New York Post Faces Boycott Threat Over Menachem Stark Front Page
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The New York Post is under fire for a cover story about the murder of Hasidic landlord Menachem Stark.
“Who Didn’t Want Him Dead?” blared the headline of the Sunday edition, next to a photo of Stark wearing a large shtreiml and graying side curls.
According to the story, Stark “had so many enemies that investigators say they almost don’t know where to start looking.”
The article cited an unnamed law-enforcement source as saying Stark, a 39-year-old father of eight, was involved in several “shady” real-estate deals and was far in debt.
Stark’s body was found on Dec. 3 on suburban Long Island some 16 miles away from his Williamsburg office, from where he was kidnapped the previous evening. He reportedly was suffocated before his body was placed in the dumpster outside a Great Neck gas station and burned, according to police.
Video footage taken from his office reportedly showed Stark being taken into a van after a struggle outside his office in heavily Satmar Williamsburg. The identity of his abductors is not known.
Local politicians, including State Senator Simcha Felder and New York City Council Member Stephen Levin , as well as many Brooklyn politicians, called on the Post to apologize, as did Jewish media outlets.
Stark’s brother-in-law, Abraham Buxbaum, speaking on behalf of the family, told The Algemeiner that the headline was “disgusting,” and that “Instead of giving comfort it is just adding salt to the wound.”
He added: “Apologies won’t help, the damage is done, I think,” he added.
“The Post does not say Mr. Stark deserved to die, but our reporting showed that he had many enemies, which may have led to the commission of this terrible crime,” the newspaper said in a statement, in response to criticism of the article and its headline. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time of loss.”
Stark was remembered by friends and relatives as a “go-to guy” and for being very charitable, as well as for his warmth and sense of family.
Many have threatened to cancel their subscriptions to the newspaper and to organize a boycott of the newspaper, according to reports.
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