Toronto Star, CJC in homophobic gay panic

Insanity.  It just doesn't take much to see this tempest for exactly what it is.  Why was it beyond the capacity of English and Cruikshank? 

Related thread

Have written a letter of objection to the Star, at the link contained in the linked article above.

The Star and Farber are so ridiculous on this that everyone can see it. Even right-wingers like Mark Steyn.

Queer Tee for the Straight Jew [6]

Holy crap, Mark Steyn wrote something I agree with.  And it's funny too!

How about for next year's Pride fest Bernie simply wears a rainbow t-shirt that says "Nobody Knows I'm Stupid"?

I agree with Mark Steyn too. I have to go lie down now....

I'm rooting for a "Nobody knows I'm a self-hating Palestinian" T-shirt, worn at a Zionist meeting - these folks don't have to march, they give marching orders to the likes of Iggy.

Canadian Dimension: Bernie Farber is not gay; he is just in an open relationship with the truth

Hahaha!

On Canadian media, the CJC and defending the Zerb

There is nothing more heartwarming than when a prejudice is overcome with an even deeper prejudice.

I think it's hilarious.  He wears a shirt that says, "Nobody knows I'm gay" and then freaks out because someone jokes that they didn't know he was gay.  Uh, dude, if you didn't want people to joke about what your sexual orientation is, then maybe you shouldn't joke about it yourself!

What's sad, though, is that an excellent opinion columnist like Antonia gets trashed for it by her own editor.  That really sucks.  Way to stand by your writers, Toronto Star!

Way to go, Bernie! You've managed to alienate the left and the right with a single stupid action! Mazel tov!!

Okay, now a contest: T-shirt captions that Bernie should have worn.

I'll start.

"I'm not gay but my wife is"

"Am I FABULOUS or is it just me?"

"Straight but not narrow"

"You say I'm straight like it's a bad thing"

"I like straight people as long as they act gay in public"

(Oh wait, it's that kind of behaviour that got him into this mess.)

Is Bernie going to Caribana?

What not to wear: "Nobody knows I'm Black"

hahahaha

Another T-shirt suggestion for Farber: "I got Zionist settlers 1,000 square miles of Palestinian land, and all I got back was this lousy T-shirt!"

Not as funny as you think. I have known a number of white Jewish Zionists who claim that because they are Jewish they are "essentially" black and no one knows it. Someone said this to me as recently as a month ago. This was in the context of people of colour not properly seeing their kinship with white Jewish people, and "wrongly" perceiving them to be part of the dominant white society, instead of an opressed minority. I would not be at all suprised if Farber's thinking moved along these lines in his most recent intellectual embarassment, he has often voiced the kinship he feels with the black "civil rights" movement along these lines in the past, and equating "blackness" and "Jewishness" in this manner is thematic in some Zionist tropes.

Not unlike the men who try to shoehorn themselves into women's resources, e.g. batterers who claim to be "men in distress" and therefore entitled to crash women's DV shelters, get half of any funds alloted to women, derail realistic public service announcements, etc. Guilting political minorities and scuttling their resources seems to be becoming the flavour of the year.

Where's Winnifred?

It doesn't look like Toronto Star public editor Kathy English or publisher John Cruickshank have many friends in the blogosphere.

Bastard Logic:

Canadian Cynic [25]:

The Galloping Beaver [26]:

POGGE [27]:

Unrepentant Old Hippie [28]:

Dawg's Blog [29]:

A Creative Revolution [30]:

Mirabile Dictu [31]:

Stageleft [32]:

We Move to Canada [36]:

Blamblog [37]:

YayaCanada [39]:

Canadian Dimension [41]:

Creekside [42]:

Feminist Christian Socialist [44]:

Thanks for putting this all together spatrioter. Here's some US coverage:  http://nlgjareact.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/oh-canada/

Something's wrong with post #11.

