The Washington Post could not have done a better job of convincing this newspaper, and tens of thousands of its readers, that everything we've asserted editorially about the Post's treacherous, defamatory and lying oft-repeated attempts to assassinate the character of Rep. Jim Moran with fabricated claims of anti-Semitism was 100% true.
Ignoring the sharp rebuke from its own ombudsman the weekend before for its profoundly unfair coverage of Moran to date, the Post went ahead last Thursday to publish yet another groundless and scurrilous attack on the congressman, this time painting the News-Press with the same maleficent brush.
As in the case of the Post's election-eve defamation of Moran based on the hearsay claim of a single Moran enemy, the Post last Thursday used the opinions of two persons unfamiliar with the News-Press to publish a lengthy article characterizing the May 27 News-Press editorial endorsing Moran as anti-Semitic. The charge was based, they said, on their interpretation of a single word in the editorial, the word "cabal." They called the word "coded language" for anti-Semitism. We concede that insofar as that word is seen as "loaded" when used in reference to Jewish people, we regret our use of it. But it was definitely not used with the malicious intent asserted in the Post story. The Post also reported the allegation that the editorial "demonizes...supporters of Israel." In fact, it mentioned backers of "right wing Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's handling of the Middle East crisis," not Israel.
The Post's dedication of so much ink to two cavalier, uninformed and false opinions that the News-Press engaged in willful malice against Jewish people amounts to a specious, defamatory attempt to cause harm to a business competitor. That the allegations were categorically untrue had been conveyed by us prior to their publication not only to the article's author, but to her editor and a senior executive at the Post. We offered to provide names of local Jewish leaders who know us and don't believe the editorial was anti-Semitic. This was ignored.
There were no legitimate grounds for such baseless and defamatory allegations to have made it into print. But the Post went forward despite examining almost nothing about the News-Press and therefore having no ability to judge, in the context of our editorial history, whether any assertion of malicious discriminatory intent actually had merit.
Those who know the News-Press know its passion, almost to the extreme, for opposing discrimination of any kind. Therefore, the multiple tens of thousands of loyal News-Press readers now are provided a first-hand look at the full extent of the Washington Post's ugly and abject editorial depravity on this subject.
Anti-Semitism is a danger to society and we suggest the Post focus on cases of its real manifestations instead of denigrating its importance by using it as a fraudulent pretext for politically-motivated smears.