Research shows time after time that news consumers regard objectivity to be one of the most important litmus tests for professional journalism. Reporting the facts – without agendas and biases – is widely understood to be the media’s prime function.
Three weeks ago, Vice World News failed to live up to this journalistic standard by publishing a slanted, pro-Palestinian piece that blatantly misled readers. Even though HonestReporting called out the article and pointed out the facts in a March 7 critique, Vice has yet to issue a correction.
Related Reading: VICE Perpetuates Palestinian Refugee Myth, Blames Israel For Hamas’ Attack on Women’s Rights
Young Palestinians Are Leaning Into TikTok – Even if Their Content Gets Deleted, written by Vice UK journalist James Greig, was ostensibly meant to highlight how Palestinians have taken to the TikTok video-sharing platform to promote their collective national identity. However, instead of empowering these individuals, the piece perpetuated misleading claims about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and downplayed the fact that terrorist groups are using social media to incite violence.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
To summarize our previous criticism, the piece deceived readers by claiming that most Palestinian refugees are “barred from returning to their homeland,” based on the false assumption that there are more than five million Palestinian refugees. In reality, according to US government estimates, less than 200,000 Palestinian refugees from the 1948 War of Independence are still alive, and most others are not refugees by “any rational criteria.”
Moreover, Greig blasted TikTok for suspending QNN, deceivingly described it as “a Palestinian news network.” What went unmentioned is that QNN stands for Quds News Network, a Hamas-affiliated news agency known for promoting hate and violence against Jews. Effectively, Greig had attempted to whitewash the Gaza-based Islamist terrorist group and its activities on social media.
Greig’s Disconcerting Connections to BDS
After publishing our critique earlier this month, HonestReporting tried to engage with James Greig through social media several times, but to no avail. We also sent an email on March 8 to Zing Tsjeng, executive officer at VICE‘s UK office, but similarly received no response. While attempting to contact Greig through social media, we discovered several anti-Israel posts on his Twitter account, some of them bordering on racism.
Turns out that the author of the pro-Palestinian Vice piece is an ardent supporter of the controversial Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the Jewish state. In one tweet, Greig amplified the BDS campaign against ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s. In 2018, he went as far as to say that he does not want to date Israelis out of fear of “breaking the cultural boycott,” a statement that many would consider discriminatory if made about prospective dating partners from any other country.
During the protests that erupted in the United States after George Floyd’s death last year, Greig on Twitter implicitly promoted the canard that Israel is somehow responsible for American police violence. Such a libel resembles classic antisemitic tropes that blame Jews for all manner of problem. The vicious tweet received more than 500 retweets and 1.500 likes.
In addition, the journalist has openly declared his solidarity with the Palestinian people in their “struggle for freedom and justice,” and called on his followers to donate to different Palestinian causes.
Related Reading: Hope, Healing and Media in the Shadow of George Floyd
While reporters are entitled to think what they like, even if such thoughts border on racism, these opinions should remain on Twitter or in the op-ed section. Yet, James Greig and Vice clearly missed that memo, as the TikTok piece shows.
The February 25 article is an example of spreading an opinion under the guise of a news story, an anti-journalistic practice that erodes the press’s sacred task of objectively reporting the facts.
Greig’s pro-Palestinian views apparently got in the way of his journalistic integrity and influenced his reporting on the Palestinian refugee issue and the suspension of QNN by TikTok.
Vice World News, an organization that pats itself on the back for its “immersive world-class reporting by a new generation of global correspondents,” bears responsibility as well. It either failed to properly vet the journalist – his anti-Israel activism started before Vice hired him, and continued throughout his employment – or has willingly provided a platform to an anti-Israel activist, who has continued his activism under the banner of ‘journalism’.
To restore public trust in the media, Vice and other media organizations must uphold their commitment to objectivity. Research shows that news consumers demand nothing less from professional reporters. A good start would be by correcting the misleading claims made by James Greig.
UPDATE: Two hours after the publication of this article, Vice contacted HonestReporting and apologized for the late response to our March 8 email. We are currently awaiting a substantive response to our complaint.
