Hans Haacke’s record proves he’s not anti-Semitic, no matter what the charges whirling ’round his controversial Whitney work. How did the press get such a definitive sense of what Sanitation will look like, when it’s not even finished yet? One theory is that the Whitney is responsible. The museum’s director, Maxwell Anderson, has acknowledged that he informed City Hall about the Haacke installation ‘as a courtesy.’ The Whitney is battling a conservative image, and its director is widely dismissed as a newcomer to the New York scene. ‘Now he’s demonstrating that he’s young enough, strong enough, and activist enough.’ The Haacke affair is ‘the first counteroffensive by the New York museum world, telling Giuliani to keep his hands off.’ How does this theory account for the outburst from the Whitney heirs? “They’ve been out of running the museum for some time, so they may be feeling aggrieved, and this may be the way to show their anger.” – Village Voice