Nobody should underestimate the significance of local newspapers in the United States. After all, not everyone reads the New York Times or Washington Post.
Sometimes, readers are exposed to foreign news only through these local media outlets that may be publishing the very same wire service stories from Associated Press, Reuters and others that also appear in the top tier outlets.
That’s why the letters page of the local newspaper is still an important platform to address media bias.
HonestReporting critiqued a story from the AP that focused on the continuing Gaza border protests-cum-riots. The piece claims that “Israeli snipers have targeted one part of the body more than any other — the legs.”
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Our latest Watchdog of the Week is Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman of Dillon, Colorado who responded to that AP story after it was published in the Summit Daily News, which gave him top billing on its letters page. The letter, reproduced in full here, is well worth reading:
Ever so infrequently, the Summit Daily News publishes some article about the “Palestinian cause.” This past week, a reporter featured a Gazan father who took his sons to see the conflagration that occurs regularly at the border of Gaza and Israel between rioting, tire burning, border rushing, rock and firebomb-throwing Gazans and Israeli military forces. Unfortunately, one of his sons was wounded by a ricocheting bullet. The reporter went on to describe life in the Gaza Strip which, according to him, was made more miserable by an Israeli blockade. By the time I was done reading this opinion piece, I wanted to ask this reporter several, pertinent questions:
1. What responsible parent puts their child in such harm’s way? I would no sooner have exposed my kids to such a scene than I would see them handle poisonous snakes or live grenades.
2. How do the thousands of Gazans get to the border with Israel and what is their purpose for their weekly riots? Who hires the buses? Who provides the tires, fire bombs and hand grenades?
3. What other border police or army would stand for being pelted with rocks and incendiaries? What troops would tolerate attempts to forcibly invade their border? And what purpose is behind those attempts to breach border fences and barriers?
4. Are you not aware of Hamas’ usage of human shields?
5. Are you not aware that Hamas and others have placed rocket launchers in and under schools, hospitals and homes?
6. Have you not read Hamas’ charter which calls for the annihilation of Israel?
7. Are you as a reporter doing enough background and historical research to even know what you are talking about or presenting?
8. Are you remotely aware of the biases you have brought to your piece?
9. Have you seen the destruction of the agricultural fields and forests adjacent to the Gaza Strip which have been burned because of fire bomb-carrying balloons?
10. Have you taken account of the hundreds and hundreds of rockets, mortars and missiles that Hamas and an Iranian-backed and prompted group called Islamic Jihad have fired into Israel over the past number of months, or the attack tunnels which the IDF has located and destroyed — a tunnel into Israeli territory for the purpose of kidnapping and murdering Israeli civilians?
11. Are you aware of the tons and tons of goods and materials that flow through the Kerem Shalom check point from Israel to Gaza daily (that is when Hamas or its surrogates aren’t attacking and blowing up this crossing)?
Your piece featured an irresponsible parent and then went on to attempt to raise sympathy for him and to what he exposed his children to. My question is, if given the chance to do it over, would he make the same mistake?
For your next venture into explaining the Gaza Strip, you might ask yourself why no one seems to want to rule this piece of land? Why not the Egyptians or the Israelis? Why did Israel give up the Gaza Strip in August of 2005? You might ask why there is no adequate sewage treatment or water system in Gaza? Why does sewage from Gaza flow untreated into the Mediterranean Sea, spreading north and winding up on Israeli beaches? Why isn’t electrical service full time in Gaza? What has happened to the groundwater there and why does the drinking water now taste salty? Why, given the millions and billions Hamas has received, hasn’t it built better hospitals, schools and housing for its people, instead of throwing these funds into the building of a vast tunnel system under the Gaza Strip and preparing hundreds if not thousands of rockets for firing into the Jewish state?
Given its location on the shores of the Mediterranean, Gaza could one day be a glorious resort location complete with air and seaports. But as long as it is ruled by the likes of Hamas, none of this, tragically, will ever come to pass.
It may have given you some satisfaction to appeal to your readers’ sympathies for the plight of the people of the Gaza Strip, but your simplistic, naive and superficial article only gives aid and comfort to a terrorist regime which brutalizes the people it rules and whose sole purpose isn’t care for this population, but to fire them up against Israel in a futile effort to destroy the enemy. That Israel has every right to protect and defend itself against such hostility seems lost on you. But may your homeland never be subjected to such blind hatred and so many frequent plots, assaults and attacks.
Rabbi Schwartzman has been a Reform rabbi for over forty years. After twenty-three years of military service, Rabbi Schwartzman retired at the rank of Colonel and for a decade he served as the Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Chaim in Morrison, Colorado.
Rabbi Schwartzman has published articles in many media outlets including The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, The Summit Daily News, and The Intermountain Jewish News.
On being told of his Watchdog of the Week recognition, Rabbi Schwartzman commented:
It isn’t enough to stay abreast of developments in and about Israel. We each act as monitors of a media that too often doesn’t do its homework and comes at Israel with biases that do its international reputation real damage. In the face of the myriad threats that Israel faces, HonestReporting acts to set the record straight and keep it that way. Personally, I am glad to do my part in this effort.
For his efforts, Rabbi Schwartzman will be receiving an exclusive HonestReporting backpack.
HonestReporting monitors an enormous number of media outlets around the world but we still need your help. Let us know if you see something that deserves our attention by contacting us through our Red Alert page or clicking on the button on this page and maybe you can be our next Watchdog of the Week.
