2020 Second Quarter Activities Report

Program Highlights

We believe Israel deserves fair treatment in the news. We know public opinion is shaped by the media. We empower the grassroots to respond to media bias.

Join over 100,000 others demanding fair media coverage for Israel Sign Up For Updates

Director’s Message

Welcome to HonestReporting’s Q2 activities report. What an unusual year 2020 is turning out to be! Israel had shown success in dealing with the first wave of COVID-19, but as I write this report we are struggling with a severe second wave. Like many companies in Israel, we have set up a rotation system so that we have limited staff in the office at any given time, while the rest work from home. And of course, we are waiting on our government to make the responsible and difficult decisions that will shepherd all of us through this crisis. Despite these uncertain times and lack of normalcy, the spread of media bias and misinformation continues. Tragically, there is no pause button for irresponsible media and the spread of hateful messages. Fortunately, there is also no pause button for HonestReporting either! During Q2, we achieved significant success in our MediaCentral program. As you’ll see in this report, we put on a high volume of high quality press events. These were instrumental in the publication of articles in top-tier publications that made a meaningful difference in Israel’s portrayal in the world. Topics covered included: civil rights in Israel, Hamas’s human rights violations, Israel-China ties, and Israel settlement blocs as they relate to living in Israel during the pandemic. Our editorial team engaged many challenging projects, including:

• Israel’s annexation plans: Though the topic is controversial (even among Israelis), we demand that it be covered with the same fairness and depth that any country deserves from the press.
• The horrific murder of George Floyd: BDS groups have attempted to hijack his legacy for their own cynical agenda. They are misrepresenting violence and racism in America as being somehow the fault of Israel and of Jews.

Sadly, we’ve been unable to welcome our mission participants to Israel due to the corona crisis. However, we’ve held two Zoom calls for mission alumni and three webinars instead. These virtual get-togethers covered your suggested topics: such as sharing news responsibly, fighting media bias from home, and the language of bias. We also produced 16 Youtube videos this quarter, in which we addressed Israel’s innovative measures to help humanity in the fight against COVID-19, as well as other important issues, from BDS and George Floyd to social media being used as a platform to spread hate. As a result of our hard work, our Youtube views have almost doubled since last quarter! Thank you for your continued support and wishing you and your family health and safety. Daniel Pomerantz and the HonestReporting team

• YouTube Project

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, our video staff produced 16 compelling videos on the hot topics that young people are talking about. These videos were viewed 4,975,611 times. The Innovative ways to help humanity video was a runaway success. It had 1,371,566 views on YouTube. This video describes Israel’s innovative early measures to fight the spread of COVID-19. Daniel shot this video from inside his home during the national lockdown. It was then professionally edited by our digital design team, which also worked from home. We also produced videos that addressed the complicated annexation issue; the hijacking of George Floyd’s memory by groups with an anti-Israeli, antisemetic agenda; Iran’s cyberattack against Israel; and how social media is being used as a megaphone to spread hatred.

• 360 Degree View Of Israel and The Middle East:

Our educational pieces provided a deep dive into issues about Israel and the Middle East that people want to learn more about. During these extraordinary times, the coronavirus was on everyone’s mind. In response, we produced well researched, nuanced, interesting pieces about how Israelis are living their lives in the midst of this pandemic. The selection of in-depth reports that were published during this period includes:

• How are civil rights in Israel affected by coronavirus?
• Coronavirus exposes Hamas disregard for Gaza human rights
• Israel-China ties: the ‘sticking point’ with the US?
• What are Israel’s settlement blocs?

• HR in the Media?

June 22nd

Daniel Pomerantz: The law of annexation: What’s right and what’s wrong?

June 11th

Emanuel Miller: Is the media helping BDS exploit George Floyd’s death?

April 21st

Daniel Pomerantz: MSNBC admits error in calling ‘Palestine’ a country

Daniel Pomerantz also appeared on ILTV

On June 8, Daniel Pomerantz discussed the current racial tensions in the United States, and how BDS activists are hijacking the murder of George Floyd to attack Israel. On June 16, Daniel spoke on the annexation issue. Does it violate international law? Will it harm Israel? What does it mean for prospects for peace?

• Zoom Calls and Webinars Is How We Stay In Touch During COVID-19:

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to adjust the way we stay connected with our donors and subscribers. With our regular field trips and Spring 2020 Mission to Israel cancelled due to COVID-19, our Director of Missions and Donor Relations, Suzanne Lieberman, has prioritized virtual means of communication. During the second quarter, we held two zoom calls that both mission alumni and those scheduled to join us this year participated in. These virtual gatherings were developed and timed to cater to people from the northern and southern hemispheres. During these digital get-togethers, Daniel first provided insights into how Israel was coping with the coronavirus before opening the calls up to questions and answers on a wide range of topics. With COVID-19 expected to be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future, we’re already planning more zoom calls in the coming weeks. We also held three very successful webinars that were attended by a total of almost 400 participants. More information about these events below…

5 tips for sharing news responsibly during the coronavirus

April 26th

In our first ever live webinar, 5 tips for sharing news responsibly during the coronavirus, Daniel provided insights into how people can sort through the morass of online content to quickly tell the difference between information and misinformation about COVID-19.

How to fight media bias without leaving your home

May 10th

Acclaimed communications expert Neil Lazarus shared his exclusive techniques on how to communicate effectively with people about difficult topics. www.awesomeseminars.com

The Language of Bias

June 28th

In the second webinar, The language of bias, Daniel gave participants critical tools to help them become savvier about identifying misleading terminology and language that can create false or misleading impressions.about Israel and the Middle East.

Testimonials

“Thank you so much for running the webinar again. I see a lot of things going on but I was not knowledgeable enough or didn’t have the tools to communicate with people about the facts. This was very helpful. Hope to see more webinars.” Elizabeth B., Portland, Oregon “Just letting you know and spread the word that Daniel’s webinar gave us the tools we need to counteract what we’ve been hearing. I am sending the recorded webinar to all my contacts as a wonderful teaching tool! Thanks so much!!!” Andrea B., Toronto, Ontario “This was extremely interesting and helpful. Thank you to you all for what you are doing. It is a vital and excellent job. Keep going!!” Florence D., Guildford, United Kingdom

• Social Media Impact

1.5 million

 

Facebook reach

1.5 million impressions

897k

 

Twitter

897k impressions

4.6 million

 

Video

We made 16 videos that were viewed over 4.6 million times