A new website devoted to analyzing the problems that plague modern journalism was launched today: ‘The Second Draft’
The first investigation tackled by the group, headed by Prof. Richard Landes of Boston University, is ‘Pallywood’ and the Muhammad Al Dura affair — they’ve placed online a good deal of the raw footage taken that day at the Netzarim junction by the France 2 team, and presented three methods of analysis:
1) CSI (Crime Scene Investigation): For those who want to take the time to examine the evidence themselves, and come to their own conclusions.
2) Edited: For those who want to see the original material, but have it edited to bring the most relevant footage together.
3) Packaged: For those who want a quick introduction to the material that The Second Draft has put together.
The general project has this goal:
Journalism likes to call itself the “first draft of history,” and in this age when media plays an increasingly powerful role in shaping public opinion, it can not only write the first draft, but play an active part in that history. It seems appropriate then, especially in cases where the media’s coverage has had a particularly sharp influence on the course of historical events, that historians examine this first draft and ascertain just how accurate it may have been. We hope to make an ongoing series of such incidents available to the public, and to encourage our media to produce reliably accurate and relevant material for the free citizens of a global civil society.
HonestReporting wishes The Second Draft all the best in their new and important venture, and hopes their work will contribute to greater quality media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.
