Analysis
The following post arrives to us from CAMERA-a media "gatekeeper". I preface their comments with the following: It is only possible to first recognize that the media report is false if you know the facts, otherwise the tendacy is to simply accept the story as truth. As responsible citizens we do have a duty-to be informed about events, circumstances,people and situations. So many of the reports from Gaza represent the worst in "journalism",e.g., controlled reports, skewed and intentionally misrepresented data, no fact verification. How information gets from the war zone to your living room is a story to yet be told-you would be shocked if you knew what really happens. This blog will soon focus upon this issue. The following post presents CAMERA's excellent analysis of NY Times, CNN and the John Daly Show. New York Times Opinion Pages Tilt One Way, Conveying Misinformation
January 8th was a dramatic instance of the New York Times penchant for printing lopsided numbers of columns by harsh critics of Israel. Four opinion pieces by detractors ran with none by Israel's defenders. Nicholas Kristof ("The Gaza Boomerang"), Rashid Khalidi ("What You Don't Know About Gaza"), Gideon Lichfield ("Fighting to Preserve A Myth"), Roger Cohen ("The Dominion of the Dead") all deplored Israeli measures in Gaza in one way or another. No journalistic code requires the Times to present a balanced picture on its opinion pages. But a basic a commitment to fair-play does.
On the other hand, the journalistic code of ethics does require Times editors to fact-check the opinion columns they run — something they clearly have not done. Rashid Khalidi's column is full of glaring errors, including one that is contradicted in the same issue in the Times' news pages.
For example, Khalidi contends that "nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year." But according to news coverage in that same issue, "The United Nations estimated a few days ago that a quarter of the dead were civilians.... But Palestinian residents and Israeli officials say that Hamas is tending its own wounded in separate medical centers, not in public hospitals, and that it is difficult to know the number of dead Hamas fighters, many of whom were not wearing uniforms." (Steven Erlanger, "As Gaza Battle Goes On, Israel Is Set to Negotiate With Egypt on Cease-Fire")
Most egregious is Khalidi's use of a fabricated quote to end his column. He writes:
Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: "The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people."
What Ya'alon actually said was not that the Palestinian Arabs must understand they are a defeated people, but they must understand that Palestinian terrorism will not make Israelis a defeated people.
(For more details about Khalidi's misrepresentations, consult CAMERA's website later on today.)
CNN Skewing the Story
** Indicative of CNN's slant was the recent, heavy emphasis it gave to the attempt by the pro-Palestinian Free Gaza organization to land a boat of supplies in Gaza. A CNN correspondent, Karl Penhaul, actually sailed on the boat with the ferociously anti-Israel group, then proceeded to present sympathetic coverage of the episode. A participant on the boat was former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney whose ties to extreme anti-Jewish figures were unmentioned as was anything about the radical nature of the group. (Louis Farrakhan, for instance, campaigned for McKinney, and her father made anti-Semitic statements blaming Jews when constituents threw her out of office.) CNN framed the event, which was reported repeatedly on Dec 30, as Israel blocking an innocent, humanitarian endeavor that was, in reality, a public relations stunt.
Why is a CNN reporter traveling with a propaganda group and then sanitizing their agenda?
Full transcripts here: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0812/30/cnr.05.html
** Reporter Taghreed El-Khodary, a Palestinian living in Gaza, has appeared repeatedly on CNN where her emotional, partisan comments raises serious questions about her judgement as an objective journalist. On CNN she is being given a virtually unchallenged forum to make biased, political charges. On January 1, she declared that Palestinians "say, after six days, it's now becoming clear that this is war against the people, against the people — against the citizens of Gaza. It's not war against Hamas, because Israel is targeting civic infrastructure."
A CNN anchor asked about rockets being fired from civilian areas. She answered: "I asked one of the senior leaders, why do you fire the rockets from residential neighborhood? Why do you fire rockets from women? And this is the answer — no other choice. Gaza is the size of Detroit. And 1.5 million live here where there are no places for them to fire from them but from among the population."
The CNN anchor responded: OK.
On January 2, 2009 El-Khodary claimed again that Palestinians "are realizing that war is not against Hamas. War is against Palestinians, the citizens who are living in Gaza." (Jan 2, 2009)
Israel is targeting Hamas terrorists and Hamas infrastructure – not "the people" – and is dropping leaflets, sending text messages and making thousands of phone calls to civilians to warn them away from danger areas – measures unheard of in most warfare. Statements like these politically-charged and distorted ones made by a journalist have added credibility and should be challenged.
Daily Show "Humor"
Jon Stewart fans may want to comment on his mocking Israel for defending its citizenry against rocket attacks. In a Jan 5 segment of The Daily Show entitled "Strip Maul," Israel is the butt of jokes about its allegedly gratuitous strike against Gaza. Stewart ridicules the timing of the incursion and the support Israel enjoys in Congress and mocks the analogies made that other countries would defend themselves similarly. He compares Israel to hypothetical examples of Saudi Arabia and North Korea carrying out nefarious acts. He especially ridicules NY Mayor Bloomberg for comparing Israel's need to act against Hamas to the necessity of an individual taking action in self-defense against a menacing neighbor. Stewart says: "I guess it depends if I forced that guy to live in my hallway and make him go through checkpoints every time he has to take [expletive]."
Of course, among other factual problems in Stewart's gags about Gaza, "checkpoints" could not have been the provocation for Palestinian rocket fire – because they were all removed more than three years ago.
Excerpts from Jan 5 Daily Show transcript:
[News clip: 2009 begins with Israel raising the stakes with its all-out assault on Gaza.]
Jon Stewart: Probably just a little skirmish in the Middle East. Happens all the time. A little seasonal culling of missile surpluses. Got the 2009 missiles coming in, gotta make room in the silos.
[News clips]
Stewart: The truce between Hamas and Israel only expired about two weeks ago; it's not like Hamas lobbing missiles is an unusual and new occurrence. Why does Israel feel they have to react so strongly right now?
[Clip of NBC's Andrea Mitchell saying Israel is unsure of Obama and may be acting now in Gaza because it knows it has "unrelenting support from the Bush administration."]
Stewart: I get it. They're doing it because they're not sure the new administration is going to allow them carte blanche in the bombing department. So they're getting it in now before the January 20th hope and change deadline. Time's running out; it's like a civilian carnage Toyota-thon. You know, I'm sure lot of countries may not know how their relationship may change with the United States. Probably a good time for them to check things off their [expletive] list. Saudi Arabia – they could cease oil production completely. By the way, it's that easy. See how the world likes that. And who knows how Obama will feel about North Korea's nuclear arsenal. Can they afford not to launch them? I know personally I'll be starting that baby-fighting ring I'm guessing Obama is against. That's right I'm starting a baby-fighting ring....
Hamas' continued insistence on firing rockets into Israel and Israel's continued insistence on soul-crushing segmentation and blockading of Gaza is a very complex situation. Obviously both sides of the complex situation are vigorously championed by American politicians...
[Numerous elected officials express support for Israel, some drawing analogy to how US would handle comparable situation. Stewart laughs at analogies made about how US would respond to missile attacks on its soil by a neighbor.]
NYC Mayor Bloomberg: If you're in your apt and an emotionally disturbed person is banging on your door and screaming "I'm going to come through this door and kill you," do you want us to respond with one policeman, which is proportional, or with all the resources at our command?
Stewart: I guess it depends if I forced that guy to live in my hallway and make him go through checkpoints every time he has to take [expletive.] But then again by removing him by force as long as you really believe there'll be no more crazy people left in New York... OK.
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