I have no opinion on whether the Star should have written their editorial but I do wonder about the fuss made regarding the "Nobody Knows I'm gay" t-shirt. These t-shyirts have been around for a number of years. I first saw them in San Fransisco where a group of straight men and women wore them in the Pride parade. Google has loads of explanations on the shirt traditionally worn at Pride parades by straight people as a sign of solidarity with gays and lesbians. Its a political message not a sexual one.

Zerbisias made an ironic crack about it, and your buddy Farber freaks out, raises it at a CJC executive committee meeting, and launches a crusade against her. The root of the whole thing, of course, is Farber's terror that Israeli apartheid is being exposed in one more venue - the Pride parade. So you should tell the thug-like humourless champions of Israel at the CJC (your friends) not to make such a "fuss", because no one else did. The current fuss is in response to Farber donning, not a T-shirt, but his favourite duds: the robes of Torquemada.

Xtra:

T-shirt for Bernie

"Zionist Orientation"

If i was a person who believed in conspiracies i would say that the star and antonia collaborated on this very blog post and "retraction"  look at how much time is being spent talking about the star.

You see the star has accomplished 2 very important things. 1 the blog post in question -- and remember it was a post in a blog catered to the anti-cjc crowd.

the retraction catered to the pro-cjc crowd

why do that unless you want to keep the story alive.

The star is one of the few papers that never apologizes for anything. they like to try to piss everyone off at all times.

So I am just asking what the alterior motive could be...

The Star always bends over backwards to avoid pissing off the Zionists. They do it again this time and you wonder what their motive is? Get a grip.

If i was a person who believed in conspiracies i would say that the star and antonia collaborated on this very blog post and "retraction"

I am a person who believes in conspiracies and one of the worst is that whenever a woman is badly mistreated, someone manages to blame her for it, to suggest that it's a ruse and that she has a vested interest in the matter...

Zerbisias' mistreatment by The Star is in itself more than a little, er, "suspicious".  She's a feminist, a high number of her columns and blogs address feminist issues and pull not a single punch and, of course, she's a woman.  It's not often that such a journalist attracts this kind of high level attention and warrants the publication of a full column because of a brief comment she made in the comments section of a blog on a post written five days earlier.  So the conspiracy is ... ?

martin when in my post did i ever compare this to any sort of abuse? spousel abuse and violence against women is not anything to be laughed at at all.

and M Spector it is funny to hear that the star bends over backwards to zionists because it is the very zionists that for years have called for a boycott of what they percieve to be the anti-israel star.

Zionists don't like shades of grey. Some of them even purport to consider Obama as anti-Israel. Attack everyone, and you keep them in line. Think Torquemada.

Unionist you may be correct. then again as far as obama is concerned many never bought into the hype and just never thought that he was or is the saviour that he was made out to be.

time will tell -- but it will be interesting to look back in 4 years as to what  obama has accomplished and to see if he is pro anything and anti anything.

so far imho he is just a bush lite. and usofa did not want bush lite they wanted a new vision and a new beginning.

• JohnPaulJones, until you said the words "spousal abuse and violence against women", no one did.

In case you do not realize it, work places abuse and exploit women more than men. As does society at large.

In respect to pressure upon the Star by Zionists, I guess the slap lawsuits in BC have been pretty effective eh?!

Remind, the Star isn't afraid of the Israel lobby. They just share common interests with them.

So, apparently, in response to her epic fail in attacking Antonia Zerbisias and journalistic freedom, Kathy English, in her next column, is going to take the pious tack of talking about why there is so much snark out there?

If they implement a "no snark" policy, does that mean we'll be rid of Rosie di Manno? Jen Gerson makes this and other points [63] in her reply to Kathy English.

Toronto Star public editor Kathy English says Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber deceived her in making complaint about columnist Antonia Zerbisias:

Thanks, spatrioter. It is somewhat unsettling that even after understanding Farber's manipulative attempt to discredit Zerbisias, Ms. English still lacks the decency to apologize to Zerbisias. Hopefully Farber, however, is on the road to being treated as the pariah that he is by news organizations that don't want to be publicly humiliated - even ones like the Star.

