Topic: NewsBusters
In a Jan. 25 NewsBusters post, Noel Sheppard bizarrely suggests that stating certain facts in a CNN report "appeared to be rather anti-Semitic potentially in an attempt to deflect criticism for Carter himself expressing anti-Semitic views in his controversial book":
On Tuesday night, Carter spoke to students at Brandeis University. CNN’s report on this speech during the 7PM EST installment of Wednesday's “The Situation Room” appeared to be rather anti-Semitic potentially in an attempt to deflect criticism for Carter himself expressing anti-Semitic views in his controversial book (video available here, h/t Hot Air).
Early in her report, correspondent Carol Costello stated: “Standing before a Jewish audience, he at times looked hurt, defiant and charming…Jimmy Carter faced controversy head on at the historically Jewish Brandeis University.”
According to an April 28, 2006, article on this subject by the Jewish publication Forward, only 50 percent of Brandeis students are Jewish. As such, Costello’s statement that Carter was “standing before a Jewish audience” at a “historically Jewish” university is not completely accurate, and some might say anti-Semitic.
In fact, referring to Brandeis as "historically Jewish" is indeed accurate. From the university's website:
Brandeis was founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian university under the sponsorship of the American Jewish community to embody its highest ethical and cultural values and to express its gratitude to the United States through the traditional Jewish commitment to education.
That "50 percent of Brandeis students are Jewish" at present doesn't undercut that description. That's like saying that, for example, Baylor University is not a "historically Baptist" university because less than half of its student body is currently Baptist.
And given that Carter was speaking a "historically Jewish" university to discuss a book that is highly critical of Israel, logic would dictate that the audience would be heavily Jewish. Sheppard offers no evidence to contradict the claim.
Even if you suspend reality and grant Sheppard's assertion that CNN's claims about Brandeis and Carter's audience are "not completely accurate," how are they "anti-Semitic" as Sheppard suggests? We don't know; he doesn't back it up with anything.
