CBS Exposed: Bob Simon’s “Theatrical Outrage”
April 29, 2012 10:39 by Pesach Benson
Thousands of concerned individuals have already written to CBS to express their disgust at Bob Simon’s report on Christians in the Holy Land on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
It’s not too late to add your voice and let CBS know what you think. Particularly when you see below how Bob Simon’s outrage at Ambassador Michael Oren has been exposed as nothing more than a cynical ploy.
Take action now and demand an apology! Send your considered comments to CBS through the following:
“60 Minutes”
Jeffrey Fager—Chairman of CBS News, Executive Producer of “60 Minutes”
E-mail: 60m@cbsnews.com
Online Form: Submit your comments on this “Contact Us” form. Please select “60 Minutes.”
Post comments on Jeffrey Fager’s CBS biography page here.
Bill Owens—Executive Editor of “60 Minutes”
E-mail: 60MinutesOT@cbsnews.com
Bob Simon—Reporter of “Christians of the Holy Land”
Post comments on Bob Simon’s CBS biography page here.
CBS News
Feedback E-mail: weekend@cbsnews.com
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When reporter Bob Simon interviewed Ambassador Michael Oren, Simon’s outrage — that the ambassador sought to intervene in the 60 Minutes piece on Christians in the Holy Land — was sharp.
Turns out Simon was more theatrical than we realized. BuzzFeed obtained a copy of a letter Simon sent Oren politely inviting Oren to share his views on the status of Christians in the Holy Land — was courteously acknowledged by the ambassador.
“We didn’t realize it would become so controversial,” Simon said in his introduction to the story, which featured an on-air clash between him and Oren. “I’ve never gotten a reaction before from a story that hasn’t been broadcast yet,” Simon told the ambassador during the segment.
But Simon’s apparent shock — and high dudgeon — at Oren’s conduct were nowhere to be found in a letter he wrote the ambassador before the taping, and which was provided to BuzzFeed by a political operative not party to the dispute who said he shared it because he thought it illustrated CBS doubletalk.
“Fortunately, we are still in the process of reporting the story, so [CBS News Chairman Jeff] Fager and I want to give you an opportunity to express your views and correct any misrepresentations or omissions which you apparently believe might have occurred,” Simon wrote, in a courteous missive on personalized “60 Minutes” letterhead, dated January 4. “Thank you and best wishes.”
Oren responded to Simon on January 11 with an equally courteous letter, saying he was “indeed concerned” about the planned segment and that he would like to “respond to the allegations raised” once he knew what they were.
All this is fairly common in the dance between reporters and sources. It’s not unusual for reporters to seek difficult interviews with innocuous correspondence. Less common is the theatrical outrage Simon expressed on air, but not in the letter, at Oren’s interest in shaping a story about his country.
Despite Simon’s play for the cameras, the real outrage is this: If not for the Oren’s involvement, not one Israeli voice would’ve been represented in 60 Minutes’ hatchet job.
HonestReporting CEO Joe Hyams comments:
Bob Simon’s feigned outrage at Ambassador Oren displays a shocking level of cynicism unbecoming of a supposedly credible media figure. Simon’s report on Christians in the Holy Land was despicable enough. That and the underhand way in which he has manipulated Ambassador Oren’s understandable concerns demonstrates a clear antagonism towards Israel and exposes any pretense that Simon was attempting to produce a fair and balanced report.
At the very least, Bob Simon and CBS should apologize and issue a public statement acknowledging their unbalanced and deceitful behavior.
Take action now and demand an apology! Please send your considered comments to CBS and add your voice to the many thousands who have been outraged by Bob Simon’s unbalanced and unholy attack on Israel.
Tony
6:52 pm
Apr 30, 2012
It is really of no interest as to where this So called ” Journalist lives. Really,,Remember Charles Enderlhein ,the French Journalist who lived in Israel for quite a number of years,,and his Constant Baffeling reports like the Palestinian Child that was “apparently killed by the Israelis;;;in a cross fire border shoot out with The Palestinians? Well His story was proven to be a LIE, too.
