THE JEWISH NEWS COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE
THE CASE FOR CON
Are The Jewish News and the rest of the Jewish media
BY STEVE COHEN
Special to The Jewish News
n just the last two
decades, the quality
of American Jewish
journalism has im-
proved considerably.
Several local papers,
among them The
Jewish News, have
become increasingly sophisti-
cated in clearly recognizable
ways.
Today's writing style ap-
peals to a more educated
reader, an understandable
development in light of the in-
creasing educational attain-
ment of American Jews.
(Most young adult Detroit
Steven M. Cohen is professor
of sociology at Queens
College, City University of
New York. In 1989-90, he
served as the co-principal
investigator of the Detroit
Jewish Population Study.
Jews have earned a graduate
degree!)
The articles have become
longer and more complex.
Reporters are writing more
investigative and analytic
pieces. And, not least critical
to this upsurge in quality,
The Jewish News benefits (as
Anglo-Jewish community
newspapers have de-
emphasized the Jewish
apologetics that used to
characterize much of the
Jewish press in the past. No
longer do we see as many
stories as we used to about
Jews making it in sports,
do other papers) from the
theater, industry, commerce
comparable improvements in
the Jewish 'Telegraphic Agen-
cy. The JTA, the news service
that supplies coverage from
all around the Jewish world,
has also become more
readable, sophisticated and
aggressive.
As befits a more confident
and secure community, most
and politics.
In part, Jewish success
stories are more com-
monplace and less newswor-
thy; in part, stories of Jewish
achievement in the larger
society no longer address our
anxieties over acceptance by
non-Jews (a.k.a. gentiles, or,
in more private moments —
goyim).
And no longer do we read as
many embarrassing ethno-
centric headlines as the one
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