6:58 AM
Gil Student
R. Aharon Lichtenstein, in a recent Commentator interview with Ben Eleff, on reading newspapers (link [no ads]):
Do you know whether the Rav had any particular feelings about the Jewish press?
He followed it. I know that he read the Yiddish press and received subscriptions to their journals regularly. He was not addicted - as some people are - to journalism but I think he respected it, and he had some very favorable comments to make for the Yiddish press. Overall, he had a very positive relationship but had the same measure of wariness that I mentioned before which I think is essential...
On the other hand, keeping informed is part of what a responsible citizen should do in a democratic society. You oughtn't make hasty or unnecessary judgments. If you do want to speak out, difficult as this at times may be, before you do you should check the facts carefully. Checking them carefully very often means sifting through a lot of dirt. That brings one back, vis-à-vis the reader of journalism, to some of the issues confronting its writers' motivation, nature and level of interest and so on.