Even in Israel there are” Leftist” journalists, from Ha-aretz Newspaper that have accused Israel of the worst doings,Take a look at those Ultra religious from Meah Shearim,there is a “sect” that even went to IRAN and denied Israels Right to exist,,, These Kind of journalists are the WORST,,,
But what is even more Ciderant, is the fact that CBS Allows such SHODDY, & Unprofessional reporting, which is Very badly investigated,and Narrated.I suppose that is why CBS is Called an Entertainment chanel and NOT a News chanel.:)
But as the saying goes,,,, “The True enemy lives Within our walls.” Maybe thats why he still lives in Netanya.
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Goldie Wetcher
7:46 pm
Apr 30, 2012
I have been a fan of Sixty Minutes and enjoyed their interesting news articles. Lately I have felt they displayed a bias to their reporting in some segments. Bob simon
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Migdal Eden
7:49 pm
Apr 30, 2012
This is what I left for Bob Simon in comments
Dear Mr. Simon as a Jewish Israeli who was married to a Greek Orthodox Arab Hadassah doctor/professor for 11 years (We lived in Jerusalem)Dr.Najeed Salah who grew up in Nazereth and whose parents came from Bet Jallah (right next to Bethlehem) and whose grandfather was a famous Christian Arab architect who built more than one well known church in Jerusalem I believe that I am more familiar with the native Christian community than you are or ever intended to be and I say catagorically that it’s nonsense what you “report” about Israel “hurting” native Christians in any way. And as far as Israel hurting non native Christians…I was a good friend of Father Marcel Dubois well known Christian and head of the Philosophy department of Hebrew University for years. Father Dubois was decorated by both the French and Israeli governments for offering himself up as a hostage during the Entebbe crisis as well as other all faith understanding acts…I say catagorically that you should have investigated the historical separation of Arab Christian and Arab Muslim communities and understood that Muslim extremists are hurting native Christian populations everywhere that Muslims are the majority ..BEFORE…you put you erroneously slanted stuff on air. Intermarriage between Arab Christian and Arab Muslims is so frowned on that parents automatically disown(if not worse) any children that do so. Something that did not happen when my Greek Orthodox Arab doctor’s childhood friend from Nazareth, who was a Muslim(but this kind of friendship is rare) married the Jewish daughter of a Kinneset member(Tali Bar Or) (said daughter also worked for a while with Al Jezeera news).Neither event caused her to be anything but loved by her Jewish parents. …All in all I think that I know what I’m talking about on this subject much more than you Mr. Simon but I did not notice anyone like me being asked for their knowledge of the subject.
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Goldie Wetcher
7:52 pm
Apr 30, 2012
I have been a fan of Sixty Minutes and enjoyed their interesting news articles. Lately I have felt they displayed a bias to their reporting in some segments. Bob Simon’s reporting and manner showed bias in his segment about Christians leaving Israel. I wonder who he was pandering to, the Palestinians who have a new initiative to erode the relationship between Christians and Israel or CBS management who wants to increase viewers or whatever. I didn’t like all the eye rolling Leslie Stahl did either last night on her segment on CIA interrogation techniques.
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Susie Rosenbluth
8:04 pm
Apr 30, 2012
I wish, when Bob Simon challenged Michael Oren’s “audacity” to complain about the 60 Minutes piece before it aired, the Israeli ambassador had responded, “Bob, Israelis and their well-wishers are all-too-familiar with your past work and we had no reason to suspect or hope that this example of it would be any different.” What else can one say about a reporter who shows compassion for a Bethlehem-Christian family who lost the view from their home so that Israeli families would not lose loved ones to terrorism? “How do you stand it?” sympathized Simon when shown that the view from their home is now marred by Israel’s security fence.
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Phil Levin
8:19 pm
Apr 30, 2012
This is all “shtuss”. CBS News and Simon are in the RATINGS Business, not the News Business. Nobody will ever curb their greed for notoriety by complaining about it… it’s what they live for.
It would be far more effective to write their sponsors, and politely offer to BOYCOTT THEM if they don’t take steps to prevent such outrageous abuse of their financial support.
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William Morgenstein
8:27 pm
Apr 30, 2012
Phil,Absolutely but 2 things need to be done.
1. As you mentioned, notify and contact the sponsors, registering your displeasure with biased “entertainment”.
2. Stop watching 60 Minutes and have your firends notified and have them stop. Enough do this and the sponsors will take care of the rest themselves.
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Sophie Soil
9:52 pm
Apr 30, 2012
what a crock of b…s….! you can be sure I and my family and friends (that I know of) won’t be watching 60 minutes again!
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e bronsky
10:43 pm
Apr 30, 2012
Where is your balanced reporting, ’60 Minutes’? Where are there both sides to the story?
Daily, I get information from Christian sites that decry the abuse against Christians in
the West Bank (the more moderate ? Palestinian area) and the exodus of these people
from their centuries ancient home land to Israel and other areas of the western world.
You are acting NOT as news reporters but as situation creators.
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Madrigal
10:52 pm
Apr 30, 2012
Why did Oren not challenge Bob Simon by saying Simon had previously encouraged him in writing to seek clarification and corrections of the CBS’ 60 minute segment in question?
He was on camera, perhaps even live, and he had a perfect opportunity to put Simon in his place.
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leonard roth
11:14 pm
Apr 30, 2012
I am shocked that Bob simon did such a one sided, shallow report. He totally ignored the actions ofthe Muslim s toward Christians, as well as the steps that Israel takes to protect the rights and holp places of Christians. I now will question and not trust . anything that I see on 60 minutesI
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Laurence Morrell
1:23 am
May 01, 2012
I knew Bob Simon years ago. This is not the Bob Simon I knew. This person is more like the late Mike Wallace. That’s too bad
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ROLAND Markowitz
1:47 am
May 01, 2012
Sixty Minutes runs a biased, one sided hatchet job about Israel. I’am absolutely shocked! Shocked I say! Round up all the usual suspects for Bob Simon to interview!
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David J. Breen
1:48 am
May 01, 2012
Is it my imagination,but! there are a disturbing number of American Jews,who deliberately go out of their way,to show,who ever,that they are not connected to Israel,and do not condone any of Israel’s policies,that they are only Loyal Americans,and have no Loyalty to Israel,what so ever!! And feel a need, to be more Anti-semitic,than the most rigorous Anti-semites!!! D.J.B.
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m
2:01 am
May 01, 2012
With friends like that, who needs enemies …
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Bill Kelly
2:23 am
May 01, 2012
I watched the clip of the sixty minutes segment that Honest Reporting gave a link to. I do not live in Israel. And I have heard from those who live there that the situations there are often misrepresented, and slanted against Israel. This reporter seems to have this bias as well. What little actual information he tried to present, or presented as factual, was given very vaguely, with little proof. The one more believable expert, actually said that there was no persecution against Christians for being Christian, but that their problems were a result of Israel’s determination to accomplish it’s security, mainly because of Muslim Palestinians, and not the Christians themselves. He called it “collateral damage.” Ambassador Oren said basically the same thing. And when one Christian person said they were asked to leave, they did not even say by whom, or why. Since this particular woman lived right next to the security wall, if it was the Israeli government who asked her to leave, was her particular location related to this request? And since this was not elaborated on at all, was this exclusion of information deliberate? Further, I am doubting how valid this view of these Palestinian Christians opinions are, by the fact that they refer to the State of Israel, or perhaps to part of it, as an “occupation”. I am a Christian, and consider such language wrong, and Muslim propaganda. Overall it came across as an accusation of deliberate persecution of Christians, which if it is found anywhere in Israel, it was not documented, or even explained in this instance of these enclaves which they reported on. Indeed, it is a “hatchet job”.
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Mr. Light-Bright
6:09 am
May 01, 2012
There are MANY Christians who are in other countries and identify themselves with Israel… annoying to the Jews yes (rightly so to a point) but really what are Christians expecting from a people who rejected Jesus (Yeshua)? We Christian do not ask for too much kindness; and the wall for defence, that obstructs Christian’s homes, is not something to freak out about.
