🚀 go-pugleaf

Julio Noboa, San Antonio Express-News, 4/6/03
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=1160&xlc=974385

During my nine years as a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, I 
have covered a wide variety of topics related to issues of justice, peace 
and equity, especially as they impact people of color here and abroad. My 
column, I've been recently informed, has been discontinued.

It was just over a year ago that a heated controversy erupted over my 
columns, mostly those critical of U.S. and Israeli policy toward 
Palestinians. A prominent rabbi accused me of anti-semitism and disparaged 
my writings in a sermon, demanding I be terminated for, among other 
reasons, suggesting that certain constituencies have more media power than 
others in our nation.

At that time, the Express-News to their credit, refused to terminate my 
column, citing not only freedom of the press, but also explaining that to 
do so would prove that constituency does indeed have more media power.

Now, as a response to my last two articles, "Jenin survivors ending the 
silence" (March 1); and "Israel gets billions while Americans tighten 
belts" (March 15), the editors confronted me with the charge that I relied 
too heavily on one source.

That, according to them, is grounds for terminating my column. It's 
important to note that there were few or no questions regarding the truth 
or the facts as I presented them, nor about the credibility of the source 
itself. Neither were there any charges of plagiarism.

In response I submitted copies to the editors of the various sources I had 
consulted for both articles, including the Christian Science Monitor, the 
Washington Times, Human Rights Watch, the U.N. Report on Jenin, as well as 
The Independent, a respected British newspaper.