A respectful dissent, please, from Gary Rosenblatt’s column, “Don’t Just Blame the Media,” (Nov. 8). Rosenblatt asserts that “for the most part, mainstream American coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been fair.”
Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak alleges that a U.S.-led war against Iraq — if it comes — will be largely on behalf of Israel. He calls it “Sharon's war.” The Washington Post headlined his Dec. 26 Op-Ed “Sharon’s War?” It's Novak's latest effort in a long campaign slandering Israel as a Middle East obstructionist exerting a sinister influence on U.S. policy.
Tom Toles, successor to the legendary Herblock as Washington Post editorial page cartoonist, is known for his simple if not simplistic style; small, "cute" doll-like characters; and droll, topical punch lines often echoed by a miniature secondary drawing in the bottom right corner of his panel. But Toles's formula failed utterly in his Sunday, Dec. 15 effort, undermined by a false moral equivalence apparently based on either ignorance or tendentious disregard of fact.