wrong.

To refuse to remove it and not to indicate that it should, at the least, have been accompanied with a picture from the murder scene or of the grieving family or of the slain soldier himself, is compounding the error.

The picture should be replaced at your web site.  The error should be acknowledged.  The selection process should be reviewed.  Those who made the wrong decision should be publicly identified for that is what the press does to every other institution it covers.

Professional journalism is accuracy, balanced representation, accountability and responsibility.

Do not let we media consumers down and feel as if the paper truly does hold to a biased and different standard of professionalism when dealing with Israel.

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