HonestReporting members are actively patrolling the media for examples of anti-Israel bias. The HonestReporting staff reads all mail received, and we urge you to continue monitoring your local media, to see how they present the “issues of the day.”
Below, we present a digest of recent violations of media objectivity, as submitted by alert HonestReporting members.
Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.
HonestReporting.com
===== PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS’ “MISTAKE” =====
Paul Craig Roberts, a popular author and academic, calls the creation of the State of Israel a “mistake” and presents a scandalous ethnic-cleansing solution (“Are You Ready for WW IV?” – September 25):
“Trying to create a small Jewish state in a sea of Muslims was a 20th century mistake. Trying to reconstruct the Middle East would be a bigger mistake. Why not recognize the mistake, evacuate the Jews, leave the Muslims to themselves and focus on saving our own country?”
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=6936
Submit comments online at:
http://www.creators.com/opinion_writetheauthor.cfm?pg=write&columnsname=pcr
===== HAMAS WHO? =====
Sky News paints a highly inaccurate picture of Hamas in its report, “Gaza Missile Attack Kills Three” (Sept. 26):
“The area is a stronghold of the Islamic group Hamas which is at the forefront of a two-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
It is highly inaccurate to say that Hamas seeks “independence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” It is widely known and documented that the goal of Hamas is the destruction of Israel. Hamas has repeatedly tried to derail the peace process by attacking Israeli civilians when new rounds of talks start, and is not willing to agree to a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Furthermore, Sky News uses the words “uprising for independence,” lending legitimacy to the tactics of terrorists who break every code of human decency by intentionally targeting civilian men, women and children.
Read the article at:
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1065501,00.html
To send comments to Sky News, click on the gray “Feedback” button in the lower right-hand corner of the page.
===== DEMYSTIFYING DEIF =====
Following Israel’s attempted strike against Muhammad Deif in Gaza, BBC reports heavily on world criticism against Israel, but there’s nary a word to put into context why Deif tops the most-wanted list (“Annan Deplores Israel’s Gaza Attack” – Sept. 27).
BBC simply passes off Deif as “a senior figure in the militant Palestinian group Hamas.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/2284344.stm
BBC omits Deif’s trail of mass murder stretching through three decades — including the high-profile kidnapping-murder of U.S. citizen Nachshon Wachsman, and Deif’s 1996 wave of bombings that killed 60 Israelis in eight days. Deif is now chief of Hamas terror operations, following the elimination of Salah Shehadeh in July.
Comments to:
[email protected]
===== PALESTINIAN GEOGRAPHIC =====
Hundreds of HonestReporting readers have complained about a 10-page feature in the October 2002 issue of National Geographic, entitled “Lines in the Sand: Deadly Times in the West Bank and Gaza.” Writer Andrew Cockburn, author of the anti-Israel book, “Dangerous Liaison,” heavily distorts the history of the region — whitewashing Arab attempts to annihilate Israel in 1948 and 1967, and completely omitting mention of the 1973 annihilation attempt.
See a snippet at:
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0210/feature5/index.html
Comments to:
William Allen, Editor of National Geographic
[email protected]
National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036-4688
Phone: 800-647-5463
Fax: 202-828-5460
===== TRIBUNE’S 6-WEEK CALM? =====
Don Wycliff of the Chicago Tribune quotes a pro-Palestinian activist who objected to a recent Tribune headline: “Bomb Breaks 6-Week Calm” — a reference to August until mid-September, when little or no violence was reported.
Wycliff then quotes the activist as claiming: “But a quick Internet search turned up numerous instances of violence… except that it was violence inflicted on Palestinians as a result of the occupation.”
Wycliff and the Tribune report this allegation of Israeli violence as fact, without bothering to substantiate or challenge it. Yet authoritative statistics show there were actually 248 Palestinian attacks — shootings, bombings, stabbings — against Israelis during 3 weeks in September. See documentation at:
http://www.idf.il/daily_statistics/english/3.gif
Read the Tribune article at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0209260243sep26,0,3910198.column?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dcol
Comments to:
[email protected]
[email protected]
===== CLARITY IN IOWA =====
Kudos to the Des Moines (Iowa) Register, for it’s editorial, “Let Israel Fight Terrorists, Too.” The Editorial Board declares:
“Arafat’s refusal to surrender the militants was an unusually public example of his duplicity — pretending to want peace while protecting supporters suspected of having blood on their hands… Meanwhile, the United States surely does not genuinely expect Israel to be timid in trying to round up terrorists in its own back yard while the United States seeks to eradicate al-Qaida all over the world.”
http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c5917686/19302881.html
Comments to:
[email protected]
