|
CAMERA'S
billboard in Times Square, just outside the offices of the New York
Times, poses this question to the newspaper and its readers. With Times
coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict continuing to include factual
errors and promote a distorted sense of the region, we continue our campaign
to raise awareness about the newspaper's lack of reliability.
Below
you can find an image of our advertisement, placed in major New York City newspapers,
about the Times's history of downplaying genocidal, anti-Jewish
rhetoric in the Palestinian media, and another about the newspaper glossing
over the murder of Malki Roth, a 15-year-old girl killed by a
Palestinian suicide bomber, in a magazine article romanticizing
acts of violence against Israeli civilians.
These
examples are part of a pattern of bias. CAMERA's six-month study of New York Times coverage of the
conflict between Palestinians and Israel found that the newspaper
consistently treats Israel with a harsher standard, omits context, and shows
a clear preference for the Palestinian narrative.
And
now our billboard highlights the newspaper's habit of misrepresenting facts,
omitting key information and skewing headlines, to encourage the
newspaper of record to commit itself to its own promise of ethical
journalism.
The
New York Times consistently
distorts the truth about Israel — on the news pages and on editorial pages,
in the body of the article or in the headline. Here are just a sampling of
the misrepresentations purveyed by the publication.
MISREPRESENTING FACTS
CLAIM: In The Times news pages,
a reporter claimed that "with the peace process at a standstill and
Israel's separation barrier and network of checkpoints long a fixture of the
landscape, contacts between the two peoples have dwindled. Fewer Palestinians
work inside Israel" (Jodi Rudoren, "A Tour Puts a City in Reach and
at Arm's Length," March 26, 2013).
FACT:
According to recent
statistics, contacts between Palestinians and Israelis, whether through work
or healthcare, have not dwindled but have steadily increased. "More than
930,000 Palestinians went through passageways into Israel in 2012,
representing a continuing trend in recent years... tens of thousands of
movements were recorded at passageways for the purpose of family visits and
traveling in Israel, receiving medical care Israeli hospitals, commerce and
employment for Palestinian workers and merchants in Israel" (Israel
Civil Administration, "930,000 Palestinians Pass Through Israel,"
March 11, 2013).
The
number of Palestinians granted permits to work in Israel has been steadily
increasing and is at a peak since the start of a violent Palestinian intifada
in 2000. The numbers of Palestinians receiving healthcare within Israel has
been steadily rising as well.
The
New York Times
was informed of its error. It chose not to correct.
CLAIM:
On the Opinion
pages, contributing writer Ali Jarbawi, a former Palestinian Authority
official, falsely claimed that Ariel Sharon "entered Al Aqsa mosque in
Jerusalem, a holy Muslim site, which triggered the second intifada," in
2000. He also erroneously stated that Sharon "was able to retain
absolute Israeli control" over Gaza's land borders (Ali Jarbawi,
"The Man Who Made Peace Impossible," Jan. 21, 2014).
FACT: In fact, Sharon had visited the
Temple Mount, Judaism’s most sacred site, and the plaza upon which the mosque
sits. He did not “enter” the mosque. In addition, Egypt controls its border
with the Gaza Strip.
On the day that the Op-Ed appeared, The New York Times was informed of its errors. It has not yet corrected, although an error about American unemployment in a separate Op-Ed which also appeared on Jan. 21 was corrected the very next day.
CLAIM:
On the Opinion
pages, columnist Thomas Friedman insisted that former Animals singer Eric
Burdon decided to start "boycotting Israel over the occupation
issue." He also claimed that "Israel's Jewish settlers"
assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (Thomas L. Friedman, "Daring
to Fail," Aug. 7, 2013).
FACT:
Eric Burdon
performed in concert to a packed Zappa Shuni Amphitheater in
Binyamina on Aug. 1, 2013 — a week before Friedman's column ran. He made
clear that he never joined any boycott of Israel, and that a temporary
cancellation was not in protest of Israeli policies, but rather a
result of threats received by his publicist.
FACT: Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir, was
not a settler. He lived in the Israeli city of Herzliya, within Israel's
pre-1967 boundaries.
OMITTING KEY INFORMATION
The
most extreme examples of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement have too
often been omitted from The New York Times account of the
conflict. For example, when a speaker said on Palestinian television that it
is "act of worship" to "harvest the skulls of the Jews,"
this genocidal rhetoric, which clearly is an obstacle to peace and
reconciliation, was not reported by the newspaper.
Other
inconvenient information is buried. After Israeli teenage thugs severely beat
an Arab boy, the story made the front page of the newspaper not once, but
twice, and journalists raised questions about the morality of Israeli society
as a whole. But when Palestinian teens perpetrated a
bloodcurdling murder of 5 members of the Fogel family, including a
3-month-old infant, the story didn't make the front page of the newspaper
once, and reporters didn't ask about the morals of Palestinian society.
SKEWING HEADLINES AND PHOTOS
Alongside a news story about a 19-year-old Israeli soldier murdered in his sleep, The New York Times opted to redirect the focus to Palestinian suffering by featuring a photograph of the Palestinian killer's mother. Although the newspaper's public editor later admitted that the photo was the "wrong" choice, other editors decided to continue to highlight the problematic photo at the top of the story.
