September 06, 2004
The Wedding Section and Deteriorating Journalistic Standards Converge
Just after my vitriolic commentary on the media, look what popped up in the Section!
Ruth Shalit married Henry Robertson Barrett IV , who converted for the occasion. Rabbi Kenneth J. Chasin officiated. Those of us in the know, are acutely aware that there are no IV's among the Jews, since children are named (loosely) for the dead. Making someone a II, let alone a IV, would be a quite an insult. So the question is, what is a WASP to do with his IV after conversion? Seems only decent to drop it.
The clickie tells us that the upper left corner of the first page in the Sunday Wedding Section of the New York Times is saved for the important. I never noticed that. Ruth and Robertson, as he is known, are smack in the corner. His dad was the one time editor of the Times Sunday Magazine - maybe that's why. I wonder how Ruth's new father-in-law feels about her journalistic ethics. Maybe he's not worried, since Ruth is currently a contributing writer for Elle, and a free lance writer, where she can do no harm, and she will have to refrain from using big words..
Photo note: Flowers with tongues -white for wedding, yellow for journalism
Posted by Dakota at September 6, 2004 06:29 PM