Wow, the hypocrisy in English"s article is astounding.

The Star's "journalistic standards" are a bunch of propaganda  nonsense.

And she continued to  bash Zerbisias the whole way through, even though she was the one in the wrong.

I commented. I hope you will, folks.

Zerbisias also didn't tell English about the T-Shirt. Did she deceive the public editor as well? Ms. English doesn't come close to accusing Farber of deception. You do and in my books that's pretty close to libel.

One more thing, I noticed everyone seemed to miss this letter to the editor from the director of the Jewish LGBTQ group that sold the T-shirt.

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/668141 [69]

It puts things in proper perspective.

Look, let's get one thing straight. I accuse Farber of being a sycophant of Israel and of Stephen Harper, and an enemy of the finest traditions of the Jewish people.

Please look it up in "your books" and tell me what that's "pretty close" to.

The deception took place when Farber pretended to be offended that Zerbisias had supposedly outed him, when he knew she was referencing a t-shirt he had worn.

Zerbisias is not the one who asked English to write a public editorial, so your suggestion that she deceived English is weak.

English should have researched the whole damn incident before she reacted and wrote a public commentary against a  Star employee, who is also a well respected national journalist, that would be forever on public record. You just don't attack employees that way, and you just don't react to some low level NPO cultural organization CEO,  and trash one of your finest journalists who is respected  nationally and around the world.

If there were libel suit threats to be thrown around, Antonia is the one who has the biggest reason to.

GW: I noticed everyone seemed to miss this letter to the editor from the director of the Jewish LGBTQ group that sold the T-shirt.

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/668141

In this letter, Justine Apple claims that Farber "outed himself" on that day...

Hmmm... smells just a little a bit fishy to me, esp. given Farber's faux-outraged response to the article.

Everyone who has evenr gone Yessss!!! reading a Zerbisias column should write in and protest her shoddy treatment at the hands of the Star.

I wrote a lengthy letter to The Star about this when it all first started and I have not heard a word back from them,  and I wrote another today to them, after English's comments today, and then I went and voted up all the comments supporting Zerbisias in the 2nd English attack today.

Frankly, no employee should have to put up with such attacks by their employer.

Absolutely. I am encouraged by the fact that Zerbisias is being vindicated and The Star system being voted down by a tremendous majority of commenters.

How in hell did anyone know that Zerbisias was referencing a T-shirt he wore when Zerbisias never mentioned the damn T-shirt? Re-read her column, not once does she refernce a T-shirt.

And where do you get the idea that Farber asked English to write a column.  I've checked and I see no suggestion from either English or Farber that he "asked" for an article.

Its this typical kind of sleazy innuendo that destroys credibility here.

Desperate. Wow. Farber's fabrication fell flat, and his friends fly into a frenzy. Zerbisias was much too kind, choosing to ridicule Farber. He deserves condemnation. But it seems the ridicule really drew some blood. Brava, Antonia!

ETA: And if you're not too opposed to Facebook, join Antonia's fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Antonia-Zerbisias/122270167385

Gus, anyone who knew he was wearing the T shirt, and that's pretty much everyone who knew anything about the whole back story, knew what Zerbisias was talking about.  That Farber didn't know what she was talking about is simply not credible, but he is ever the opportunist.  Your attempts to manufacture outrage are as lame as they are transparent. 

It was on her blog, and not a column in the paper itself, and blogs are much more 'inside baseball'.  Farber is doing here what he does best, and you Gus, are clearly an apt student.

spatrioter wrote: "Zerbisias is not the one who asked English to write a public editorial, so your suggestion that she deceived English is weak.

Good point.

Gus Williams: "...where do you get the idea that Farber asked English to write a column."

Pretty cheap shot, Mr. "Williams"!... spatrioter's sentence in no way asserts that Farber did. It merely says that English is fully responsible for writing that smear.

