In your op-ed, "A Flood Tide of Murder" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/opinion/11herbert.html?hp), you write:
"The overwhelming majority of the people who claim to be so outraged by last weekend’s shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others — six of them fatally — will take absolutely no steps, none whatsoever, to prevent a similar tragedy in the future."
Forgive me for being blunt, Mr. Herbert, but what do you intend to do? Are you aware the Gabrielle Giffords is Jewish? Are you aware that your newspaper publishes despicable anti-Semitic comments in response to op-eds and other columns, notwithstanding its purported policy that "Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are . . . not abusive"?
You don't believe me? I have regularly written concerning this "phenomenon" to ________________, who removed some of these comments long after they were published by The Times, and also to your public editor; however, in my opinion, the problem at The New York Times persists. Take a minute and read, for example, http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2009/06/open-letter-no-2-to-clark-hoyt-public.html, then, if you wish to learn more, wade through http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/search/label/anti-Semitism for further examples.
Mere reader comments and not reflective of New York Times thought or policy? Nonsense! The moment this hatred is published by The Times, it can only be deemed by the readership of The Times as not "abusive".
On April 29, 2009, in response to Maureen Dowd's "Vice's Secret Vices", the following comment, no. 8, was posted by The New York Times:
"I think writing about Dick Cheney is at bottom passe Maurine. If you can't get the balls to but a material bullet between his eyes,,go away." [sic, in more ways than one]
I immediately contacted _____________, and ultimately this purportedly "moderated" comment was removed. But what does the posting of this comment say about the extreme politicization of The Times?
Yesterday I submitted two online comments in response to the New York Times editorial "Bloodshed and Invective in Arizona" and to Paul Krugman's op-ed "Climate of Hate", containing the above message. Both of these comments were censored by the "moderators" of The Times.
In light of the above, what steps do you believe need to be taken by your newspaper to stem this flood tide of murder and to prevent a similar tragedy in the future?
Yours sincerely,
Jeffrey
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