The Strange Case of Georgie Ann Geyer
Consumers of punditry often encounter Georgie Ann Geyer’s obsessive antipathy to Israel in their morning papers. Her antipathy is so strongly felt that it overcomes any journalistic scruples she might have. In a May 10, 2002, column, for example, she reported that Ariel Sharon had recently told the Israeli cabinet, “I control America.” The quote was a hoax that had originated in an October 2001 press release from a pro-Hamas association, the Islamic Association for Palestine. It had then been widely circulated on anti-semitic websites. Geyer reproduced this astonishing statement from an obviously suspect source without making any personal effort to check or verify it. This credulity is not typical of her work on other subjects.
So where does her credulity come from? Geyer is a respected American journalist. She is the recipient of many awards; she was chosen as one of the four questioners for the 1984 Reagan-Mondale debate; she is a trustee of American University. It seems incredible that such a person could be motivated by something as vulgar as anti-Jewish prejudice. Yet she does keep saying strange things.
Last Thursday, for instance, the widely syndicated columnist accused President Bush of an “Old Testament reliance on forcing others to do and to believe as you ....” The Jewish Bible contains many dark passages. But there is one thing that the reader will very seldom find – any commandments to go force others to do and believe as you do. On the contrary, the Jewish tradition insists that human beings will have to wait until the coming of the messiah for unbelief and idolatry to disappear. If anything, the Jewish tradition has historically been criticized for its inwardness and particularism, its unwillingness to demand that others do and believe as Jews do. There is no Jewish equivalent of jihad. So to reach for the Jewish scriptures when searching for a metaphor for oppression and compulsion – well, as I said, it’s ... strange.
I am particularly struck by the reference to fact checking and sources....sounds like early Jayson Blair...and Vanity Fair mis-quoting Wolfowitz...and .... well, you get the point.