Good point martin, and Mr William's statement is the typical kind of sleazy innuendo that is destroying CJC's credibility.

This is simply gratuitous. The facts are pretty clear even on her blog. Please show me where Zerbisias HERSELF mentions this T-shirt, (worn by dozens that is well explained in the Kulanu letter). It only comes up much later afetr in a response to her blog post. In other words Zerbisias NEVER knew about the T-shirt when she made her comment. In the end I think no one here has taken Justine Apple"s position seriously when she wrote:

"Both LGBTQ - lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer - and straight allies purchased these T-shirts and wore them during the parade. The more serious point of these campy T-shirts is to recognize the closeted experience that many LGBTQ people are forced to endure, and to demonstrate solidarity in the belief that all people should be respected regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, because any of us could be LGBTQ.

It would therefore be wrong to assume the sexual orientation or gender identity of anyone wearing the T-shirts or marching with Kulanu Toronto at Pride, or being at Pride generally"

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/66814

1

A distressing feature of unregenerate champions of Israel and its apartheid war criminal regime is their lack of any sense of irony and humour. When you have lost all righteousness in the eyes of the Almighty, only self-righteousness remains.

Unionist. Unionist. I am in awe.

Unionist wrote: "When you have lost all righteousness in the eyes of the Almighty, only self-righteousness remains."

Okay, I know that you didn't think that one up yourself! Where did you get it from? I'm asking because I'd really like to use that quote at some point.

I actually did make it up, really. I think I had a momentary religious experience. Don't worry, it has passed.

Cool, writer! I'm fresh out of awe myself.

Unionist, that's a T shirt I'd wear! 

Nobody knows I'm religious.

Farber 'asked' for the article by filing a complaint with the Star. It is the public editor who deals with these complaints.  Farber's complaint that he was "outed" was completely disingenuous since he knew, full well, that he was wearing a t-shirt saying "Nobody knows I'm gay". The complaint that it is unfair to identify people participating in the parade was also dishonest as Farber promoted his participation on Twitter, posting a picture of himself in the Parade [90] wearing the "Nobody knows I'm gay" t-shirt, and is especially a bizarre comment for Farber to make when the CJC linked Canadian Jewish News named Farber and other CJC participants at the parade [91]. Farber is sucking and blowing at the same time and his comment that "I have received numerous concerns from Jewish gays and lesbians who wonder why Ms. Zerbisias would identify people attending the parade in any fashion" cannot be taken seriously in light of his and the CJN's promotion of his Parade participation. His "complaint" is no more than an attempt to blow more smoke in the Star's face in an attempt to skewer Zerbisias.

Clearly Farber was simply lashing out at Zerbisias, a critic of right wing Zionism, and grasping at any straw he could. And his accusation that Zerbisias "would simply make up information of any sort and post it publicly" is contemptable and mendacious, so much so that even English had to address it in her followup column.

All in all, the CJC has harmed their credibility with the editors of the Star through their dishonest, half-truth laden complaint - a complaint that was a now obvious attempt to play the Star and smear one of their critics.

I find it strange that Kulanu, the Jewish LGBT group Farber marched with, evidently had absolutely nothing to say to protest Reuven Bulka's co-presidency of the CJC. Bulka is a noted homophobe who has also served as "spiritual advisor" to right wing anti-gay radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger and has himself been on the "Scientific (sic) Advisory Committee" of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, a psuedoscientific outfit devoted to "curing" gays of their homosexuality.

One would think a Jewish LGBT group that was actually concerned about LGBT rights would have condemned the CJC for having such a person in their leadership. Where was Farber, the noted human rights activist who wants everyone to know how gay-positive he is when his boss at the CJC was a homophobe? If Farber truly believed in gay rights, rather than simply exploiting the Pride Parade when it suited a political purpose, he would have spoken out against Bulka's anti-gay work. And had Kulanu been serious about gay rights, rather than simply being the gay-positive face of the CJC/UJA, they would have demanded Bulka's resignation years ago.

