False Quotes

Ha’aretz Gives Hanan Ashrawi a Makeover

In a news feature item in the Thursday edition of Ha'aretz, Akiva Eldar discusses Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, her organization MIFTAH, and incitement. Interestingly, his only mention of the word "propaganda" relates to "Israeli propaganda" originating from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and the Ha'aretz writer has not a word to say about incitement originating from Ashrawi and MIFTAH themselves.

BBC Admits to Mistakes, Apologizes

The BBC has admitted on Feb. 17, 2005 to airing an unsubstantiated allegation against Israel without fact checking it, and has apologized.

CAMERA ALERT: Geyer Gets It Wrong, Again

Syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer fell into disrepute in May of 2002 after attributing a bogus quote to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and making a false claim about Israeli advertisements. Unfortunately, her columns continue to be syndicated. She's at it again now – making unsubstantiated claims against Sharon.

Time to Reopen Case on Geyer’s Hoaxes

Since the revelations of massive plagiarizing and fabrication by New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, editors at other publications have often been more willing to investigate the public's concerns about their own journalists.  This increased editorial rigor has resulted in the discovery of fabricated reports, some of them years old. It is time to reopen the case of syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer.

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.