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WGN-TV Chicago Uses Yellow Star in Yom Kippur Segment, Issues Apology

Whoops

by
Jonathan Zalman
September 24, 2015
WGN-TV
WGN-TV
WGN-TV
WGN-TV

During its Yom Kippur segment, a popular Chicago TV news station used a graphic featuring a yellow Star of David, a symbol Nazis infamously forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust, complete with blue and white stripes. These yellow badges were emblazoned with the word “Jude,” or the German word for Jew, intended to identify, isolate, and dehumanize Jews from the rest of society. (According to the Holocaust Memorial Center in Michigan, the discriminatory symbology dates back to the 13th century.) WGN-TV Chicago later issued a number of apologies, including one on-air, which was followed by a sort of Yom Kippur explainer set in the north Chicago neighborhood of Lakeview.


I wonder what the process of choosing this so-called “artwork” was like. Did a WGN supervising editor tell members of his or her staff to “find Jewish artwork, like a Jewish star or something,” and this is what they came up with? (For the sake of exercise, if you were to type in “Jewish star” into Shutterstock, a stock image website, there are *plenty* of alternatives to a Nazi badge.) Who knows. Clearly better judgment wasn’t used; this was a major, idiotic flub.

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.