If Christians want to bitch and complain about the Jews in Israel… I will tell them to go out of their way and bless those Jewish people, and make sure you don’t smear their image using evil news propaganda which will not serve the kingdom in the end… [sigh].
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m
6:24 am
May 01, 2012
“but really what are Christians expecting from a people who rejected Jesus (Yeshua)?”
“I will tell them to go out of their way and bless those Jewish people, and make sure you don’t smear their image using evil news propaganda which will not serve the kingdom in the end… [sigh].”
Wonderful; you don’t approve of Jews but they are part of your game plan so best use them then?
You are not fooling anyone least of all God. Those were sick comments you made, especially the first that I quoted.
How about supporting Israel out of what is right and the TRUTH? That they are being portrayed as monsters when they are THE most humane country on the planet. Israel = a safe heaven for all faiths; if not specifically for those same JEWS you have contempt for (but will tolerate because they are “God’s Chosen and heaven you would not want to be on the wrong side of God now would you), if not for THEM JEWS, there would not be one shred of Christian presence and evidence in the Holy land. The muslims would utterly destroy very bit of it along with that of Judaism.
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dr Sandy Andron
8:11 pm
May 01, 2012
I am disappointed in 60 minutes and in the editiorial staff who first did nothing to mitigate the rant of Mr Simon, second allowed the segment to be shown, and finally has since done nothing in the way of leaving the response to folks such as myself to comment on the inappropriateness of the final product. Sixty Minutes, are you a news show or an entertainment program, a la SNL?
Mr Simon, I feel certain that you consider yourself a responsible journalist. How then can you present such a one-sided view with no counterpoint? Apparently yo choose to align yourself with the equally “responsible” nations fo the U.N. and the lopsided Arab World, in equating non-related items to deliberately obfuscate truth and fact. Like them, you have chosen to take advantage of the media and spoken word and chosen to brand yourself as biased, prejudiced, descriminatory and intolerant.
I submit further that you have allowed your personal prdjudice coupled with obvious encyclopedic ignorance to allow your inner biases to fill the screen and show, and further damage the reputation of what I formally considered a reputable news program.
I am relieved only by the fact that that there is a sensitive and discriminating audience who can distinuish between fact and fiction, truth and untruth, responsible information and opinion. Responsible journalism is still “all the news that’s FIT.” and fit still means careful thought and judicious selectivity in the press, whether written or thru media. Irresponsible journalism is what you have given your audience and those of us who believed 60 Minutes was above.
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TMay
9:50 pm
May 01, 2012
Everyone should go to Aish.com this week and read the article “60 Minutes Hatchet Job” which was an excellent rebuttal. People online have said that Israel is persecuting Christians. It is irresponsible to whip up anti- Semitism and anti- Israeli sentiment based on falsehoods and to spread ignorance.
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Linda Der-Kevorkian
11:55 am
May 04, 2012
Well, I will add just one comment to all these before mine…
Remember these words about the militant Muslims erroneous aim…whichever country they live in…..
Our warning be Jew or Gentile……. Today, the Saturday People…(the Jew). Tomorrow, the Sunday People …..(the Christian)”
This and ONLY this is their objective!
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David Goshen
3:36 pm
May 08, 2012
The most important fact which was omitted by Bob Simon and which really settles the whole argument is the fact that the late Pope John Paul II made several desperate appeals to Yasser Arafat to protect the Arab Christian population in the Palestinian Authority from the violent persecution they were undergoing at the hands of extreme Arab Muslims which included murder,rape,battery and assult,extortion,and every imaginable crime but his appeals fell on deaf ears.No small wonder that the Arab Christian population is now so small that Muslims are hired to care for the Christian Holy Places.The Christian Arab community has naturally sought a haven in countries which permit freedom of worship and enjoy communial safety.Sadly this is the pattern in most Muslim countries.A similar fate awaits the Christian Arab Armenian Community in East Jerusalem if fate will place them under the PA .In a generatio they will simply disappear!
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Raleigh Nc Cellulite Tratment
12:54 am
Jul 21, 2012
Everyone loves what you guys are up too. This type of clever work and coverage!
Keep up the amazing works guys I’ve added you guys to our blogroll.
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