HuffPost Bannon headline ‘Goy, bye!’ creates backlash
News site criticised for using Yiddish term for non-Jew which is 'poor taste at best, very offensive at worst'
HuffPost chose a questionable headline for its article about White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon leaving his position.
“Goy, bye!” read the homepage of the news site. The unusual choice of words was a combination of the Yiddish word for a non-Jew and a lyric in Beyonce’s “Lemonade” song in which the singer dismisses a lover with “boy, bye.”
That combination struck a bad note with several prominent Jews who called out HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen on Twitter.
The Anti-Defamation League, who fight anti-Semitism, criticised the headline. The national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, said the headline was “poor taste at best, very offensive at worst,” while Julia Ioffe, a reporter at the Atlantic, told Polgreen she wished “you hadn’t gone with this headline.”
Glad you changed the headline.Not sure your intent, but strikes me as poor taste at best, very offensive at worst.
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) August 18, 2017
I love your work, but wish you hadn't gone with this headline.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) August 18, 2017
John Podhoretz, editor-in-chief of Commentary, called the headline “witless, stupid and offensive,” while The Jerusalem Post’s Washington bureau chief, Michael Wilner, asked “What is HuffPost thinking?”
Hey @lpolgreen you do realize that Bannon headline is a) witless, b) stupid and c) offensive, right?
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) August 18, 2017
"'Goy, bye?'" What is @HuffPost thinking?
— Michael Wilner (@mawilner) August 18, 2017
In a series of tweets, Polgreen explained the headline “was intended to be a mashup tribute to Yiddish and Beyonce. Any other interpretation was completely unintended.”
The headline, which has since been changed to “White flight,” likely struck many as particularly distasteful as it seemed to play off of conspiracy theories that Jews control the world.
Last weekend, white supremacists and neo-Nazis gathered at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting racist and anti-Semitic slogans, including “Jews will not replace us.”
Bannon is the former executive chair of Breitbart News, a site often associated with the “alt-right,” which is a loose far-right movement whose followers traffic variously in white nationalism, anti-immigration sentiment, anti-Semitism and a disdain for “political correctness.”
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
