MURDER OF A HASSID: NY Post under fire for story that asked, 'Who DIDN'T Want Him Dead?'
Brooklyn Borough Hall was packed Sunday afternoon for a rally protesting the New York Post's coverage of the murder of a Hassidic real-estate developer from Williamsburg.
The event was hosted by Borough President Eric Adams. Speakers included Adams and several other elected officials — including Public Advocate Tish James and Williamsburg Councilman Stephen Levin — and community leaders.
"No one deserves to be kidnapped, no one deserves to be murdered, no one deserves to be put in a Dumpster," Adams said. "Our hearts go out to those eight children who now have no father."
Just before the rally, the Website Vos Iz Neias published this open letter to the New York Post —
Dear Editors,
Today was a tragic day. It was tragic because the multitudes of your readership, the citizenry of New York City, the workers, the apartment dwellers, were exposed to a despicable and vile evil. This evil was found on the front cover of your Sunday edition.
Your newspaper, of all papers, should realize that words do matter. And headlines matter most of all. Because headlines influence how people not only view a narrative, but how people see the world and how they respond to the day to day interactions of life. When headlines justify the taking of human life, a dark and shameful line has been crossed.
Your headline this Sunday entitled, “Slumlord found Burned in Dumpster - Who Didn’t Want Him Dead?” is outrageous precisely because it calls for open warfare on landlords.
Whether the accusations of Menachem Stark’s land-lording methods are true or not is not the issue. Nor is the issue that you have arrogated for yourselves the role of judge, jury, and executioner in how you have covered and headlined this horrific tragedy.
You have justified murder in the eyes of your readership.
