[guest post by JVW]

What may well be the most watched news program in America’s third-largest city ran a segment celebrating Yom Kippur earlier today with this unfortunate choice of a stock photo:

If you are wondering where you have seen that symbol before, this might provide a refresher:

Next time you hear how hard our media strives for accuracy and full context, keep in mind that this happened probably because some ignorant young production assistant pulled this out of some image bank and had no idea what it meant. To be fair to him or her, it probably wasn’t covered at all in college, what with the important journalistic focus on multicultural perspectives and comforting the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable.

H/T Powerline.

UPDATE: I know that some of you think this was intentional. I do not. Here’s how I see this whole thing coming about:

Brittney, the 23-year-old production assistant: “Like, we need a graphic for the segment on the Jewish day, Yummy Caper or whatever.”
Devon, the 24-year-old production assistant: “OK. What are you thinking?”
Brittney: “Like, I’m thinking we should have that, like, star made from two of those triangle things, but I’m having trouble finding them ’cause I can’t remember what it is called.”
Devon: “Just Google on ‘Jewish star.'”
Brittney: “OK, I did that and, like, here’s what I got.”
Devon: “The ones that are yellow are really cool, especially with ‘Jude’ in them. Jude is my girlfriend’s older brother’s name.”
Brittney: “Yeah, I like that one too, but I want to find it on a more colorful background. I’ll, like, see what else I can find with that particular one.”
Devon: “Cool.”

– JVW

[guest post by JVW]

After years of hemming and hawing, the Once and Future Inevitable Next President of the United States, Hillary! Rodham Clinton, has formally announced her opposition to building the Keystone XL Pipeline to transport oil from Canada to refineries located in states along the Gulf of Mexico. The debate over the pipeline pitted two key Democrat constituencies in opposition to each other, with labor supporting building the pipeline to create union construction jobs and environmentalists opposing the pipeline because it transports fossil fuels. After what was no doubt extensive reflection on the matter — and by reflection I mean meticulous polling by Mark Penn and detailed negotiations with union members and wealthy environmentalists in which deals were cut and favors traded — Mrs. Senator Secretary Clinton decided to cast her lot with billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer rather than let Senator Bernard Sanders become the paladin of the virtuous greens.

I wonder what she promised the unions as a peace offering to soothe any bad feelings. It wouldn’t surprise me if that part of the story is even worse than her timely conversion to the anti-Keystone cause. And so it goes.

– JVW