Jewish news organization declares 24-hour ban on Trump content
A Jewish news organization announced Monday it will implement a 24-hour ban on publishing any content regarding presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
"The attack on journalists, and journalism, that we are witnessing today is of a more significant and far more dangerous order of magnitude than anything I’ve seen over decades in this business," The Forward's editor-in-chief, Jane Eisner, wrote in a piece published Monday.
While Eisner wrote that it is usually better for journalists to "grow a thick skin" and ignore attacks, she said Trump demanded a bolder response.
Eisner said many journalists are experiencing anti-Semitism coming from the "alt-right," which she defines as "shadowy white supremacists who mainly hide behind the anonymity of Twitter to traffic in horrible Holocaust imagery and directly threaten Jews."
"Many of these threats draw on connections with Trump’s presidential campaign, using Trump’s image and targeting his critics, including several of our regular writers," the piece said.
"Even if you don’t believe that the presumed Republican standard bearer has stoked this cyber-hate (which is a generous assumption), you have to admit that he appears to have done nothing to minimize or condemn it."
In response, the news organization decided to implement a "Trumpatorium," in which it will refrain from publishing anything that mentions Trump's name or his campaign for 24 hours beginning 5 a.m. on Tuesday.
The news organization is taking this "symbolic step" to "address the rising threat level" against Jewish journalists who are being harassed and bullied online.
"The situation is so dire that the Anti-Defamation League has created, for the first time, a task force to evaluate the problem, develop recommendations and spark public conversation about this dismaying trend," it said, noting that two Forward columnists who are on the task force have been attacked personally for their criticisms of Trump's policies.
The 24-hour Trump ban is to show "solidarity" with the many Jewish journalists that are being threatened and to raise awareness about the abuses on Twitter. The ban is also an "acknowledgement of the role the media has, even unwittingly, played in elevating the worst in the Trump campaign."
"Our Trumpatorium is a modest attempt to restore balance and maintain journalistic perspective, to lower the temperature a notch, to pause and reflect, to adjust our own behaviors," Eisner wrote.
"If you are part of the vast majority of Twitter users who aren’t among the trolls and the haters, join us. Let’s change the discourse for a day. And just maybe, more will follow."
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