HonestReporting has managed to clock up nearly 3.5 million pageviews during 2013. Here are the top ten most viewed posts of the year:
10. Slideshare: The Demonization of Israel
With a number of prominent anti-Semitic cartoons and images appearing in mainstream media outlets in the UK, Germany and Norway, the issue of demonization came to the fore in 2013.
As part of a campaign to address this problem, HonestReporting launched a petition to compel media outlets to adopt established definitions of anti-Semitism, which includes demonization of Israel. But what is demonization? This slideshare answered that question.
9. The Camera Doesn’t Lie, But What About the Caption?
This 2010 Backspin post was revisited after an Israeli and Palestinian scuffled during a riot — right in front of AP and Reuters photographers.
8. Stephen Hawking’s Media Mess
Professor Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott Israel’s President’s Conference left a nasty taste in the mouth and prompted this Times of Israel op-ed by HR’s Managing Editor republished by HonestReporting.
7. Rachel Corrie Died For This?
The wife of a Hamas parliamentarian explained to Gaza TV viewers about a mother’s responsibility: raising her children for jihad and martyrdom.
6. Slideshare: Notes and Quotes from the Media War
A selection of remarkable quotes about news, journalism, propaganda, power, mind control, truth, reality, and other influences on society.
5. Cementing Hate on Holocaust Memorial Day
This cartoon published in The Sunday Times would be offensive at the best of times. That it appeared on Holocaust Memorial Day was doubly so.
4. Israel Made Me Beat My Wife
This popular post from 2012 continues to draw readers. The Guardian looked at the status of women in Gaza and concluded that Israel is the reason that Palestinian men beat their wives!
3. Slideshare: Photo Bias in the Media
How images are used and misused to deceive the public about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Four brief sections with visual examples: deliberate staging, fauxtography, perspectives and angles, and recycling.
2. The Hypocrisy of a Black Miss Israel?
Damning Israel for its success in absorbing Ethiopian Jewry, one Australian columnist had a big-time problem with the Miss Israel crown going to 21 year-old Ethiopian-born Yityish Aynaw.
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And the most viewed item of the year cemented the New York Times for the 2013 Dishonest Reporter Award:
1. New York Times Photo Outrage
To accompany its story on the fatal stabbing of Israeli soldier Eden Atias, the New York Times chose not a photo of the soldier, nor a photo of his mourning mother. We were treated instead to an image of the terrorist’s mother. The photo prompted outrage from readers and and admission from the New York Times that it had got it wrong.
What will be the hot button issues for readers in 2014?
