When HonestReporting readers were asked to choose the “winner” of the 2013 Dishonest Reporting Award, the prevailing displeasure was best summed up in a one-line email:
“The NY Times bludgeoned Israel all year.”
Much of the resentment focused on the paper’s op-ed section. A steady parade of commentaries disdainfully dismissing 
Israel’s Iranian anxieties certainly cemented the Gray Lady‘s award in the latter part of 2013. This wasn’t surprising. HonestReporting’s long-term study of the Times’s opinion section found similar problems in 2012.
But the NY Times built up a bona fide case to win this award even without the issue of op-eds.
The paper added a known anti-Israel conspiracy theorist to its editorial board, glorified stone throwers, raised questions about the way it corrects the record, and finished the year with a flourishing photo failure. None of the 2013 runners up such as the BBC, CNN, Haaretz, and others, came close to matching the tensions the Times stoked.
To be fair, there were some bright spots. Perhaps the Gray Lady’s finest moment, as one reader asserted, was when Memri brought to light a video of Mohammed Morsi making anti-Semitic comments. The story didn’t get the widespread attention it deserved until the New York Times picked it up, ultimately leading to a White House condemnation and public scrutiny that Morsi couldn’t ignore.
[sc:midsignup ]The Times is America’s most influential newspaper, partly because of its reach, and partly because of its reputation for journalistic excellence. With more than 1.8 million subscribers, 4.7 million followers on Facebook, and another 10.4 million on Twitter, the New York Times is the second most-visited news site in the world.
Here are the reasons HonestReporting readers flagged the New York Times for this year’s Dishonest Reporting Award.
Why The New York Times Won the 2013 Dishonest Reporting Award
Glorifying Stone Throwers
Not once, but twice, the Times put stone-throwing Palestinians on a glowing pedestal. First was a March New York Times Magazine cover story about weekly protests at Nabi Saleh (accompanied by a photo slide show titled The Resisters).
The author of the piece, Ben Ehrenreich, had previously smeared Israel in a vile Los Angeles Times op-ed comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa (South Africa was judged more benign) and labeled Gaza as a “139-square-mile prison camp.” And in a Harper’s dispatch, Ehrenreich imputed that Israel was waging a “water war with Palestine.”
As for the story itself, the specific criticisms were simply too lengthy to detail here. Arnold Roth had a compelling personal connection to the article. See also Haaretz columnist Chemi Shalev and Commentary editor Jonathan Tobin.
Asked what got him curious about Nabi Saleh, Ehrenreich said afterwards:
I wanted to understand what would motivate people to keep fighting, to keep demonstrating every week, knowing exactly what the consequences would be and how much they stood to lose.
Memo to Ehrenreich and the Times: the weekly clashes in places like Nabi Saleh and Bilin are scripted for the media‘s consumption.
In August, the Times published a second look at rock throwing — this one about boys from the village of Beit Omar. How did bureau chief Jodi Rudoren explain the violence?
Here in Beit Ommar, a village of 17,000 between Bethlehem and Hebron that is surrounded by Jewish settlements, rock throwing is a rite of passage and an honored act of defiance.The futility of stones bouncing off armored vehicles matters little: confrontation is what counts.
HonestReporting reminded the Times that Throwing Stones is An Act of Violence. Rudoren followed in the footsteps of Amira Hass, whose stone throwing apologia earned the Haaretz columnist her own Dishonest Reporting award too.
Questioning Israel’s Right to Exist
Nobody questions, say, Japan’s right to exist. Denying Russian people their self-determination is anti-Russian. And invalidating inherent Irish national aspirations won’t score points among Irish people anywhere in world.
Yet the New York Times saw fit to publish a hefty 2,052-word commentary by Professor Joseph Levine in March arguing that it’s not anti-Semitic to question Israel’s right to exist. A Jewish state, asserts Levine, is “undemocratic,” while the trappings of statehood aren’t a big a deal anyway.
