The New York Post Is Sorry It's Not Sorry
The New York Post — New York City's arbiter of news ethics and breaking stories — wants readers to know that it isn't the least bit sorry about its front page headline today.
The headline, "Slumlord found burned in dumpster: Who didn't want him dead?" accompanies a story about Menachem Stark, a man who was kidnapped outside of his office on Thursday and found dead, still smoldering on Sunday in a dumpster on Long Island.
The story, as one might surmise from the headline, isn't really about the horrific crime scene, but rather, conjecture loaded with unflattering Jewish references.
"He's a Hasidic Jew from Williamsburg, and we think he's a scammer," the Post quotes an unnamed source as saying.
"His slanted shtreimel on his head gives his crookedness away," goes another quote from "one commenter... on FailedMessiah.com, referring to the victim's fur hat in a photo."
Brooklyn representatives, up in arms about the headline and accompanying story, have been calling for a boycott of the Post.
But despite the fact that the accompanying article helpfully invalidates the headline by actually pointing out a few people who didn't want him dead — like Williamsburg Rabbi David Niederman and Stark's brother-in-law Abraham Buxbaum (and probably at least a few of Stark's seven children) — the Post is, as per usual, standing by its story in an article about the original article.
A spokesman for The Post said the paper's reporting simply pointed out that basic fact.
"The Post does not say Mr. Stark deserved to die, but our reporting showed that he had many enemies, which may have led to the commission of this terrible crime," the spokesman said.
The spokesman also points out with a straight face that, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time of loss."
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