Alex Safian, PhD

NPR Tortures the Truth to Malign Israel

National Public Radio does it again, falsely charging that under Israeli law confessions extracted under torture are admissible, when the reality is that Israel has even tougher protections against such abuses than does the United States.

UPDATED: New York Times Wrongly Claims No Injuries From Qassam Rockets

In a report published today ("Israeli Strikes Kill 2 Militants and a Girl"), New York Times correspondent James Bennet mistakenly asserted that no Israelis had been injured in Qassam rocket attacks. Contrary to the Times' claim, a number of Israelis, including infants, have been seriously wounded by Qassam rockets.

UPDATED: NPR’s Little Cover-Up

NPR's Terror Problem, published recently on National Review Online, documented National Public Radio's refusal to use any form of the word terror in reporting recent murderous attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, despite the network's regular use of the terror word in reporting the recent al-Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Now the publicly-funded network has been caught in an embarrassing cover-up on the issue.

UPDATED: NPR Discovers Terror in the West Bank

National Public Radio, which routinely calls Hamas suicide bombers "militants" or "activists," rather than terrorists, has finally found some West Bankers it can comfortably refer to with the "T" word. And no, these terrorists are not from Islamic Jihad, or the Al- Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine ...

NPR’s Letter of Protest to CAMERA, and CAMERA’s Reply

Bruce Drake, NPR's Vice President for News, sent a letter to CAMERA on August 9 protesting that a recent article on our website had included a "serious distortion of NPR's policies and practices" regarding which of NPR's Middle East broadcasts are available on the network's website. We do not agree with Mr. Drake's allegation. Below, the relevant section of Mr. Drake's letter, followed by CAMERA's reply:

Terror Rules at NPR

An Islamic extremist explodes a bomb amidst a crowd of civilians on March 4th, killing more than 20, including himself. Less than a day later another Islamic extremist explodes a bomb on a civilian bus, killing more than 15, including himself. Parallel stories, but not covered in a parallel way on National Public Radio.

NPR’s Second Intifada

In the final segment of its seven part series on Middle East history, National Public Radio covered the so-called second Palestinian Intifada. As in the previous segments, NPR once again offered up a highly skewed lineup of experts, with critics of Israel heavily represented and pro-Israel voices virtually absent.

CAMERA Op-Ed: NPR’s Gradstein Falsely Labels Israel “Extremist”

National Public Radio's Linda Gradstein recently reported Israel's attempt to bar Israeli-Arab politician Ahmed Tibi from running in upcoming elections because of his alleged support for attacks against Israelis and his denial of the state's legitimacy (Israel's Supreme Court reinstated Tibi a few days later). Among those Gradstein interviewed was Shmuel Sandler, an Israeli professor whom she described as seeing "growing extremism" among his countrymen: