British Newspaper Scandal: Media Not Beyond Reproach
July 12, 2011 15:11 by Simon Plosker
Do you remember the outrage generated when it became clear that the footage of Mohammed al-Dura’s alleged death by IDF bullets was revealed to be carefully edited?
Or when the media got it wrong over the “Jenin Massacre”? What about those Photoshopped images from Reuters during the 2006 Lebanon conflict?
Sure you remember the outrage that you felt along with Israel’s supporters but that outrage never penetrated the consciousness of the wider publics whose national media outlets were responsible for reporting that ranged from shoddy to outright libel.
As a former Brit, I admit to reading the News of the World on the odd Sunday many years ago, albeit the sports pages (I relied upon the more cerebral Sunday Times for ‘real’ news).
While it would be a stretch to link the so-called “Hacking Scandal” to reportage in the Middle East and specifically Israel, it is worth pointing out what events involving Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp titles in the UK do signify for journalism in general.
Without going into the dark recesses of the story and the political and criminal implications that are dominating the news in the UK, suffice to say that the biggest selling tabloid, the News of the World, was caught having hacked into the cellphone voicemail messages of various public figures, celebrities and possibly even members of the Royal Family.
But even worse, it has now been revealed that some 4000 people were victims. This included hacking into the cell phone of a murdered teenager, which disrupted the police investigation at the time, and family members of some of those murdered in the London terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005.
These last revelations pushed public and political opinion over the edge and caused advertisers to desert the News of the World, which printed its final edition last Sunday after 168 years of publication. It remains to be seen if other titles in the News Corp stable such as The Times of London and The Sun have also engaged in unethical and criminal activities.
What can we learn from this with relation to our own difficulties with media reporting of Israel?
- Journalists and editors are certainly not infallible. Not only do they make mistakes but, as we have seen, they can also use highly unethical and potentially criminal means to get their exclusives.
- Related to this, we cannot unthinkingly rely upon journalists and media to be the ‘moral arbiters’ of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In light of what has happened in the UK, whose media increasingly preaches to Israel about standards of behavior, it would be hypocritical for those same publications to moralize about Israel.
Sadly, one of those UK papers that takes such a holier-than-thou attitude towards Israel, The Guardian, has also been responsible for revealing the unethical actions of its media rivals.
Of course, the actions of the News of the World and possibly other News Corp titles are inexcusable. But this does not hide something of a double-edged sword for those of us who monitor the media’s Israel coverage.
While they have not been immune from coming under HR’s spotlight, News Corp’s titles such as The Times, have been the most favorable towards Israel in a particularly hostile market.
Also worthy of note are calls in the UK for the strengthening of independent bodies such as the Press Complaints Commission that are supposed to hold the media to account and should have the ability to impose real sanctions on offending publications. The history of complaints to the PCC regarding Israel coverage in the UK is a sorry one where most complaints have been unsuccessful.
And the BBC, a serial offender when it comes to its Israel coverage, has its own internal complaints system answerable only to the supposedly independent BBC Trust.
Perhaps the current scandal gripping the UK media will lead to greater regulation and accountability. Will this have any impact on journalistic standards governing reporting from Israel? I’m not going to hold my breath.
Brinker
6:16 pm
Jul 13, 2011
“Media Not Beyond Reproach”??? Gasping for air here…
Not since Hearst and Pulitzer raced each other daily for the most outrageous hate-speech headlines to sell newspapers and foment Americans into anti-Spanish hatred to justify the Spanish-American War has journalism been above reproach.
Journalism today is a cesspool of liars, complicit editors, and a mob mentality. Jews know Israel only gets a fair shake in Conservative media. If you’re Conservative, you’re in the same life-raft.
If you’re liberal, you’ve seen the “Obama hates Whites” campaigns that (ahem) less-than-intellectual Conservatives have created and relayed in right-wing media.
If you’re Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Scientologist, Baptist or Catholic, your religion never gets an even break in any story involving your faith. When people in the story adhere to one of those religions, that fact is paraded in–without any relevance at all to story content.
In matters of passion like religion, politics and race, true journalists have been displaced by obsessed typists on auto-fire who think their clever prejudice escapes us poor fools.
Perhaps I’m developing my own prejudice against journalists. I read each story ready to pounce.
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Maria White
6:55 pm
Jul 13, 2011
As a media watchdog organization, I have confidence that you try to hold yourselves to a higher standard. This is why I mention that, to my knowledge, they did not hack any phones of royal family members. They were however in negotiations to purchase a list of phone numbers for members of the royal family. I know you will investigate and do the right thing with this information. Everybody gets it wrong sometimes, that’s what retractions are for, afterall. The difference comes in which media outlets publish retractions with corrected information (instead of excuses or more inaccuracies/lies).
In the meantime, let me say that your work is courageous and the world needs more people those working for HonestReporting! Thanks for all you do.
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Jossef
8:23 pm
Jul 13, 2011
The News of the World blowout is a symptom of of the widespread breakdown of professional journalistic standards that has finally been shown to reach the level of crime. We know that when it comes to the Israeli – Palestinian conflict many papers in the UK (and the BBC) went way beyond bias crossed the line into plagerism and liable. I think that this latest News Corp scandal will expose the shady practices of the other leading papers such as the Guardian and The Independent. Otherwise, there won’t be any credible media left in the UK in a few years and the world will recognize it.
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Nathan Zafran
12:56 am
Jul 14, 2011
The vast majority of British media has always been substandard, All rubbish, false allegations, bias, distortions and general bashing; when it comes to Israel. They wouldn’t dare do so in the case of the vilest Arab and Muslim tyrannies, theocracies and police states. The least harmful papers surprisingly are the tabloids, for the peeping Toms. The first five pages full of sex and titties, the next five with scandals, royal family included, and then an article or two about world affairs. Apparently, these too are not beyond sin, as is indicated in The News of the World scandal. Quite pathetic really having to employ the likes of Hari and Fisk.
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Brent Pudsey
2:38 am
Jul 14, 2011
News of the Word has done a poor job as a media outlet and has caused a great problem to fester. This is the problem of unrest and hatred towards a nation and race as a result of incorrect editorial comments. Something must be done by the publication to correct this and an apology to Israel should also be made.
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Chris McReynolds
7:14 am
Jul 22, 2011
I seem to recall a Hebrew prophet saying something to the effect that the Messiah, and perhaps Jerusalem and Israel are like a stone, and people trying to attack it hurt themselves. Does that sound familiar? I also remember hearing people quote “I will bless those who bless you and curse those that curse you.”
It seems to me, now that I have discovered late in my forties, after being pulled in to investigate “the religion of peace” further as a result of the September 11 attacks, that if there is a God of Israel, and the prophecies seem to indicate something supernatural here, but part of what might be going on is that Israel is a litmus test for us to observe who has integrity. Because it becomes painfully obvious just how evil a reporter must be to make such inciting statements knowing full well the blood spilled over their statements. How can anyone possibly be expected to believe that when making accusations about “crimes against humanity” that the level of evidence has to be at LEAST as high as the standards for a criminal prosecution. Yet I never hear anyone say “alleged war crimes.” It’s just so obvious how evil some of these people are.
But because of this problem, with so many evil journalists (so called) printing ridiculous lies so frequently, we have to give their readership some allowances for accepting these lies at least conversationally. It’s just really ugly and sad. I wish we could all spend more time helping people in Africa with clean water wells, but we spend billions on precision munitions so that Israel can kill only a minimum number of human shields, and yet all involved are blamed for the evil results of Islamic imperialism.
What else can I say?
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