CAMERA's
six-month study of New York Times reporting found that the newspaper’s
coverage of violence was marked by a double standard that highlighted Israeli
attacks and de-emphasized Palestinian ones. Twelve headlines explicitly
mentioned Palestinian fatalities; none explicitly referred to Israeli deaths,
even though 14 Israelis were killed during the study period.
A
2013 report about the Palestinian killing of an Israeli civilian and the
subsequent Israeli killing of a Palestinian terrorist was assigned the lopsided headline,
"Israeli Airstrike Kills Palestinian in Gaza." The headline was later
changed under pressure. But the featured photo illustrating the story was,
and still is, a sorrowful picture of the Palestinian terrorist's mother in
mourning.
Such errors, omissions and distortions, large and small,
characterize The New York Times' biased handling of the Arab-Israeli
conflict. Would a great newspaper slant the news about Israel? No. But The
New York Times does.
|
Why is The New York Times Silent
When Hamas Says to Harvest the Skulls of the Jews?
When Hamas Says to Harvest the Skulls of the Jews?
•
Hamas TV tells Palestinians it is an "act of worship" to
"harvest the skulls of the Jews," and the Times is
silent.
•
A Hamas official publicly declares it the duty of every Muslim to wage Jihad
"to annihilate" the Jews of Israel, and the Times is silent.
•
Hamas TV reenacts deadly stabbing and shooting of Jews, boasting of thousands
of lethal attacks and vowing "this will never stop," and the Times
is silent.
•
The New York Times, the self-proclaimed "paper of record,"
habitually ignores genocidal anti-Jewish rhetoric.
•
Such violent incitement whether expressed by Palestinian officials or in
Palestinian media is newsworthy and a principle obstacle to peace.
This
biased coverage is part of a pattern. CAMERA's six-month study of New York Times coverage found
the newspaper consistently downplaying Israeli views and amplifying, or even
promoting, Palestinian perspectives. Month after month, the newspaper
obscured Palestinian attacks and Israeli deaths, diverting readers' attention
instead to Palestinian casualties and acts of non-lethal vandalism by
Israelis.
In
light of such repeated breaches of journalistic ethics, CAMERA is launching a
campaign to remind The New York Times that its readers expect more
— and deserve more. On this page you can find contact information for
the newspaper, information on how to help with our campaign, images of our
advertisements, which have appeared in The New York Post, The
Wall Street Journal, The Metro and AM New York, and
detailed information about Times coverage that you can reach by
following the hyperlinks across the page.
|
Why Did The New York Times
Whitewash This Girl’s Killer?
Whitewash This Girl’s Killer?
|
The
suffering of Malki Roth and the agony of her family are
not even a footnote in a recent New York Times Magazine cover story,
which romanticizes what the author describes as "resistance"
against Israel from the West Bank town of Nabi Saleh.
In
August 2001, one of the town's "resistance activists" helped plan
and execute a bombing attack on a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. The
attack ended the life of 15-year-old Malki and 14 others, wounding 130.
The
brutal act is glossed over in just a few words, the victims left nameless and
faceless. Terrorism — although the author avoids that word altogether,
preferring gentler euphemisms throughout the piece — is cast as legitimate,
even if not particularly effective.
The
same article also glorifies stone throwing, but
conceals from readers the fact that this type of "resistance," too,
has killed innocents.
Malki's
mother protested in a letter to The Times. She pointed out
that Ahlam Tamimi, the Nabi Saleh resident who was a key figure in the attack
and helped select the target, was presented in The New York Times as
doing nothing more than "escorting" the suicide bomber.
"For
a mother to bury her loving, gentle child is torture," she concluded.
"To watch the murderer walk triumphantly free and enjoy life rubs salt
into that wound every day. But to see the NY Times gloss over this travesty
of justice with a cover story that showcases this woman's many admirers in
Nabi Saleh – that is journalism of the most amoral sort. You ought to be
ashamed of it."
The
Times didn't see fit to
print the letter.
A
few months later, the newspaper did it again.
Another front page story romanticized Palestinian stone-throwers. It was
another story that ignored the Israeli civilian victims who were
maimed and killed as a result of such violence.
This
biased coverage is part of a pattern. CAMERA's
six-month study of New York Times coverage found
the newspaper consistently downplaying Israeli views and amplifying, or even
promoting, Palestinian perspectives. Month after month, the newspaper
obscured Palestinian attacks and Israeli deaths, diverting readers' attention
instead to Palestinian casualties and acts of non-lethal vandalism by
Israelis.
In
light of such repeated breaches of journalistic ethics, CAMERA is launching a
campaign to remind The New York Times that its readers expect more
— and deserve more. On this page you can find contact information for
the newspaper, information on how to help with our campaign, images of our
advertisement, which have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The
Metro and AM New York, and detailed information about Times coverage
that you can reach by following the hyperlinks across the page.
|
|
|
||
|
A brief video documenting examples
of egregious anti-Israel editorializing in The New York Times news
pages.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment