Starved of the Truth: New York Times Fails its Readers
May 7, 2012 13:06 by Simon Plosker
Referring to hunger striking Palestinian prisoners as the “newest heroes of the Palestinian cause”, recently-arrived Israel correspondent for the New York Times, Jodi Rudoren makes an unpleasant story even worse in the eyes of the reader.
The job of a journalist is to ask questions. Rudoren, however, does not even bother to ask why these “heroes” might be under lock and key.
Instead, in an era where the language of human rights seemingly trumps all other considerations, Rudoren plays to the Palestinian narrative of Israel as a serial abuser of human rights.
Israel is sometimes forced by the abnormal threats it faces, to take measures that clash with the country’s liberal ethos. The use of administrative detention, whereby Palestinians deemed an immediate security threat can be imprisoned without charge, has been acknowledged by Israeli officials as virtually impossible to present in positive terms, particularly to a Western audience that values, like Israelis, the rule of law and the right to a fair trial.
Here’s how Jody Rudoren and the New York Times starved their readers of any balance in the story of the Palestinian hunger strikers by omitting any Israeli explanation for the use of administrative detention or the potential backgrounds of those detainees.
VIDEO: Click here to see HonestReporting’s Yarden Frankl commenting on this story.
Focusing on two prisoners in administrative detention currently on hunger strike, she refers to them as “members of Islamic Jihad, a radical and militant Palestinian faction.”
As far as Rudoren is concerned, membership of Islamic Jihad might as well be criminal in the same way as membership of a scout club or a political party. Islamic Jihad, however, does not support charitable causes or compete for the votes of the Palestinian people. Its entire raison d’etre is to carry out terrorism against Israelis with the backing of its Iranian funders.
Read on for more on how you can take action.
Stella Liebesman
5:37 pm
May 11, 2012
I don’t approve of administative detention any where. People should be brought to trial within a year.
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arcaneone
6:32 pm
May 11, 2012
APARTHEID?
(Arab old-timers)
mention “coexistence” and “a state for two nations.” They take great pride in the deep, friendly relations they maintain with their Jewish neighbors; a few of them say they have been involved over the years in attempts to draw Jews and Arabs closer together. From their viewpoint, the Nakba is a historical fact which needs no confirmation or legislation. Nor, in their view, need it frighten or threaten the Jewish presence in the country. As Awda al-Shehab says, “Only after we recognize mutually the suffering that was endured by the two peoples will we be able to create a common future. That is the true key to coexistence. Without it, each side will continue to live in the past
Shay Fogelman, Haaretz,June 3,2011, “Port in a Storm”
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BBC celebrates with Palestinian prisoners: Reunited, and it feels SO good! « Jerusalem State of Mind
5:39 am
Jul 20, 2012
[...] agreed to the move in May, as part of a deal to end a mass hunger strike by the “newest heroes of the Palestinian cause” - security prisoners including members of Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups whose entire [...]
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