Spinning Away Israel ‘Gaffes’
In recent months, media consumers have received a heavy dose of spin masking the reality of Israeli policy, as journalists rushed to cover Chris Christie’s and John Kerry’s utterances on the country.
Alex Kane
Trying to Slay Goliath
Max Blumenthal’s first book, Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party, was praised in the US corporate media. His deep dive into the Christian right was lauded in the New York Times (1/7/07) and CNN (9/10/09), and featured on NPR’s Fresh Air (9/10/09). The award-winning journalist’s second tome, though, has been met with […]
New Conflict of Interest at NYT Jerusalem Bureau
After the news broke that New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner had a son who enlisted in the Israeli army (Extra!, 4/10), Times public editor Clark Hoyt (2/6/10) noted that it was problematic for Bronner to continue reporting on “one of the world’s most intense” conflicts while his son took up arms for […]
Israel Takes Back Gaza Charge—After Attack
When armed militants crossed the Egyptian border last August and launched a multi-pronged attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers in Eilat that killed eight people, U.S. media repeated the Israeli government line, blaming the attack on Palestinians from Gaza. Three months later, Israel itself has concluded that the attackers were Egyptian—but U.S. media have failed […]
Israel Takes Back Gaza Charge—After Attack
When armed militants crossed the Egyptian border last August and launched a multi-pronged attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers in Eilat that killed eight people, U.S. media repeated the Israeli government line, blaming the attack on Palestinians from Gaza. Three months later, Israel itself has concluded that the attackers were Egyptian—but U.S. media have failed […]
Anonymous Soldiers as Medical Experts?
U.S. media coverage of the death of Jawaher Abu Rahmah reflected how the corporate press routinely covers high-profile civilian deaths caused by Israel. The Israeli government, it seems, can count on U.S. media to print its anonymous claims—no matter how baseless. Two days after Abu Rahmah, a Palestinian woman from the West Bank village of […]
Bigot or Colorful Activist? Washington Post is Neutral on Islamophobes
The Washington Post (8/18/10) profiles some of the “conservative writers and bloggers critical of Islam” that have been fueling the national uproar over the proposed Muslim community center that would sit two-and-a-half blocks away from Ground Zero. Michelle Boorstein looks at figures such as Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, and reports that “while some have […]
Jeffrey Goldberg Pushes for War With Iraq—er, Make That Iran
Former Israeli soldier and current writer for the Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg has a long cover story (9/10) on the “better than 50 percent chance” that Israel will launch air strikes against Iran by next July, with the aim of taking out the alleged nuclear threat from the Islamic Republic. Based on roughly 40 interviews with […]
Washington Post Bungles History of Gaza Blockade
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 […]
News Flash: Arabs Care Deeply About Palestine
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 […]
WashPost Sheds Light on Secret Government–but Alt Media Were There First
The Washington Post‘s blockbuster story (7/19/10) by reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin on the bloated, secretive and largely privatized national security apparatus established after the September 11, 2001, attacks is making a lot of noise, and for good reason. The Post describes a “top-secret world” that has become “so large, so unwieldy and so […]
NYT Ties Turkish Group to ‘Terrorism’—by Mixing It Up With a Different Group
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) […]
Isabel Kershner Misleads on Israel’s ‘Far-Reaching Proposal’
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: […]
At Wall Street Journal, Reporting Assault Through Israel’s Eyes
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 […]
NY Times Prints Call for Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians
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 […]
Time’s Alex Perry Responds to FAIR
Time’s Alex Perry, the magazine’s Africa bureau chief, responded in the FAIR Blog comments section to FAIR’s Julie Hollar, who recently (FAIR Blog, 6/25/10) criticized Perry for neglecting to mention the U.S. and Belgium’s role in propping up the Mobutu regime in Congo. Perry said: The idea that the U.S. created Mobutu and maintained him […]
Gaza’s Ongoing Crisis Is Not News
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 […]
Hamas and ‘Israel’s Destruction’
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 […]
In ‘Ramallah Bubble,’ Gaza and West Bank Poverty Don’t Exist
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 […]
The Petraeus Surge Narrative Is Back
With Gen. David Petraeus back in the media spotlight after being tapped to take control of the Afghanistan war following General Stanley McChrystal’s fall from grace, the corporate media are trumpeting the “successful” surge in Iraq (Extra, 9/10/08) that Petraeus oversaw and are looking to him as the man to turn around the Afghan war. […]
