Why has the Middle East peace process degenerated into undeclared warfare, with Palestinian suicide bombers targeting Israelis, and Israel apparently contemplating unprecedented retaliation? You wouldn't be aware of the facts if you wouldn't be aware of them if you got your information from much of the Western media.
Reporting on Israel's missile attack on a PLO militia commander, CNN deceived viewers by characterizing the man merely as a member of a "political party," despite the fact that he was thought responsible for killing three Israeli soldiers, and for nightly sniper fire at an Israeli neighborhood in Jerusalem.
CNN anchors and interviewers consistently allow Palestinian guests to say anything they want, but pressure and interrogate Israelis, signaling viewers they shouldn't believe anything said on Israel's behalf.
Violations of the public trust in journalism can take many forms, ranging from blatant fabrication, like CNN's now infamous Tailwind story, to more insidious abuses like carefully choosing words to subtly advocate a point of view.
Media reports on implementation of the Wye River Memorandum have incorrectly characterized as a "new demand" Israel's position that the Palestinian Covenant must be revised by a full meeting of the Palestinian National Council.
Interviewed by Israeli-born journalist Shoula Horing of radio station KCXL in December 1997, CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Walter Rodgers made observations about Israel and the Middle East that were troubling insight into the roots of the distorted message he regularly broadcasts.
BOSTON—In the wake of CNN's high-profile retraction of a false report claiming the United States had used Sarin nerve gas against defecting American soldiers in Laos, CAMERA today called on the network also to come clean in its coverage of Israel and the Middle East.
In a remarkable series of articles in late May, Geneva Overholser, the outgoing Ombudsman at the Washington Post and formerly the editor of a major Midwest newspaper, offered her observations about the state of journalism generally and conditions at the Post specifically.
