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1/ Most striking thing about Matt Seaton's pro-censorship view 
is that he argues a "highly partisan" argument and "lazy equivalence" should be barred.
Barred. From the opinion pages. Of the New York Times.
As if he didn't publish the same vs. Israel.
is that he argues a "highly partisan" argument and "lazy equivalence" should be barred. Barred. From the opinion pages. Of the New York Times.
As if he didn't publish the same vs. Israel.
2/ Matt Seaton, while New York Times editor (now he's at @nybooks), published a piece by convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti. He let Barghouti claim he was "arbitrarily" arrested, then defended omitting the nature of his conviction from Op-Ed's biographical description.
3/ He was later overruled by more senior editors, who added a note to the piece saying, "This article explained the writer’s prison sentence but neglected to provide sufficient context by stating the offenses of which he was convicted. They were five counts of murder."
4/ Guess what? The Barghouti Op-Ed was "highly partisan" and full of lazy equivalence and slurs. But Seaton didn't censor that. He facilitated it. Like he facilitated so many extremely partisan anti-Israel pieces while at NYT and the Guardian.
5/ You know what's worse than "lazy equivalence" in an Op-Ed? Writing so lazy that it doesn't get the facts right. That, unlike partisanship, should be off limits. But Seaton often published, and defended, factual errors:
6/ A partisan, lazy Op-Ed in the NYT by Ayman Odeh claimed that Israel has built "no new cities" for Arabs since 1948. That's false. Rahat is newer Arab city. Seaton refused to correct.
7/ The passage wasn't just false. It was the epitome of lazy, disingenuous equivalence: "More than 700 new TOWNS AND CITIES have been built for Jews, while no new CITIES have been built for Arabs." Even if it acknowledged Rahat, it would ignore other new Arab *towns* Israel built
8/ And let's pretend it acknowledged Rahat, Lakiya, Hura, Kuseife, Tel as-Sabi, Ararat an-Naqab, Shaqib al-Salam, etc. It would still be a lazy equivalence. 700 new cities, towns, villages were built for Jews to absorb millions of Jewish immigrants including Holocaust refugees.
Seaton published the claim that Mahmoud Abbas recognizes Israel as a Jewish state and that Israel "conceals" the truth by saying otherwise. False. Abbas has said he'll “never recognize” (2011), “won’t recognize” (2014), “won’t accept” (2015) & “categorically rejects” (2016) that.
10/ Seaton published the claim that the one-state solution "has not been endorsed by a single Palestinian faction." Never mind Hamas. And Islamic Jihad. And the PFLP. He insisted the falsehood is correct.
11/ Seaton published the false claim that Eilat was once an "Egyptian port." He refused to correct, stating in defense of the claim that in 1906 "it came under Egyptian control," a demonstrably false claim from the editor to defend the false claim from his writer.
12/ But this same freewheeler is now essentially arguing in favor of censoring @BretStephensNYT's columns if they discuss the overlap between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Censorship for thee, not for me.
13/ Other journalists who believe criticism of journalists should be off limits: blog.camera.org/archives/2018/…
