Mainstream Media Bias is Alive and Well

Cybersecurity Chief, Anne Neuberger (NBC)

When Anne Neuberger was chosen for a high position in the Biden administration, I had expressed pride in the fact that an observant Jewish woman from a Chasidic background was chosen for the job. I still feel that way despite the negative implications about her by the mainstream media. 

In yet another demonstration of mainstream media bias, NBC News ran a story essentially accusing Mrs. Neuberger of dual loyalty.  JNS reports the following: 

Mother Jones and NBC News have faced backlash over publishing articles on Wednesday about a top National Security Council official and her family foundation donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

The stories about Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, were first written by David Corn of Mother Jones, and subsequently, by Ken Dilanian of NBC News. 

OK. Mother Jones is about as leftist a media source as one can get. So it is no surprise that they have tried to smear a supporter of Israel with a dual loyalty implication. But NBC? Any claim to unbiased balanced reporting by the mainstream media has yet again been exposed for the lie that it is. 

The Biden administration has slammed such criticism saying the following: 

‘no justification for false and ad hominem attacks based on ethnic, racial, or religious identity,’ after articles targeting Anne Neuberger and Maher Bitar. 

Maher Bitar is of Palestinian heritage. If that is the sole reason he has been criticized that is just as disgusting. My guess is that the criticism of Bitar did not come from the mainstream media. But in the case of Anne Neuberger it did. NBC News is a widely respected mainstream media outlet. When they say something, a lot of people listen.  

It cannot possibly be the case that government officials are not allowed to support causes dear to their heart - as long as it does not support America’s enemies, affect their character, or their work. When that support is for an ally, that should be doubly obvious. Has any public official ever been accused of dual loyalty for donating money to an organization that supports Canada? I doubt it. But when it comes to an Israel the dual loyalty canard is almost always eventually raised somewhere in the mainstream media. This time it was NBC. 

For their part NBC admitted their error, apologized, and transferred that article to their archives with a hyperlink to it in their apology.  Not sure how linking to an article they admitted was tainted constitutes any kind of meaningful apology.  But let us even say it does. That they published it in the first place proves their initial bias. They thought an implicit accusation of dual loyalty by a leftist publication was a legitimate story. 

I am not all that surprised by this. To the mainstream media, supporting Israel is almost unethical. While supporting the Palestinian narrative is not only ethical but virtuous. The truth be damned. The leftist view of reality is that the Palestinian underdog is always right. The left loves to focus on their suffering (which is legitimate) and blame it on the Israeli occupation (which is not legitimate). 

They never even hint at the fact that it is the Palestinian leadership that is at the heart of their suffering. Things like making heroes of terrorist martyrs is a false narrative that nonetheless fosters pride in Palestinians  who see terrorism as a legitimate form of resistance. So that supporting a martyred terrorst’s family with American money is seen as a just use for the money. Even though the US never intended it for that purpose. Obviously. (The Taylor Force Act passed by Congress should prevent that from ever happening again.) 

What about their legitimate suffering? What would surely take them out of their misery and poverty is acceptance of the generous offer by the US to  plow money into their economy. If they would just drop  demands that are impossible for Israel to accept, I believe they could make peace and end their suffering pretty quickly. 

But, no. Their leaders prefer to continue clinging to those impossible demands and back them up with terrorist violence. Israel needs to defend itself from that. Which is one of the reasons Palestinians suffer. The media only looks at their suffering and sees Israel as the cause. Which is why someone supporting Israel is seen by the media with a jaundiced eye.

Thankfully, Biden will have none of that. It’s just too bad the mainstream media won’t follow suit.

A Role Model of Orthodox Feminism

NSA Chief Risk Officer, Anne (Chani) Neuberger

Anne Neuberger is my kind of feminist.  She is the kind of achiever that - given the opportunity - any woman could achieve. I don’t necessarily mean in her particular job. But in a field for which they are naturally talented.  I am a firm believer in the kind of feminism that equalizes the workplace and gives equal opportunities to both men and woman; and equal pay for equal work.

Tom Gjeten of NPR, that bastion of liberalism that everyone loves to criticize as being antisemitic – or at least anti Israel wrote a wonderful article about Mrs. Neuberger.  She is at the top of her profession as the Chief Risk Officer at the National Security Agency (NSA) and is described as a rising star in one of the most unlikely places you will find an observant Jew… let alone an observant Jewish woman.

In my version of feminism there should be no limit to what any individual can achieve, man or woman. It is all about what an individual is capable of. Not what sex they are.  

Anne (Chani) Neuberger is an Orthodox Jewish woman that was raised in a Charedi environment. One that generally eschews the kind of job she has.  Women are expected to be first a wife and mother. 

"The Orthodox Jewish community tends to be more conservative about gender roles," she notes. "For my parents, the thought that a young girl would go alone to a college environment was something frightening.

But that has all changed for a variety of reasons. Charedi women are now expected to support their husbands in Kollel. At least during the early years of their marriage. Schools like Lander College - a division of Touro University that offers a women’s only division - made such an education more palatable for them. She took advantage of it. After she got married she attended graduate school. Eventually becoming a White House Fellow having been motivated to do so after 9/11. She wanted to serve the country that gave her Holocaust Surviving grandparents and parents a refuge

Her success story does not stop there. From NPR: 

Her understanding of that reality led her to start a charity called Sister to Sister. It operates in 30 Orthodox Jewish communities around the country and in Canada, serving single Jewish mothers who may not be prepared to support a family on their own. 

