Investigative
journalist Richard Behar has
written what is possibly the definitive article on the media bias we’ve
witnessed during the current Gaza conflict. In just one of many examples of
bias featured in his comprehensive piece in Forbes magazine, Behar reserves
particular criticism for the New York Times:
I agree that there’s a lot of nonsense being
disseminated about Israel’s war with Hamas, and about the media role in the
conflict. And I agree that there is a danger—if people believe that the media,
including the New York Times, provides a fair picture of the war in Gaza.
(I would argue it is not.)
Since late July, I’ve conducted an in-depth
look at the credibility of the media coverage, plus interviews with military
experts and some journalists covering the war. Among other things, I’ve
discovered that the Times’ most important reporter in Gaza for the past
few years has used the late Yasser Arafat as his profile
photo on Facebook, and, in a second photo, praised the former Palestinian
leader. This suggests that the Times may have less to
worry about in terms of Hamas intimidation than others in the press corps.
Indeed, this Times reporter’s parallel pieces for Qatar’s Al Jazeera since the war began can only be
pleasing to the terrorists.
Behar goes into
more detail:
In late 2012, during Israel’s Operation
Pillar of Defense in Gaza, I examined the Facebook page of Fares Akram—the
most important Gaza-based reporter for the New York Times. His
profile photo was not of himself, but of PLO leader Arafat. A second
photo, still in his album, waxes poetically about Arafat in the context of
“heights by great men.” But
Arafat, among many things as the longtime leader of the Palestinians
(the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre comes to mind), opted for
the Second Intifada in 2000, rather than accept a generous peace
offer from Israel. Before he died, he said on TV that dead Palestinian
children are good for the cause. In 2009, following an Israeli air strike that
tragically killed his father and a cousin, Akram wrote that “I am finding it hard to distinguish between
what the Israelis call terrorists and the Israeli pilots and tank crews who are
invading Gaza.” Akram, a Palestinian resident of Gaza, has also
published more than a dozen dispatches for Al Jazeera, parallel to
his Times reporting, since the war began last month.
What would happen were a Jewish journalist working for the foreign press in Jerusalem use a photo of an Israeli prime minister as their Facebook image? But this would be nothing compared to identifying with a symbol of Palestinian ‘resistance’ responsible for countless terrorist atrocities and the instigator of the so-called Second Intifada.
Knowing this as
well as Fares Akram’s work for Al-Jazeera, a Qatari-funded media outlet that is
responsible for fomenting unrest throughout the Middle East, how can any New
York Times reader possibly trust coverage from Gaza to be in any way balanced
or objective?
Behar points out
that the issue of intimidation of journalists has not been covered by the New
York Times. Indeed, NY Times Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren was dismissive of a Foreign Press Association statement condemning
Hamas for abusing journalists in Gaza. Perhaps she spoke to her
closest colleague in Gaza, Akram, who might never have experienced such abuse
as he could be considered by Hamas to be ‘working for the cause.’
The rest of
Richard Behar’s investigation into the media coverage of the Gaza conflict “The Media Intifada: Bad Math, UglyTruths About New York Times In Israel-Hamas War,” deserves
to be read to the very end, not only by our own readers but also by
Behar’s colleagues in the media who have done so much to let down their
profession and blacken Israel’s image.
Honest Reporting, August 24, 2014
Share this article and Richard Behar’s report in Forbes as widely
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