Very good observation, aka M.

Apparently, their formula goes like this:

Not the formulas you'd expect from an organization claiming to support LGBT rights.

Quote of the day:

If Unionist will allow it to be used, that's a babble T-shirt I'd buy.

Rabble: Toronto Star botches apology to columnist

You mean the "self-righteousness" epigram? Sure, I hereby declare it to be public domain, no attribution required. Just don't use Bubbles Bulka - I'm still working out a copyright on that one.

Ok, I'm reviving this thread, only because I had a religious experience in this post.

Thanks for this Unionist. I believe you will see that my comments in the last thread are correct.

My oh my do I remember this fiasco. I read Prophit's post in the other thread and then through this thread and Google refreshed my memory.

I recall the Jewish congress people marching at pride. Many of them and many others were wearing the tshirt. In Antonia's  original statement on someone's thread she made no mention of these tshirts, that is a fact for sure. I think the tshirt became a red herring and a mantra to attack CJC's credibility. One thing though is beyond dispute, Farber wore the tshirt and Antonia when she made her comment about Farber being gay had no knowledge that he was wearing it.

Other than that this whole thing was just stupid.

In my memory of the exchange on Antonia's blog, she was being polite to pass in silence over individual personalities. It was only when a hostile commenter goaded her that she came back with her snark about the T-shirt.

Bloggers get to do that on their own blogs, y'know. It's one of our internet tradishuns.

Cookie, I thought what was obvious was Farber's cynicism in pretending Z's comment was anything less than sarcastic and further claiming offence at being "outed" when he had tweeted about being at the march at the time and even posted a picture of himself - wearing a t-shirt saying "nobody knows I'm gay". How could Farber seriously complain about being "outed" when he outed himself first?

I doubt that Farber thought in terms of "outing" himself. And while I understand your own cynicism here, people in the LGBT community I know who know Farber have told me that he has been gay-positive for years. So my guess is that this was in the end a stupid war of attrition beween Zerb and Farber.

Exactly, which is why he shouldn't have thought of Z's comment as "outing" him either, and I don't think he did - I think either he or his bosses at the CJC saw an opportunity to go after Z with a trumped up charge and took it only to have it blow up in their faces.

I see that this sorry thread has been resurrected and that the same shibolets are continuing to be perpetrated.

Prophit did get it right and what akaMycroft is doing here is trying to confuse. The original allegation was that Zerbisias KNEW about the tee-shirt in question. She did not.whoever said the tee-shirt was the issue was trying to obfuscate.

And honestly who cares if farber is gay-positive. He has the right to his sexual orientation be it straight or gay. Its his business and Zerbisias should have never used this to make a point, no matter if she was being funny or whatever.

This thread and the one about the banned children's book should be preserved as evidence in some sort of sociological case study of the CJC in action. It is truly mesmerizing.

If I've learned anything from these two threads, it's that Antonia Zerbisias is a self-serving, lying anti-semite who has no idea what Bernie Farber is wearing at any time.

Such interesting paranoia. I suppose its beyond some that there are those who actually support CJC in its human rights work who are also bloggers. They may be from all sides of the political spectrum and enjoy the "to and fro" of boards such as these. I doubt you are special.

Boring!!!!

Anyone accusing her of anything else is talking through their hobby horse's hat.

Catchfire's post at #80 has received a few complaints. I think he was being sarcastic. Catchfire, can you please elucidate?

I read it. What exactly is the problem? Seems like a reasonable conclusion given all the evidence.

lol. I can't speak for Catchfire, but I suspect he was channelling Antonia there. Long live snark!

Unfortunately, I don't think that Jaku is being sarcastic.