But the same rights the philosophy professor denies Jews are granted to the Palestinians. Self-determination? Jews need not apply.
A second op-ed calling for Israel’s demise was published in September. At face value, Professor Ian Lustick appeared to be calling for a one-state solution.
But a closer reading showed Lustick went beyond that to deny Jewish national aspirations. Is there any room for Jewish national expression in the one-state fantasy Lustick describes from the thin air of his ivory tower?
In such a radically new environment, secular Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank could ally with Tel Aviv’s post-Zionists, non-Jewish Russian-speaking immigrants, foreign workers and global-village Israeli entrepreneurs. Anti-nationalist ultra-Orthodox Jews might find common cause with Muslim traditionalists. Untethered to statist Zionism in a rapidly changing Middle East, Israelis whose families came from Arab countries might find new reasons to think of themselves not as “Eastern,” but as Arab.
Lustick’s response to critics was reminiscent of William Shakespeare soliloquy: A tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Both Lustick and Levine are Jewish, but neither represents any mainstream Jewish views. Fancy academic titles don’t make up for the shortcomings of their arguments. But what does all this say about the Times?
A conspiracy theorist joins the editorial board, fumbling a photo flub, and more.
[sc:bottomsignup ].
24 Comments
The New York Slimes has been biased against Jews since the 1930s, when the paper was owned by the Ochs and
Sulzbergers. Nothing new here, only that it has reached risably propagandistic heights to the point where the editors and reporters don’t even try to hide their misplaced, misinformed opinions, and their Editorial Board is purposefully anti-Zionist. Not merely distasteful, but entirely disgraceful.
Unfortunately, the Daily New and NY Post are written for people who read at the level of a 3rd or 4th grader. The NY Times is written for people who read at the level of an 8th grader so people who believe they are better read the NY Times. I have never and will never subscribe to or purchase this travesty of objective journalism.
The New York Times continues to be disappointing in its coverage of Israel, and it is an absolute travesty that Jodi Rudoren is employed by them, and insult to injury that she is their Jerusalem bureau chief. I cannot think of a more biased person to place in that position.
I believe the entire ‘affair’ warrants an in-depth investigation: Why a media belonging to a traditional New York Jewish family, is so much against the Jewish State? If the Oaks Sulzberger family is to such an extend self-hating, it should be out in the open.
Merely condemning them and their publication (N Y Times) is not enough. Not by far. The entire ‘affair’ demands a clear explanation. A very clear explanation. And the sooner the better. There are enough good investigative reporters in New York to clarify this mystery in no time at all. And this, in my opinion, would be a dignified approach that “Honest Reporting” should use as of January 2, 2014.
Nothing more treacherous than the one within. The New York Times should change its title to the New York Stuermer more apt for its anti Semitic stance . Enlightenment is not one of its stronger points but hate is. Honesty, truth & fact are not to be used but discarded to please the Arab patrons of this rag.,
Nothing more treacherous than the one within. The New York Times should change its title to the New York Stuermer more apt for its anti Semitic stance . Enlightenment is not one of its stronger points but hate is. Honesty, truth & fact are not to be used but discarded to please the Arab patrons of this rag.,
Laa ilaaha illa Allah Muhammad rosuulullah
http://fresnozionism.org/2013/11/emotions-first-at-the-ny-times/#comments
Emotions first at the NY Times
Nov 20, 2013
The emotion-laden photo of the mother of murderer Hussein Gawadra, used by the Times to illustrate its article about the murder of Eden Atias
Jonathan Haidt, in his excellent book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, argues that we are motivated by emotions, not reasoning. Logic can rationalize our beliefs (and the actions we take) afterwards, but emotions drive us.
Even the facts that we use to rationalize our feeling-driven conclusions are perceived, remembered and given weight selectively, through an emotional filter.
So if you want to persuade someone of something, start with the emotions. Facts and logic can wait.
