Why do Palestinian children become human bombs, willingly strapping on suicide belts and slipping into Israel to kill as many Jews as possible? That's the key question which the New York Times has once again failed to answer, this time in an otherwise informative story by Greg Myre ("Israel Says Children Enlist Children as Suicide Bombers", June 13, 2004).
A May 18, 2004 editorial in the New York Sun identifies in detail blatant factual errors by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in his May 13 column. The same writer's May 16 Op-Ed was further evidence of his penchant for distortion as he compared Jewish settlers in Israel to the violently radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and his Mahdi army.
The San Francisco Chronicle published an abridged version of a New York Times article about a Palestinian teenage bomber, including material that gives the impression of an Israeli military that is callous and unfeeling toward a young boy, and omitting all the portions that deal with Palestinian culpability.
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.
Friedman admits he was wrong, sort of, about Israel's release of Palestinian prisoners during the tenure of Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas. But he maintains that Sharon was responsible for Abbas's resignation, a claim which Abbas himself refuted this week.
Public editor Daniel Okrent's thoughtful column of March 28, 2004 clarifies the rights and limits of op-ed writers and emphasizes the importance of factual accuracy.
In a February 5th column, New York Times syndicated columnist Tom Friedman not only gets his facts wrong, but uses imagery and descriptions that are, in the familiar words of Harvard President Lawrence Summers, “anti-Semitic in their effect if not their intent.”
Despite its commendable intent, a December 31 correction about the Western Wall serves to create further confusion. The correction mischaracterizes the wall and suggests that there is debate within Judaism as to where its holiest site lies.
The European Union's Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia commissioned a study of European anti-Semitism. When the report concluded that much of the anti-Jewish violence in Europe is perpetrated by Muslim immigrants, the EU shelved the report. Jewish groups protested by publishing the report online, and the EU relented and released the report, but they continue to insist that it is flawed.