Emily Jacobs at Jewish Insider reported The Washington Post came under fire for an insensitive treatment of Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of an American hostage in Gaza who spoke at the Republican convention. It's bad enough that the Post's headline described their son Omer as "missing," not held hostage. But they came under fire for a tweet scolding the parents that they later deleted and admitted was "unacceptable."
"Omer Neutra has been missing since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. When his parents speak publicly, they don't talk about Israel's assault on Gaza that has killed over 38,000 Palestinians, according to local officials. Experts have warned of looming famine," the Post tweeted on X.
Congratulations to @jslaternyc and the @washingtonpost for what just might be the most disgusting thing it ever published pic.twitter.com/u2Ur5mITJd
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) July 19, 2024
The post linked to the story by Post reporter Joanna Slater on the Neutras about their speech on day three of the convention. Slater called their trip to the convention "surreal," for some reason. At least the story acknowledges that the Neutras were uplifted by the Republican crowd's support. The story itself still carries a slightly less insensitive version of the tweet:
When the Neutras speak publicly, they don’t talk about the ferocity of Israel’s counterattack, which has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians and left nearly 90,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Swaths of the territory have been pulverized and international experts have warned of looming famine.
In addition to ripping hostage parents for failing to denounce Israeli "ferocity," the Post felt compelled to play this game of camouflaging their trusted source of casualty counts -- "local officials" and the "Gaza Health Ministry" -- is the terrorist group Hamas. They're more likely to trust Hamas as an objective source than Republicans.
In another X post published Friday morning, the paper explained that it deleted the initial post because it had "mischaracterized the efforts of Neutra’s parents." The paper followed up hours later with a more thorough explanation.
"A previous post referencing the below story was unacceptable and did not meet our editorial standards, and The Post has deleted it. The reporter of the story was not involved in crafting the tweet. We have taken the appropriate action regarding this incident," The Post wrote on X.
“The Post keeps failing to meet its commitment to fairness in stories about American Jews. I know it’s costing us our readers’ trust, because they’ve told me so. Top management needs to fix this ASAP,” a Post journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Jewish Insider.
They added Jonathan Greenblatt, the Democrat-affiliated CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, called out the Post for not making changes to the article itself.
“Are you kidding me, @washingtonpost? You may have deleted the post, but the thoughtless characterization of Omer Neutra’s parents – who have spent the last 287 days not knowing the fate of their son after he was kidnapped by terrorists on Oct 7 – remains in your article. In what world did anyone find it acceptable to publish in the first place?” he wrote on X.
