WSJ: Like BuzzFeed, the Forward Has Made Some Tough Calls

Seth Lipsky: Founding editor. Image by David Zimbalist

By Daniel J. Solomon January 13, 2017

BuzzFeed has attracted a lot of criticism for its decision to publish an unverified memo about President-elect Donald Trump’s purported ties with Russia and sexual behavior there.

But as Seth Lipsky wrote Friday in The Wall Street Journal, it’s hard to know what the website, as a relatively minor upstart in the journalism world, should have done. Lipsky would know a thing or two about that situation, as the first editor of the English Forward.

He draws on that experience in his op-ed, writing about a time when he struggled over whether to publish a story from reporter David Twersky about the Bush family’s ties to Middle Eastern countries. As Lipsky recounts, some of the sourcing behind the piece was questionable, gossip even. But he ran it because he figured it was the kind of break the Forward needed.

Here’s a list of some other tough calls the Forward has made:

“Richard Joel Scores $1.6M Payout Amid Deep Yeshiva Fiscal Crisis” by Paul Berger.

“In Iowa Meat Plant, Kosher ‘Jungle’ Breeds Fear, Injury, Short Pay” by Nathaniel Popper.

“I’m a Jew, and I’m a Member of the ‘Alt-Right’” by Joshua Seidel.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter, @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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