I often wonder if the journalists of the anti-Israel media like NPR and the NY Times do this out of conscious intent or instinctively. Both focus strongly on the emotional aspects of the conflict. While there may be ‘balance’ in the facts presented, the weight of emotional content is always on the side of the Arabs.
Do they have meetings in which the editors explain the best propaganda techniques? Or are they expected to have learned this stuff in Journalism school?
Recently the NY Times embarrassed itself by going more than a little over the line in this direction when it published a story about the gruesome knife murder of a sleeping 19-year old Jewish soldier, Eden Atias (my take on the murder is here), illustrated with a photo of the grieving mother of the murderer!
The article, which devotes more space to Israeli plans to construct homes outside of the Green Line than it does to Arab terrorism, incitement and murder, is bad enough — but the photo provoked a storm of complaints to Margaret Sullivan, the Times’ public editor, who responded with a rare admission that the Times had made a “wrong choice” in selecting it to illustrate the story.
But the editors’ mea culpas ignored the real problem, that the emotional content of the photo was biased, and pleaded only to the lesser crime of irrelevance:
[Ms Sullivan] spoke on Monday afternoon to two senior editors at The Times. Both agreed that the photo was a regrettable choice. The dominant image with an article should reflect the overall point of the article and the reason for its newsworthiness.
“This did not represent the essence of the story, which was clearly the moment of the Israeli soldier being stabbed,” said Michele McNally, the assistant managing editor in charge of photography. She said a less-senior picture editor chose the photograph, along with one representing what she considered the other side of the story, which showed an Israeli police officer at the crime scene.
The selection of the Palestinian mother’s image with the article was an effort to achieve balance, but such an effort was not appropriate in this case, Ms. McNally said. In the print editions of the newspaper, the two photographs were published on an inside page with the Palestinian photograph above the other. On the website and in other digital presentations, the Palestinian photograph was by far the more dominant image and remains so.
Of course that misses the point, which is the bias inherent in the choice. But not satisfied with merely looking dense, the editors felt the need to make up a transparent excuse:
It was only later in the news cycle that photographs of the soldier’s funeral — which would have been an appropriate choice for a dominant image — became available, she said. (A photograph of the victim would also have been appropriate, she said.) “We should have waited for that or substituted it once it came,” she said.
Were there no photos of the crime scene or of Eden Atias available immediately after the murder? Funny — all the Israeli newspapers had them. How is it that the carefully composed picture of the murderer’s mother, which could only have been taken hours after the murder and the arrest (by Palestinian Gonzo photographer Muhammad Ballas), was available to them early and these others were not? And why didn’t they substitute another picture?
Stupid or evil: you decide.
In WW2, the Times covered up the genocide the Nazis were committing against the Jews.
The Times barely reported about it.
When it came to the Babi Yar massacre in 1941 in Ukraine, the NY Times wrote that 30,000 Russians and Ukrainians were killed.
The Times didn’t even mention that all the victims in Babi Yar were Jews.
The NY Times opposed the U.S recognizing Israel in 48.
The NY Times opposed Israel bombing Iraq’s nuclear facility in 81.
Last year, Roger Cohen of the Times basically comes out and says Israel should do nothing while Hamas fires hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians.
Ari Lieberman totally destroys the lies of Roger Cohen.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/11/roger_cohen_and_the_new_york_times_useful_idiots.html
Roger Cohen and the New York Times: Useful Idiots
Ari Lieberman
November 21, 2012
A must see video done by Anna Blech on how the NY Times turned a blind eye to the genocide of the Jews by the Nazis in WW22.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2PQCNQH2lY
Downplaying the Holocaust — Sulzberger & NY Times: Anna Blech
I knew the NY Times was anti Israel, but now the Iimes has come to the point where their siding with Palestinian butchers who massacre elderly Israeli holocaust survivors.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2014/03/in-nyt-terrorist-gets-more-sympathy.html#.Uzn0rPldXls
In NYT, a terrorist gets more sympathy than victims
March 20, 2014
Jodi Rudoren’s latest dispatch in the New York Times painstakingly attempts to give equal weight to a terrorist murderer and the the Holocaust survivor victim’s family.
