Over years of writing about Jewish life I’ve become quite familiar with how the media covers religion generally and the Orthodox Jewish community in particular. I do after all write a column for Mishpacha that’s focused in part on discerning the “text messages” to be found “between the lines of today’s media and commentary.”
But if these years of observing the general and secular Jewish media in action have been the equivalent of my coursework toward an advanced degree in media studies my recent stint as media spokesman for the Citi Field asifah could easily double as my graduate thesis. With just weeks until the event and no formal public relations apparatus in place I felt compelled to volunteer to do whatever I could to ensure that the media would not present a distorted picture of the asifah’s purposes and what would actually take place there. Here then are some class notes from my experiences.
Lesson One: Taking the Media Seriously But Not Too Seriously
There’s a subtle balance to be struck in interacting with the media. On the one hand however dubious one may be about the objectivity of a reporter or news organization it’s important to project a confidence in and make an appeal to the journalistic standards they themselves profess to uphold. Case in point: In a letter-to-the-editor of the New York Times seeking to correct an egregious falsehood in its coverage of the asifah (on which more later) I concluded with the line: “The Times can and must do better.” Do I really believe that paper with its long-standing anti-Orthodox bent is prepared to “do better” by our community? Not necessarily but that’s the tack one must take.
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