What an accomplished individual this woman is. And at the relatively young age of 39 no less. My hat is really off to her. Although I doubt that she refer to herself that way, I think she is a role model for Orhtodox feminism. She has achieved equality in the secular world and as a Charedi woman understands that feminism does not generally apply in the world of religious ritual. That different role models for men and women do not detract from tremendous achievement in a world where women are still not fully equal to men. And yet does not feel diminished by her role as a woman in Judaism. As noted in the article: 

Her professional achievements have come not in spite of her faith. They've come because of it… "I try to lead an examined life," she says. 

She is introspective about her motives and wants to make sure she is doing the right thing… that her motives are not simply a reflection of personal desire. In other words she thinks about how to serve God best and not how to make Judaism more meaningful to her.

Mrs. Neuberger is a bit of a rebel – holding values that have fallen out of favor in recent times. Values that I hold dear. Like “the notion that people with talents should make the most of them”. And not fall into the cookie cutter mold of doing what everybody else does. A pattern  that is so prevalent in the Charedi world today. 

Her adherence to this principle made Neuberger determined to further her education, even if it meant challenging tradition. 

Mrs. Neuberger knew what to challenge and what to accept. If only the rest of the Orthodox world understood that. Both on the right and on the left. We would then all be living in a far better world.

Jews in the News

Anne Neuberger, head of NSA Cybersecurity Directorate (Jewish Press)

There is some good news to share about our people in this country. For a change.

First I want to offer my congratulations to Anne (Chani) Neuberger, a Charedi woman from Boro Park who - as reported in the Jewish Press - has just been appointed head of the new Cybersecurity Directorate being created at the U.S. National Security Agency.

Mrs. Neuberger attended Beis Yaakov of Boro Park for high school, Touro for her undergraduate degree, and then went on to receive her Masters from Columbia University. She has since been a guest lecturer at Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford. That is quite an accomplishment for anyone. Let alone for someone from a community that places so little value on a secular education (at least for men).

Mrs. Neuberger joins Judge Ruchie Freier as yet another successful Charedi woman that - by being who she is - has made yet another Kiddush HaShem.

But that is not the only good news. Read on.

I think it is safe to say that President Trump is seen by AT LEAST half of America as the worst thing to happen to this country since the Civil War. And yet the vast majority of Orthodox Jews, the most visibly Jewish segment of American Jewry enthusiastically supports the President.  

One might conclude that this has hurt our image with the American people.  Especially since the President surrounds himself with so many Jews – some of them Orthodox. Guilt by association.  I think there are a lot of Jews that are therefore dismayed by that support. They might even see Orthodox Jews being at least  indirectly contributing to the very real rise in antisemitism. 

Then there is the fact that so many identifiable Jews have been indicted for and/or convicted of a variety of crimes (whether financial  or sexual). Just to name a few of the more prominent Jewish names: Madoff, Abramoff, Cohen, Weinstein, Moonves and most recently, Epstein.

The fact that sympathetic media coverage of the plight of the Palestinians (especially in Gaza) suggesting that it’s all Israel’s fault should add fuel to the fire.

But the conclusion that all this has tarnished our image with the American people is just plain wrong. 

As I have said many times, the American people are - as a whole - a truly great people. Fair minded, kind, and compassionate. Americans do not see our differing beliefs in any kind of disparaging way. If a Jew has done something wrong which has been made public, Americans do NOT paint us all with a broad brush. They just see one individual who is a scoundrel. That he happened to be Jewish is irrelevant. That view is corroborated by the latest poll taken by the prestigious and highly regarded Pew Research Center. From the World Jewish Daily: 

In the U.S., no major religious group is viewed more warmly by the overall public than Jews. When asked to rate a variety of groups on a “feeling thermometer” ranging from 0 (coldest and most negative) to 100 (warmest and most positive), Americans give Jews an average rating of 63 degrees, and four-in-ten people rate Jews in the warmest portion of the scale (at 67 degrees or higher). 

And yet there are those that insist antisemitism lurks behind every corner. The ADL (Anti Defamation League) is quick to remind us that antisemitism is on the rise. However, they do us a disservice by not mentioning that the rise is not indicative of a change in how Americans really feel about is. By not doing that, the implication is that there has been a decrease in the positive way in which the Jewish people are viewed here. Which also implies that there is a renewed or reawakened antisemitism in this country that is becoming endemic.

The truth is nothing like that. The reason for the increased antisemitism is as follows. The antisemites that do exist (have always existed; and will probably continue to exist) have become more emboldened to act on it in deadly ways.  Why that is the case, is beyond the scope of this post.

That being said, it would be foolish to ignore the rise in antisemitism. We should certainly be aware of it; keep our eyes peeled for it; and implement whatever protections and preventative measures we can.  But at the same time it should be made abundantly clear that the vast majority of our fellow non Jewish American citizens do not in any way harbor any antisemitic feelings. The opposite is true. The correct way to see how Americans from across the entire political spectrum feel about us is to see how they reacted to the deadly events in Pittsburgh and Poway.  

Despite that, there are still a lot of Jews that actually believe that deep down Americans are antisemitic. Especially if they are religious. They will cite the famous Rashi which says ‘Eisav Sonei L’Yaakov’. Which has been interpreted to mean that the ‘Goyim’ hate us. Always have and always will. And that not much is needed for it to come out in full force – the way it did in Europe in the late 30s. Beginning in Germany where - having been fully assimilated into German culture - many Jews believed they were living in a Jewish paradise. Until they didn’t. I can’t even count the number of times I have heard in the past few years that we are living 1939 all over again.  

That comparison is false. That Pew has found that we are still so highly admired in spite of all the above-mentioned negatives gives lie to that belief. I think we ought to recognize that America is truly different. I know that sounds cliché. But I believe it and Pew continues to corroborate it. God bless the United States of America.