Last week, I posted about the Daily Beast hatchet job on new Jeopardy host Mayim Bialik, written by their new writer named Tirhakah Love. The article understandably engendered a backlash, given it was rubbish based on lie-after-lie. What was clear was Love’s entire objection was really based on the fact that he sees Mayim Bialik as a Zionist.
Since my post, the Daily Beast has responded to the backlash – by removing one word from the article.
The Daily Beast has edited an article to remove the word “genocidal” as a description for Israel’s military.
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Appearing to respond to the criticism, the article’s author, Tirhakah Love, who recently joined the Daily Beast as an entertainment reporter, tweeted on Friday, “the Zionists should really stop emailing me cus girl I do not care.” In a subsequent tweet, Love said Zionism was “an articulation of white supremacy.”
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The word remained in the story on Monday morning. But later in the day, it had been removed. A subsequent sentence was also added about the April 2021 Human Rights Watch report that said some of Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza “amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”
“The story has been updated to replace the word genocidal in reference to the IDF,” the Daily Beast said in response to a request for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The website added, “The Daily Beast is developing an editorial standard for future use of the word.”
The following is from their code of ethics and standards:
We value an inclusive culture, committed to the public good. A core part of our mission is to confront bullies, bigots and hypocrites. We believe that skepticism is a virtue and cynicism is a vice. Above all, our goal is to tell the truth.
To that end, journalists must strive to hold themselves to high ethical standards: aiming for honesty, fairness and accuracy while avoiding conflicts of interest.
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Corrections and Updates: Factual errors require correction and acknowledgement by an editor at the end of the story. Updating text for clarity, style or spelling does not require acknowledgement. When a story has advanced significantly within a week of publication, an update may be added.
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Social Media: Newsroom employees’ social media accounts express personal opinions and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Beast. Nonetheless, journalists should be advised that anything posted to a social media account can be used against them, their colleagues, or the company in the court of public opinion. Journalists are free to politely disagree with one another, but Daily Beast employees should never use their social accounts to attack their colleagues or undermine the credibility of the organization. Employees are also prohibited from posting sponsored content on their social accounts. In short, think before you tweet. We expect reporters and editors to exercise good judgment—no matter what the medium.
What a (bad) joke.
