The New York Times got a lesson in graphics sensitivity this week, after the paper took fire for a chart that compared congressmen’s opposition to the Iran arms deal to whether or not they were Jewish.
Times Deputy Washington Editor Jonathan Weisman found himself at the center of the controversy on Twitter, after his paper published the chart on its own Twitter page and then edited it without explanation.
The original chart showed a second row next to the names of members of the House and Senate known to oppose the Iran deal, designating some of them as Jews.
The revised version removed that row and instead noted the lawmakers’ states or districts and their estimated Jewish populations.
A New York Times spokesperson gave this statement to the Daily Mail:
‘After a number of readers raised questions, editors took another look and decided that that element of the graphic put too much emphasis on the question of which Democrats opposing the deal were Jewish.
‘The Iran issue was particularly contentious among many Jewish voters.
But singling those lawmakers out in a separate column of the graphic seemed unnecessary, and struck some readers as insensitive.’
The spokesperson said Weisman did not create the chart – another reporter did.
But that didn’t protect Weisman from a stinging backlash on Twitter, where he was singled out for the insensitivity of the graphic by irate readers.
Weisman first tried contriteness late Thursday, taking responsibility for the chart and saying he ‘wanted to examine what was motivating few Dems opposed to the deal. I am not self-hating Jew.’
He grew more exasperated shortly, however, emphasizing that he he himself was Jewish and urging readers to ‘chill out.’
‘It is an informative graphic & I’m stunned by response. Chill out, people. You’ve never used a yellow highlighter?’ Weisman wrote.
Friday’s version of the graphic, on the Times’ homepage, includes a correction about the number of Jewish Democrats in Congress who oppose the Iran deal.
It does not mention the dust-up over the original, controversial chart that referred to lawmakers’ faith.
The House voted 162-269 on Friday against a resolution of approval of the controversial arms agreement with Iran. But the Senate on Thursday voted 58-42 for a margin of disapproval – two votes shy of the margin needed to pass.
That means President Obama likely won’t have to carry out his threat to veto any move by Congress to kill the deal.
However, Senate Republicans aren’t giving up, and are planning on Tuesday to take up the disapproval resolution again.