USA Today

March 25, 2004

Journalists Behaving Badly

Since the discovery of massive journalistic fraud involving plagiarism and fabrication by the New York Times’ Jayson Blair, new revelations have emerged about similar offenses by journalists at other prominent newspapers. Underscoring that journalism is as infallible as any other endeavor, these additional cases of dereliction will hopefully reinforce editors’ willingness to address reader concerns about error and distortion.

March 18, 2004

Coverage of Unwitting Palestinian Boy-Bomber

The exploitation of Palestinian children in attacks against Israel is a troubling trend which deserves media coverage. Yet, some news outlets did not even cover the story of 11-year-old Abdullah Quran. Others, most notably the Boston Globe and MSNBC's "The Abrams Report," gave the incident the prominence it deserved.
February 18, 2004

USA Today Gets Unexpected Lesson

The February 13, 2004 edition of USA Today published as an advertisement a large editorial cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon controlling the US media, a cartoon closely mirroring anti-Israeli, anti-American illustrations common in the Middle Eastern press and even neo-Nazi publications. CAMERA contacted the newspaper and was promised that future ads will be more closely scrutinized and vetted.

August 22, 2003

USA Today’s “Tit-for-Tat” Editorial

In an attempt to draw parallels between the two sides, USA Today's August 21 editorial "Nurture peace hopes" completely misrepresents current Israeli-Palestinian realities by trying to present an Israeli-Palestinian "cycle of tit-for-tat bloodshed." Israeli counter-terrorism is no more part of a "cycle of bloodshed" than police arresting murderers is part of a "cycle of crime."

December 8, 2000

Thumbs Up to Matthew Kalman

THUMBS UP to USA Today Jerusalem correspondent Matthew Kalman for his trenchant coverage of otherwise unreported stories concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. On Dec. 8, 2000, for example, in an article entitled "Let our kids alone, Arafat told," he reported that a group of Palestinian women, the Tulkarm Women's Union, sent a letter to Yasser Arafat demanding that the Palestinian Authority stop using children in the clashes against Israel.