Nothing shocks me with the NY Times.
11 years ago they had radical Israel hater Avi Shlaim write an article saying the real obstacle to peace is Sharon, not Arafat. Shlaim tried to say this murderer Arafat was a moderate and man of peace.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/opinion/24iht-edshlaim_ed3_.html
Israel and Palestine : The real obstacle to peace is Sharon, not Arafat
Avi Shlaim
September 24, 2003
———————-
I hope Avi Shlaim is eating crow supporting this mass murderer Arafat.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/04/07/bodyguard-arafat-would-lie-when-denouncing-killing-of-israeli-civilians-video/#comment-4388612
Bodyguard: Arafat Would Lie When Denouncing Killing of Israeli Civilians (VIDEO)
APRIL 7, 2014 17 COMMENTS
—————————
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/476.htm
Arafat’s Condolences to Dolphinarium Bomber’s Family: The Heroic Martyrdom Operation’…’A Model of Manhood and Sacrifice
July 9, 2001
————————————
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=8&x_nameinnews=109&x_article=246
Maslama Thabet, leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades admitted in 2002 all orders to kill Israeli civilians comes from Arafat.
———————————
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/arafatterrorismisrael123115.html
During the 12 year Civil War in Lebanon, caused by Yassir Arafat’s assuming power through terror, his terrorists committed mass murder. Whole villages of Christians like Damour were massacred, chopped into pieces with machetes. Out of the 30,000 Christians, 10,000 were slaughtered by Arafat’s PLO. The town was then occupied and kept as Arafat’s stronghold. David Shipler of the New York Times wrote the story of Damour June 21, 1982. There were individual murders.! One horrific, but typical, example is when the Muktar (leader) of a village refused to be cooperative with Arafat and his terrorists. The Muktar’s teenage daughter was abducted and raped. Her breasts were cut off and she was delivered to the doorstep of her father in a sack.
——————————–
http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/A/arafat_yasser.html
On the same day in 1993 on which Yasser Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles on the White House lawn, he spoke the following words on Jordan TV:
“Since we cannot defeat Israel in war we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel.”
—————————————–
http://www.geocities.ws/palestiniansarelies/YasserArafatDeclaration.html
Arafat’s Stockholm speech in 1996 to Arab diplomats
“The Impending Total Collapse of Israel,” Stockholm, Sweden.
Arafat said that the PLO plans “to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion; Jews won’t want to live among us Arabs.”
Arafat said: “I have no use for Jews..they are and remain Jews! We now need all the help we can get from you in our battle for a united Palestine under total Arab-Muslim domination!”
———————————————-
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-singer111902.asp
Following the murderous terrorist attack on Kibbutz Metzer, the PLO cold-bloodedly stated on its official website, “We will continue to strike in any place, targeting their children as well.” Five innocent Israelis, including a mother and her two little boys, were butchered in that attack, all of them, Fatah said, “Zionist colonizers” killed in a “qualitative operation in the settlement of Metzer.”
Here’s how the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida headlined its coverage: “Five Israelis killed in an attack on the settlement Metzer.” The report continued, “A Palestinian infiltrated the settlement Metzer and opened fire on the settlers.” It is not well known that the Palestinian press frequently refers to towns in Israel, such as Holon and Kiryat Shmona, as “settlements.” Besides implying that a ll of Israel is an illegitimate colonial outpost, such references clearly are brought to justify the killings and distinguish them from terrorism.
