The Los Angeles Times did a remarkably pathetic job this morning of covering a nasty, racially-charged dust-up between a prominent African-American leader and an influential Jewish philanthropist.
Earlier this week, Daphna Ziman, a major force in wealthy Los Angeles Jewish and entertainment circles, circulated an email alleging that Rev. Eric Lee, head of the Los Angeles branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, had launched an anti-Semitic diatribe during his keynote speech at a King Day event where a major African-American fraternity was honoring several people, including Ziman.
The Times reports that Ziman's email - which has circulated by now to tens of thousands of people - claimed that Lee said "The Jews have made money on us in the music business, and we are the entertainers, and they are economically enslaving us."
The Times story goes on to quote Jewish leaders who are outraged by the allegations in the email. The story mentions that Lee flatly denies making the remarks, and also apologized to Ziman for whatever it is she thinks she heard. That Times also manages to make mention of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Nice.
What the Times fails to mention is critical:
1) According to Ziman, Mayor Antontio Villaraigosa, Councilman Bernard Parks, State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas and other prominent officials were there. Why did the Times leave the allegations as a "she said/he said" matter? Why not interview some of the other attendees?
The Jewish Journal published an online story a few days ago, quoting a few people who say they never heard the comments Ziman talks about. It also mentions that the people corroborating her story are two of her employees and a friend of hers.
2) Ziman is a MAJOR supporter of and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. In interviews following her hysterical email, she has used the controversy to attack Obama, going so far as to hold him partially responsible for tensions between blacks and Jews.
3) This is at the very least Ziman's third email broadside maligning Obama. Last month, Ted Johnson reported on his Wilshire & Washington blog that Ziman had sent out a mass email questioning whether Obama had changed his name, and whether there had been a "naming ceremony." A month prior, she forwarded an email from the Republican Jewish Coalition questioning Obama's support of Israel.
Why didn't the Times report any of this?
