Dan Snyder’s very bad day

We’ve reported on the suit filed by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder against the Washington City Paper for defaming him in a satirical article.

I asked our writers to hold back on support Snyder was reportedly receiving from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, not for his lawsuit, but for his claim that the picture below, which fronted the article, was anti-Semitic.

We couldn’t find the statement on SWC’s website, I didn’t get it in my email. 

SWC got back to me last night and confirmed the statement, saying that Snyder had solicited it, which is why it was not sent out as a release. They also said, for the record (before I could ask) that Snyder is not a donor.

Here’s their statement:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center urges Washington CityPaper to apologize to Washington Redskins’ owner Dan Snyder for depicting him with Devil’s Horns. Public figures, including an owner of an NFL team, are fair game for criticism and even derision. However, it is inappropriate and unacceptable when a symbol like this -associated with virulent anti-Semitism going back to the Middle Ages, deployed by the  genocidal Nazi regime, by Soviet propagandists and  even in 2011 by those who still seek to demonize Jews today—is used on the front cover of a publication in our Nation’s Capital against a member of the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights organization.  “This issue isn’t  political correctness, but making sure that we  find ways to criticize members of religious and ethnic groups without validating such hateful imagery. We urge the publishers to apologize for their error in judgment,” Cooper concluded.

Couple of points, from someone who’s lived in this town for 10 years:

–Dan Snyder has virtually no local Jewish profile. I mean, close to zip. The Washington Jewish Week has the scoop here, and here’s the WJW poll asking you what you think.

–He hasn’t exactly been responsive to Native American complaints about his team’s name.

Here’s the illustration:

Here’s commentary from the local CBS affiliate, Channel 9, ripping Snyder for suing WCP, and noting that the folks behind the above illo are Jewish:

And here’s Patrick Hruby’s ESPN scoop: The Devil, writing through attorney Daniel Webster, wants WCP to apologize for associating him with Dan Snyder.