In search of Hillary

A photograph has saddled a Brooklyn-based haredi newspaper with negative publicity, resulting in a public apology for omitting the government’s most powerful woman from a photograph.

The White House has not publicized images of the Osama Bin Laden’s corpse and the commandos who assassinated him. As a result, many newspapers adopted the photograph of President Barack Obama and his cabinet watching the raid unfold on the screen of the White House Situation Room, as the defining image of the event.

Di Tzeitung, a Borough Park-based weekly newspaper published White house photographer Pete Souza’s photograph, but with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Counterterrorism Director Audrey Tomason edited out of the photograph.

Picked up by blogs, the doctored photo went viral, receiving coverage in national media, often with the accusation that Hasidism opposes having women in position of power.

“To suggest that the paper removed Hillary because it has an issue with women in power is nuts, Yossi Gestetner said. Raised in Williamsburg, the Hasidic public relations consultant rushed to the Yiddish newspaper’s defense. “This was an iconic photo and the editor wanted to give the best possible coverage within the Hasidic guidelines.”

While the newspaper does not have an official affiliation, Gestetner said that it closely adheres to the policies of the Satmar and Bobover communities. “I do not think anyone would get aroused by this photo, regardless of how dressed the women are, it is part of the guidelines.”

Having worked with Di Tzeitung, Gestetner noted that the editor’s wife negotiates advertising, and that in the 2008 Democratic primaries and the 2006 Senate race, the newspaper endorsed Clinton. Nevertheless, doctoring official White House photographs within a news story is forbidden, and while the White House had no comment on the story, Di Tzeitung issued an apology on Monday.

“The readership of the Tzeitung believe that women should be appreciated for who they are and what they do, not for what they look like, and the Jewish laws of modesty are an expression of respect for women,” the statement reads. The editorial board also apologized for not reading the fine print on rules forbidding alteration of the image.

“We have nothing against women being elected to office,” publisher Albert Friedman said in an interview with CNN. Friedman is running the public apology in this week’s edition of Di Tzeitung, explaining the newspaper’s modesty guidelines alongside respect for government figures.