The national media’s response to news that a Jersey City, New Jersey, gunman was connected to the Black Hebrew Israelites has not been as bad as I feared. It has not been great, but it also has not been terrible.
That is about the nicest way I can put it.
As predicted, there have been none of the usual attempts by the press to jumpstart a national conversation about the dangers of radicalization and weaponized rhetoric, a curious and seemingly selective silence. Also, as predicted, one of the newsrooms that provided the Black Hebrew Israelites with friendly coverage in the past has gone totally silent following news last week that the cult is connected to a targeted shooting spree that left three dead inside a Kosher grocery market and another dead elsewhere.
The Washington Post, for example, published a glossy profile in January titled, “Who are the Black Israelites at the center of the viral standoff at the Lincoln Memorial.” The profile came as the whole of the news media was promoting a story alleging falsely that students from Covington Catholic High School had harassed an elderly Native American protester at the Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Post’s January profile is sure to mention the time the fringe group was mentioned by name on a popular rapper’s album. The Washington Post profile even claims the group’s presence in January at the Lincoln Memorial “was, for the group, quite mundane,” adding further that “Israelite street preaching in parts of D.C., Philadelphia and New York is commonplace, a familiar if odd accent to city life.” What the profile does not mention is the group’s history of over-the-top racism and anti-Semitism.
Since the publication of that Washington Post article, the Black Hebrew Israelites have been implicated in a deadly attack that is being investigated now as an act of domestic terrorism. As of this writing, the Washington Post has published only a single, fleeting mention of the group since the Dec. 10 shooting spree. A Dec. 15 report mentions the Black Hebrew Israelite connection, adding further that its members “often preach anti-Semitism.” That’s it. That is the full extent of the Washington Post’s efforts to investigate the fringe group that law enforcement officials say is connected to the Dec. 10 attack. All other references that appear on the Washington Post’s pages have been aggregated from competing newsrooms, including the New York Times and the Associated Press.
The Covington Catholic event deserved an entire original profile from the Washington Post, but not the Jersey City attack?
Uh, OK.
That said, the news coverage of the Black Hebrew Israeli connection to the Jersey City attack has not been all terrible. Despite its disgraceful coverage before the attack, the New York Times has done a decent job since the Jersey City attack of reporting on both the cult’s connection to the Dec. 10 event and its deep anti-Semitic and racist roots.
The Black Hebrew Israelites are “an extremist sect that espouses anti-Semitism,” reads one report. A separate report similarly refers to the cult as an “extremist sect,” adding further that it believes “Jews are impostors and espouses anti-Semitism.” Yet another report is careful to mention that the Black Hebrew Israelites have “been described as a hate group.” Another report calls it a “fringe religious group that has expressed hostility to Jews.” A New York Times editorial is even sure to mention that the Black Hebrew Israelites cult “is hostile to Jews.” Many of the reports are also a bit too insistent on notifying the reader that the cult is not known for acts of violence, but that can be defended easily as the New York Times merely providing relevant context.
Compare that to the friendly profile of the Black Hebrew Israelites when the Times was engaged in the broader effort to smear the Covington Catholic students. Better late than never.
