New York Times rejects Quaker ad for calling Israel’s actions “genocide”

afsc.org New York Times rejects Quaker ad for calling Israel’s actions “genocide”

After receiving the text for the ad quoted above, a representative from the advertising team suggested AFSC use the word “war” instead of “genocide” – a word with an entirely different meaning both colloquially and under international law. When AFSC rejected this approach, the New York Times Ad Acceptability Team sent an email that read in part: “Various international bodies, human rights organizations, and governments have differing views on the situation. In line with our commitment to factual accuracy and adherence to legal standards, we must ensure that all advertising content complies with these widely applied definitions.”

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My goofy ass thought it meant the oatmeal guys
- I don't think there's anything "goofy ass" about that. Quaker Oats Company was explicitly named (and used a logo) to cause people to make that mistake.
  
  Which is especially disheartening because Quakers are some of the most truly liberal and loving Christians you can find. The fact that they're willing to call this a genocide evidence of that, and unsurprising since their interpretation of the bible is 100% strict non-violence to where they can't legally be drafted into the military due to their beliefs. Some of the most truly leftist Christians you'll find.
  
  And funny enough, they're on the boycott list
  
  It's not intentionally deceptive, they literally called it that because one of the founders admired the Quakers.
- That guy killed Gene Hackman and then went after Tom Cruise!
  
  And Jigsaw helped him do it!
- Wilford Brimley once upvoted a video parody I made involving him and it made me so happy.
  
  That’s high praise, honestly.
- Diabeetus
- It's the right thing to do.
- i knew from the thread title.. doesn't mean i don't like your idea better.
- Lmfao, me too.

- It's not far right fascist. It is liberal Zionist. Liberals can and have been genocidal too. Liberal Zionism is incompatible with humanism or universal values.
  
  you two are in agreement on everything except for what constitutes "far right"
  personally, i think any public traded or billionaire owned media outlet is intrinsically far right, but i can also understand drawing the distinctions along the lines of how things compare based on their reach. comparing NYT to bellingcat can't be fair because NYT can reach more eyes.
  so basically, the distinction between you two is not who's wrong, it's about how you categorize who's wrong
  
  USA Liberal ≡ Far Right Zionist ≡ Fascist
- You can call the NYT a bunch of things but I'd argue its hardly far right fascist propaganda.

AFSC is the American Friends Service Committee.
So, a little to unpack here. "Quaker" is the common name for what is more formally known as The Religious Society of Friends. Thus American Friends Service Committee.
Yes, the same Quakers from our history books. Actually to this day genuinely quality people and one of the few Christian groups I tend to have a decent amount of respect for.
I don't know if I got memory holed or what, but I have a distinct memory during the Iraq War of a group of Quakers in kayaks blockading some US warships from leaving port to go to war and that was the pretense that Bush wanted to use to charge these non-violent Quaker anti-war protestors with terrorism charges. It's been a while and I've not been able to dig up a link but I swear it happened, I can find ACLU documents mentioning the Bush admin targeting Quakers, but that's about it. Interestingly enough, it included surveillance of this exact organization.
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-report-shows-widespread-pentagon-surveillance-peace-activists (January 2007)
In response to the ACLU’s FOIA requests filed on February 1, 2006, the Defense Department has released dozens of TALON reports that were compiled on Americans. Many of the reports focus on anti-military recruitment events and protests, including activities organized by the Quaker organization American Friends Service Committee, United for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, and Catholic Worker.
- It’s making me really happy seeing how many people in the comments here have nice things to say about Quakers!
  I don’t remember the incident you’re recalling. Sounds like something my people would do though, lol. What I do think of in terms of Quaker activity at the time is a lot of protests and also Tom Fox, a Quaker taken hostage and killed in Iraq. He was there representing the org Christian Peacemaker Team, which goes to places plagued with violence to do service and good. Unlike missionaries and despite their name, they do not try to convert anyone.
  I did not know Tom, but I know many people who did. And despite the very personal loss, the response was doubling down on the efforts to bring peace and stop the war. I think it was a pretty widespread assumption that most Friends organizations were on watch lists.
  Leftist Quakers are pretty radical, and pretty awesome.
- American Friends Service Committee
  "The One Where Ross Drops White Phosphorus on Civilians"

Genocide is just too strong of a word. They are just disagreeing by murdering all their population. You see, it is just a disagreement.
- Genocide is only genocide if it comes from the genocide region of france. Otherwise it’s just a sparkling massacre.
  
