I wrote this email msg to the NY Times’ Public Editor:

I read a report that you published this cartoon:

Oliphant cartoon inserted here

All I can say is, this is a level of antisemitism that I expect to see in the Arab media, or in historical representations of Nazi propaganda. That you would publish something like this appalls me. This is beyond the pale.

If I subscribed to your paper, I’d be terminating my subscription right now. I occasionally look at articles on your web site. From now on, I’ll be doing it with AdBlock turned on.

I got back a quick reply:

Thank you for your email. I am sorry you were offended by the Oliphant cartoon, The Times received many similar comments. Please read the explanation from Craig Whitney, the Assistant Managing Editor at The Times:

Catherine - The offending cartoon by Oliphant will not be published in The New York Times. It did not appear on our Website yesterday, either. What does appear there, by contract with uclick.com, is an “Oliphant” button on the cartoons page that, yesterday, got those who clicked on it to that cartoon, which is now relegated to the Oliphant archive.

The contract dates back years and the Achilles heel in the arrangement is that we do not review the feed editorially. Nobody at The Times, therefore, made any decision yesterday to “publish” the cartoon. But, though the click gets you to a uclick.com page, the banner on the page says “The New York Times …..Cartoons.”

We will review our procedures and arrangements, and I don’t know what you want to say about this to all the queriers, but this is the arrangement. I haven’t had time to go back to see if I can find who negotiated it and what the chances of revising it are.
best
Craig

I hope this helps explain the Times’ role in your being exposed to the offending cartoon, and The Times’ position on its content.

Sincerely,
Scott Garapolo
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times

Note: The public editor’s opinions are his own and do not represent those of The New York Times.

I went to the NY Times web site, and it seems that his description of how you would get to Oliphant’s antisemitic cartoon via the NY Times web site is correct.

It may have been more a case of inadvertent incompetence than anti-Jewish malice. But they still deserve to get hammered, and I hope everyone here sends them an email: public@nytimes.com is the address.