In a New York Times article on the Palestinian social scene in Haifa, we wrote that Ayed Fadel, one of the sources for the piece, complained bitterly that his words were taken out of context. Despite the portrayal by reporter Diaa Hadid of a social scene embracing progressive values, the reality is a much more political environment. As we showed, Fadel’s Facebook feed is full of anti-Israel posts, not support for gay rights.
Complaints from many readers reached Margaret Sullivan, the paper’s Public Editor. Her response, “More Context Needed on Article on Haifa Culture,” admits to a failure on the part of the Times:
What was largely missing, however, was something else I recommended in my Mideast column: plenty of context. While it’s impossible (and a bad idea) to summarize the history of Israel and Palestine in every piece of news coverage or every feature article, this article needed more political and historical information to put it in perspective…
No framing of an article like this will satisfy everyone. But The Times can do better with providing more context and information, even in a feature story.
In a follow-up post, the reporter, Hadid, told Sullivan she was surprised that not one, but four of the people interviewed said they were taken out of context:
I wrote this story really because I wanted to pay tribute to Haifa’s unique culture, and particularly how Palestinian citizens of Israel had carved their own dynamic, liberal scene in the city. For that reason, I was mortified to find out that at least four people I had interviewed felt that I had misrepresented them in the story, and that it had garnered more criticism than any other story I have written in nearly a decade of coverage the Middle East.
It is very revealing that the main complaint from those interviewed is that their political views were left out of the article.
The irony is that we agree.
The hatred of Israel espoused by the people she interviewed should have been included in the article so that readers would understand that their liberal views end when it comes to peace and coexistence.
But we do credit Sullivan for being responsive to the readers concerns and conveying them to the reporter.
