From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Daily Beast to review editorial standards after writer calls Israel ‘genocidal’
Ben Sales is a news editor at The Times of Israel
JTA — The Daily Beast has edited an article to remove the word “genocidal” as a description for Israel’s military.
Criticizing the choice of Mayim Bialik as a host of the game show “Jeopardy!” the article, published last week, said that in 2014, the Jewish actor had “proclaimed her donation toward bulletproof vests for the genocidal Israeli Defense Forces.”
The story drew condemnation from Jews and Jewish organizations on social media, including the American Jewish Committee.
Appearing to respond to the criticism, the article’s author, Tirhakah Love, who recently joined the Daily Beast as an entertainment reporter, tweeted: “the Zionists should really stop emailing me cus girl I do not care.” In a subsequent tweet, Love called Zionism “an articulation of white supremacy.”
The word remained in the story on Monday morning. But later in the day, it had been removed. A subsequent sentence had been 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 says in response to a request for comment from JTA. The website adds: “The Daily Beast is developing an editorial standard for future use of the word.”
The Daily Beast has not responded to a follow-up question about Love’s tweets, which are still up.
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