MONMOUTH COUNTY – The elected officials that lead the county condemned a sexist and anti-Semitic caption published by the Asbury Park Press website and pulled their advertising as well.
A photo caption was posted along with a photo of a nurse giving a vaccination. The “f word” was used in the caption as an adjective describing the nurse’s appearance. Another slur was used. It won’t be repeated in this article, but it was of a religious nature.
The photo accompanied others with a story by Gustavo Martinez Contreras about a vaccination clinic in Lakewood. Typically, the captions are edited before being uploaded or published.
The photo caption was up for 14 hours on a Sunday before being changed and then the photo was eventually removed altogether, reported NJ Spotlight’s David Wildstein.
“This was an inexcusable act. The objectification of women and religious insults are intentional actions,” he said, in part. “The reporter in question is no longer with the company.
“The words in the caption were totally unacceptable and in no way reflect the principles and practices of the staff of the Press and Gannett. The Press and Gannett have a long history of fighting for inclusiveness, diversity and women’s rights. We took immediate and significant action once we became aware of the issue, and we changed our online procedures to ensure such an event never happens again,” he said.
The apologies, which were covered in greater detail in previous JerseyShoreOnline.com articles, were not enough for a lot of elected officials and readers.
“The Asbury Park Press allowed for this horribly offensive photo caption to be published for 14 hours before taking it down, and then did not issue any comment or apology for more than 24 hours after it was removed,” said Commissioner Director Thomas A. Arnone. “When an apology was finally issued, it was severely lacking to say the least. There was no explanation offered as to how the caption was allowed to be published to begin with, or why the apology was directed to Asian-Americans or only to the Lakewood Jewish community and not the entire Jewish community.”
D’Ambrosio’s second apology explained those two points. The APP.com site is designed so that reporters can post directly to it. There were no editors who approved it.
Many newspapers across the nation have made severe staff cuts. Critics have said that cuts like this would lead to inevitable mistakes.
“If any other publication, organization or person posted something so disgusting, the Asbury Park Press would be demanding answers and accountability. There is no way that they would just accept an apology and move on,” said Commissioner Deputy Director Susan M. Kiley.
To put their money where their mouth is, Monmouth County has pulled all legal ads from the Asbury Park Press and will be using the Star Ledger instead.
The law states that governing bodies have to advertise certain things in newspapers so that the public is aware of it. These include meeting dates and locations, election information, and similar material.
Officials across the state have argued that this law needs to change since more and more people are getting their news from online sources rather than physical newspapers. They believe they should be allowed to publish such notices online instead, which would be cheaper.
At the same meeting, the Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners again demanded a change, urging local lawmakers to amend the law to allow for online publication.
“The current laws that require public notices to be published in hard copy are outdated and do not allow local governments to use online platforms that reach a larger audience,” said Commissioner Nick DiRocco. “Instead, State law requires our citizens to purchase hard copy publications in order to access important public information. To increase transparency and save crucial tax dollars, the Legislature should change this antiquated law.”
