In his interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz, Dov Weissglas, a close advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was asked about Israel's decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. According to American media coverage of this interview, Weissglas suggested that Ariel Sharon's true intention in planning the Gaza disengagement is to freeze the peace process and prevent a Palestinian state. However, this was not his message at all; his words were taken out of context.
Most major print media outlets covered the Hague's court ruling in front page articles, but did not accord the same attention to the subsequent Palestinian terrorist attacks--the reason for Israel's security barrier. The major newspapers varied in the amount of context given and in the emphasis of articles about the Palestinian attack. Some portrayed the bombing as an excuse for Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's to defy international law.
July 2 update follows. The foreign desk at the Associated Press wire service apparently has no mechanism in place to correct factual errors. Over the last year, evidence regarding more than half a dozen straight-forward substantive errors was passed from editor to editor until it fell by the wayside. This was the case in a June 10 error by correspondent Ali Daraghmeh, who falsely reported that in the West Bank, "Israel does not allow Palestinian officers to patrol in uniform."
The New York Times Web site and the Boston Globe newspaper were just two among other media that ran a distorted Associated Press article from March 31, 2004 about Jewish purchase of property in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem. Written by Ravi Nessman, the AP article took an overtly partisan stance regarding the day’s events in Silwan.