—————————————
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/jeff/jacoby011003.asp
After the Tel Aviv massacre on January 12th 2003, where 2 Palestinian homicide bombers massacred 23 Israeli civilians. The PLO web site posted a statement — celebrating the attacks: “With faith in the calling of holy jihad,” it said, “two suicide attackers . . . succeeded this evening to infiltrate the Zionist roadblocks and to enter the heart of . . . Tel Aviv and carried out two consecutive suicide attacks… These suicide attacks caused a large number of fatalities and casualties in the center of the Zionist occupation of our land. We swear before our people that additional suicide operations will occur.” That is a view with which much of Arab opinion concurs. ArabicNews.com, for ex ample, datelined its story on the Tel Aviv attack “Palestine-Israel,” and reported that the bombings had killed “23 Israeli settlers.”
———————————
This is a must read article detailing the sadist butcher Arafat was on Israeli civilians.
Then again, Arabs slaughtering Jews doesn’t bother Shlaim
————————————-
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Did-Israel-kill-Yasser-Arafat
Did Israel kill Yasser Arafat?
ITAMAR MARCUS, NAN JACQUES ZILBERDIK11/26/2012
And if so, was it justified?
Nov 26, 2012
Great article describing the Times lies about Israel.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/5935#.U7qnhPldXls
The Blatant Moral Equivalency of the New York Times
Dr. Joseph Frager
7/6/2014
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/08/israeli-ambassador-ron-dermer-rips-new-york-times-editorial-as-embarrassment-to-journalism/
Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer Rips New York Times Editorial as ‘Embarrassment to Journalism’
JULY 8, 2014
So let me understand this correctly… The vast majority of the world and the vast majority of the US media openly support Israel and the US policy regarding the current situation. But one media outlet shows the other side of the story and all of a sudden it’s biased? If the NY Times are biased for showing the Palestinian point of view, then the media that reports favorable toward Israel must then be biased also. I feel that it is EVERY news coverage’s responsibility to give us ALL the facts, not just what will get the general public or a specific audience to agree with their opinion. I urge everyone to do your own research. Read reports from both sides. Form an opinion of the situation based on facts that can be proven by multiple sources.
Camera shows how the Times are apologists for Palestinian terrorists.
Watch how the Times becomes propagandists for the Palestinian terrorist who murdered the 3 month old Jewish baby.
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=35&x_article=2860The ABC’s of Media Spin: The NYT and A Terror Attack.
By Ricki Hollander,
October 24, 2014
In WW2, the Times covered up the genocide the Nazis were committing against the Jews.
The Times barely reported about it.
When it came to the Babi Yar massacre in 1941 in Ukraine, the NY Times wrote that 30,000 Russians and Ukrainians were killed.
The Times didn’t even mention that all the victims in Babi Yar were Jews.
The NY Times opposed the U.S recognizing Israel in 48.
The NY Times opposed Israel bombing Iraq’s nuclear facility in 81.
Last year, Roger Cohen of the Times basically comes out and says Israel should do nothing while Hamas fires hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2014/03/in-nyt-terrorist-gets-more-sympathy.html#.VJIYMCvF_ls
In NYT, a terrorist gets more sympathy than victims
March 20, 2014
Jodi Rudoren’s latest dispatch in the New York Times painstakingly attempts to give equal weight to a terrorist murderer and the the Holocaust survivor victim’s family.
CAMERA Billboard Humiliates New York Times lies about Israel.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/camera-updates-billboard-humiliating-new-york-times#.U3-F4Fd13Ss.twitter
The NY Times are sickos.
http://www.israellycool.com/2014/12/16/new-york-times-sez-every-jew-must-get-stoned/
New York Times Sez: Every Jew Must Get Stoned in Israel
by: Varda Epstein
December 16, 2014
The U.S should end funding Fatah mass murderers.
A must see pic.
https://www.facebook.com/StandWithUs/photos/a.350931762688.151625.19459912688/10152848463472689/?type=1&theater
Pingback: Washington Post’s Jerusalem Bureau Chief Peddles Anti-Israel Fake News Dishonesty and distortion on Israeli security check points. Ari Lieberman | RUTHFULLY YOURS
Pingback: Washington Post's Jerusalem Bureau Chief Peddles Anti-Israel Fake News
Pingback: Israel Daily News Stream 12/26/2013