  Wow, that was a good one!
- 1% of Gaza is dead.
  "Murdering all their population."
  Grow up.
  
  The definition of genocide explicitly does not require a given percentage of a population.
  In whole OR IN PART.
  
  That already exceeds the Bosnian genocide by more than 10,000 people.
  
  1% of gaza dead.
  That’s 46000 people, half of which are women and children according to AP.
  Another 100,000 injured, not counted in your 1%.
  
  I hope this is just really bad satire and not your actual beliefs.
  
  It's a genocide.
  
  What are you talking about? that’s a lot of people.
  
  You sound like the geniuses from a few years ago that said covid was no big deal since it “only” killed 1%.

the New York Times Ad Acceptability Team sent an email that read in part: “Various international bodies, human rights organizations, and governments have differing views on the situation. In line with our commitment to factual accuracy and adherence to legal standards, we must ensure that all advertising content complies with these widely applied definitions.”
They're god-damn right. "War" is not an appropriate word for this. The consensus amongst international human rights orgs is that its a "genocide".
At first I thought this was a quote from the Quakers as to why they wouldn't run the ad with the word "war"

Ha. I would not have seen the add or messaging from the AFSC.
By rejecting it NYT Streisanded the message they sought to silence.
- Well played, Quakers.

Liberal newspaper never disappoint in aiding fascism.

Those violent quakers making trouble again...

I worked along side some rad Christians in Palestine (doing human rights work, documenting Israeli war crimes, etc).
Please donate to Christian Peacemaking Team. They're awesome.
https://cpt.org/
They're founded by Quakers and other nonviolent Christian sects. I also learned that their members pay less taxes because they legally dont have to pay taxes that go to the US military. So if you pay taxes in the US and dont want to support genocide, consider changing to one of those religions.
- You and I may know some of the same people! Does the name Max Carter mean anything to you?
  Small correction though: the taxes thing isn’t actually true… there were (probably still are, but I’ve not been actively involved in enough years to feel justified making the claim) Quakers who chose to hold a percent of their income tax in escrow rather than give it to the government under the argument that their conscientious objector status should keep their money from going to the military.
  It is not a legally recognized stance, and these people risk fees, interest, and legal action for their withholdings. And yet they choose to risk that as a form of peaceful protest.
  Your comment dredged up all the memories of a workshop/talk I attended by one of these folks when I was in probably high school? It was not something done lightly or without effort.
  
  One of the volunteers that I met said they have a dedicated day at the church to help church members file their taxes correctly (she was the one that organized it and helped other church members do it correctly). She said it was recognized, but only a very few sects qualified.
  She didn't mention anything about consequences.

pihole -b *.nytimes.com
Done
- They already have a subscription fee charge to access their crappy journalism lol.
  
  They already have a subscription fee
  FYI for anyone who cares:

This is a new kind of war. This is an eradication.
e: It's from a Lamb of God song about Bush, seemed apropos. Get salty about it.
- The only things new about this war are the weapons being used to fight it. Humans have been wiping each other out since we've been around.
- 1% per year?
  "An eradication."
  Grow up.

Doesn't this make then legally liable for content in their ads?
- It's an editorial decision like any other, it's nothing new in legal terms
  
  So section 230 doesn't apply then.

No truth in this paper of lies!

- Oh, piss off. You don't get to lump all Americans into a single group.

95 comments