FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
In an article (8/10/10) on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony to an Israeli panel investigating the May 31 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, the Washington Post gets the facts wrong on crucial history and context relating to the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Joel Greenberg writes: Netanyahu said that the naval blockade, imposed by […]
On August 2, the New York Times published an op-ed arguing that Arabs do not care much about Palestinians–and that this is a good thing, especially for Palestinians. But the argument relied on a “poll” of the Arab world that does not exist. The piece, by historian Efraim Karsh, intended to show that the “conventional […]
Israeli historian Efraim Karsh argues in the New York Times (8/2/10) today that Arabs have lost interest in the Palestinian cause, which apparently is a good thing because that severs “the spurious link between this particular issue and other regional and global problems,” making it a “positive” sign of hope for future Arab/Israeli peace. But […]
Ever since the Israeli raid on a Turkish group’s boat filled with aid for the Gaza Strip, there has been a lot of attempts in the press (FAIR Blog, 6/10/10), following Israel’s lead, to label the Turkish humanitarian group IHH a supporter of “terrorism.” The latest salvo comes from a New York Times article (7/15/10) […]
New York Times reporter Isabel Kershner (7/15/10) writes a news analysis of why “peace talks” between Israel and the Palestinians are at a virtual standstill, despite the “upbeat atmosphere” in Washington following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama’s recent meeting. When she attempts to contextualize the “peace talks,” Kershner throws in this misleading history: […]
In a news report on the Israeli military’s investigation of its own deadly raid on the Gaza aid flotilla, the Wall Street Journal (7/13/10) passes off as fact, with no qualifier, the Israeli government’s claim that members of IHH, a Turkish humanitarian organization, “attacked the Israeli soldiers as they boarded the ship.” While it’s true […]
Can we agree that calls for a government to violate international law are not a helpful contribution to the public debate? That’s what the New York Times (7/6/10) offered when it published a call for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land in a letter from Richard Gertler of Teaneck, New Jersey. Gertler argues […]
Taghreed El-Khodary, formerly the New York Times correspondent in Gaza, spoke recently at an event organized by the Palestine Center (6/23/10). She shared some interesting observations–the first being that her revelation that she left Gaza after the controversy erupted over Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner’s son joining the Israeli Defense Forces: I’m sorry that I […]
This article was originally published as a sidebar with “Reporting Israeli Assault Through Israel’s Eyes.” In the aftermath of the deadly Israeli assault on the international flotilla bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the establishment press has repeatedly distorted the political positions of Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs Gaza. The New York […]
At a June 10 press conference (Cultures of Resistance, 6/10/10), passengers from the Mavi Marmara released new footage of the Israel Defense Forces’ deadly May 31 raid on the ship, which killed nine activists attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade. Days earlier, another video was released allegedly showing […]
Since the Islamist movement Hamas won democratic elections in the Palestinian territories in January 2006, Israel has been waging what it has referred to as “economic warfare” (McClatchy, 6/9/10) to collectively punish Gazans for their choice. The economic sanctions increased after Hamas’ June 2006 capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit; a full-blown air, land and […]
Writing from the confines of what some Palestinians call the “Ramallah bubble“ (Ha‘aretz, 1/1/09), Thomas Friedman (New York Times, 6/30/10) thinks he knows how to solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: “quietly support[ing]“ the Palestinian Authority while it builds a “real economy, a professional security force and an effective, transparent government bureaucracy.“ Friedman has a curious definition […]
FAIR has a new Action Alert (6/21/10) on misleading historical context about Gaza’s rockets in the coverage of flotilla attack in the New York Times and Washington Post. You can post copies of your letters to the papers, or responses on the alert, in the comments thread below.
For anyone who doubts that there is a double standard regarding racism in the U.S. media, read Marty Peretz’s blog post (New Republic, 6/19/10) on the “crooked little emirate” of Dubai, in which he glibly comments that “Arabs are deft at disguising reality.” Peretz will certainly be able to continue to freely publish his anti-Arab […]
In the aftermath of Israel’s May 31 raid on the Gaza humanitarian aid flotilla that killed nine activists, the Washington Post and New York Times have propagated an inaccurate historical context that serves to bolster Israeli claims. The conventional rendition is that Israel invaded Gaza at the end of 2008 in order to stop a […]
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement yesterday that promised to “liberalize the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza.” The announcement from Israel’s security cabinet came after widespread international pressure on Israel following a deadly Israeli naval raid on a humanitarian flotilla trying to break the three-year old blockade of […]
Thomas Friedman sure knows how to flip reality on its head. In his New York Times op-ed column today, Friedman hops on the bandwagon (FAIR blog, 6/10/10) of bashing Turkey for “joining the Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran resistance front against Israel.” Friedman accuses Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan of no longer promoting democracy and instead being more […]
When the corporate media explain the logic behind Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, they turn to what Israel says officially and publicly. For example, today’s New York Times, in an article on an Israeli government-backed investigation into the deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla heading to Gaza, states: Israel argues that the blockade is […]
One thing to add about coverage of Gaza’s’ rockets is the popularity of the phrase “thousands of rockets.” To cite one of many examples, Joe Klein writes for Time (6/9/10): There is reason to treat Hamas as an enemy of Israel; thousands of rockets fired at Israeli civilians attest to that. If you described the […]
In much of the coverage of Gaza, there is a media shorthand that is used torecall some of the most important recent history. Like in today’s New York Times (6/11/10): Israel imposed the embargo, allowing in charitable goods and letting out people with medical emergencies. It invaded in late 2008 to stop a flow of […]
