Why We Added Obama, Part 2

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Writer-at-Large Jane Eisner November 7, 2011

It’s not every day that The Blaze, Glenn Beck’s website, responds to this blog, and I’m glad they did. In our latest back and forth, the editor pointed out that our presentation on our website of this year’s Forward 50 was confusing at first.

Fair enough. It was.

Though the Forward 50 was started more than 15 years ago by Seth Lipsky, the founding editor of the English Forward, it’s only been in the last few years that we have experimented with presenting the names, faces and profiles on line in new and interesting ways.

This year, we created a nifty slide show based on the way we presented the profiles in our print edition. (We also have a great video by our own Nate Lavey about the top five on the list.) But initially, the last name on the list — our 51st slot, reserved for a non-Jew who we think impacted the Jewish story more than anyone else this year — wasn’t given a special designation. If you read the blurb about Barack Obama, you would know why he was placed where he was, but in fairness, we didn’t highlight that he was, in our parlance, a Plus One.

Honestly, I’m not sure whether it was The Blaze’s reaction, or just our own analysis when looking at the site on Friday, but we did, indeed, make the change.

I’m happy to give The Blaze credit. As for the suggestion that the slot really belonged to Glenn Beck — in the spirit of cooperative dialogue, I’ll just say that we’ll take it under advisement for next year.

Jane Eisner was editor-in-chief of the Forward from 2008 to 2019.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

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