Snark? maybe...but many a truth is "snarked" in jest

Oh hi there. I'm cyberfriends with Antonia, and she is one of the few strong, courageous, feminist voices the mainstream media has allowed to speak (albeit relegated to the "Life" section of the Toronto Star). I was referring to the caricaturish opinions of Jaku, Gus, cookie et al. (and ad nauseum) , who all seem to know (and care--I mean really, really care) that Antonia did not know what shirt Bernie Farber was wearing one year ago. Some would say (i.e. me) that such a useless bit of information is irrelevant to Antonia's joke, Bernie Farber's overblown reaction, and the craven, cowardly and uninformed reswponse of her editors at the Star. Some would say (i.e. me) that such a concerted effort en masse by a group of allegedly unconnected people to "expose" such a superfluous bit of information is suspicious, since the effort to reveal such a silly, extraneous detail would not, in some's opinion (i.e. mine), normally come to mind except by some sort of extracurricular mental gymnastics. Some would say (i.e, me),  that such baffling collective heroics appear to represent some sort of collective strategic action to divert attention from the despicable actions of everyone involved in this hilarious scandal, save Antonia, whom I love and admire with all my heart.

I tried to say that without snark. Maybe there's some residual snark, but more or less that's how I feel. I hope that clarifies.

ETA: I should add that I only find it "suspicious" insofar as I find it suspicious that NDP apologists seem to respond with the same refrain when any of their members find themselves in hot water.

Well thank you Catchfire for your more fulsome explanation. And I mean the correct definition of fulsome http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fulsome

I undersdtand given your self-confessed admiration for Zerbisias (does she still write her column for the Star? I haven't seen it lately) that you will do whatever it takes to defend her. I actually admire you for that. I mean you will go as far as attacking other peoples positions claiming their worthlessness to defend your friend. Good for you.

And I know that the t-shirt issue is that bit of food that gets stuck between your teeth. Its bothersome isn't it? So you must do all you can to minimize it, even remove it. I get it.

Fact is though that if you read the earlier threads, you will notice how much emphasis was put on the t-shirt. You will see that even the Star wrote an entire piece on it suggesting its importance when in fact it played no role at all.

If you wish to continue harping go ahead. I will continue to respond appropriately. Have a wonderful Easter Sunday.

The most dangerous thing - bar none - about the fraudulent defenders of the Jewish people, like Bernie Farber and his fan club, is their utter lack of a sense of humour. Humour, of course, is dangerous and subsersive to those who hold power, besides being a necessary coping mechanism for the oppressed. That's why it always served the majority of the Jewish people well throughout history - and terrified the crap out of the elite few.

What sticks between my teeth is that there appears to be something like a campaign to threaten Antonia's job. Of course I can't prove that -- that's the way back-channel talk and influence work, so that we can never pin anything down. Her editors' first seriously flubbed public scolding of Antonia made them laughing-stocks about the blogosphere because Kathy English so clearly did not get blog culture. English followed up a week later with an only half-bad semi-apology to Antonia, but the very fact that one comment -- a comment, not even a post -- on a blog had brought the heavy management artillery down on Antonia's head made a lot of people start to wonder wtf was going on.

As Catchfire says, the T-shirt was for Antonia a passing excuse to bat back an offensive comment on her blog; the hostile response to it in public was clearly opportunistic and risibly operatic. The fear is that it was much worse in the background.

Many of us do live with that fear. We know we are in danger of being criminalized. What will happen to us when the attack on Iran begins and we go out into the streets to protest? McCarthyism is trying its best to be born in this country, and Antonia is one of the canaries in the mine.

Ever since Antonia's brave comments on the MSM just prior to the 2004 election, I've considered her among the best, and I said so at that time:

"The media are central players in this act of reductionism.

As much-respected Toronto Star columnist Carol Goar has worried, the media "remind voters incessantly that they're grumpy and cynical," whereas they really "need to hear, in enough detail to make informed choices, what the parties stand for and where they differ."

Another, more trenchant opinion by Antonia Zerbisias in the Star calls it a media that "distracts with trivia, just to better the bottom line". "

She has always demonstrated the meaning of freedom and truth in that freedom.