With the demise of the Berkeley Daily Planet, Israel bashers in the East Bay will need to find a new soap box.
As our story on page 3 details, the editor and publisher of the Berkeley Daily Planet announced they would cease publishing a print edition of the newspaper, offering only a weekly online version starting next month.
Editor Becky O’Malley partially attributed her paper’s financial woes to an advertising boycott led by pro-Israel activists. Those activists, outraged by the Daily Planet’s history of inflammatory anti-Israel letters and op-eds, did indeed dissuade some local merchants from advertising in the Daily Planet.
O’Malley has not withdrawn her published charge that “a few misguided zealots who represent themselves as friends of Israel” figured in her paper’s misfortunes, but she told j. she does not blame the entire Berkeley Jewish community for taking down the Planet.
This was a bittersweet victory for the pro-Israel activists. One of their leaders, Jim Sinkinson, said he would have preferred to see the Daily Planet simply cease publishing its constant stream of anti-Israel screed, rather than go under.
Of course, even online, the Planet may continue to publish rambling letters blasting Israel for every perceived sin on Earth.
In recent years we, too, have been appalled by the Planet’s editorial judgment, or lack thereof. In the name of free speech, O’Malley gave unlimited space to any and all Israel bashers. Not only was the paper’s letters to the editor section often littered with rambling anti-Israel harangues, but the Planet sometimes included op-eds penned by blatantly anti-Semitic cranks.
It all begged the question: Why should a small community newspaper become a central meeting ground for anti-Zionists and, yes, anti-Semites, obsessed with Israel rather than the concerns of Berkeley neighborhoods?
It shouldn’t, and thus we understood the anger on the part of the advertising boycott leaders.
However, while we approve of the push back against anti-Israel venom, we do not rejoice in seeing a community newspaper fail. It’s bad for the people of Berkeley, who deserve a thoughtful, informative community paper.
So while we are glad unabashed Israel haters have one less place to vent, we are sorry to see another newspaper disappear from street-side news racks. We hope the example of the Daily Planet shows readers the importance of supporting community papers like this one.