New York Times

December 12, 2003

CAMERA Obtains Correction at New York Times

CAMERA has obtained the following correction from the <I>New York Times</I>:

Correction (12/12/03): An article last Friday about President Bush's meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan misstated the effect that an unofficial peace plan drafted by Israelis and Palestinians, known as the Geneva plan, would have on Israeli settlements. Under that plan, Israel would give up most of the settlements in the West Bank, not keep them. But since the 400,000 Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem are concentrated in a few settlements and neighborhoods that Israel would keep under the plan, about 300,000 settlers would remain where they live.</P>

December 3, 2003

CAMERA Obtains Correction at New York Times

CAMERA has obtained the following correction from the New York Times:

Correction (12/3/2003): An article last Wednesday about the decision by the Bush administration to cancel $289.5 million in American-backed loan guarantees for Israel referred incorrectly to West Bank construction activities that prompted it. Although federal law requires revoking loan guarantees to penalize certain construction deemed contrary to American policy, the United States does not define the activities as illegal.

October 1, 2003

Double Standards in Headlines

Many headlines continue to present violence against Israelis differently from that against Palestinians. The latest examples were headlines that appeared following the killing of 7-month-old Shaked Avraham who was shot by a Palestinian terrorist on the Jewish New Year.

September 15, 2003

UPDATED: “Terrorism” as Defined by the New York Times

On August 19, 2003, the New York Times published a front-page, above-the-fold, story with an accompanying photograph on an inside page about the possibility several Israeli Jews are involved in "terror attacks" against Palestinian civilians.The article raises real questions about the Times' news judgement. Why such prominence for a story about unproven allegations?

September 3, 2003

UPDATED: New York Times Wrongly Claims No Injuries From Qassam Rockets

In a report published today ("Israeli Strikes Kill 2 Militants and a Girl"), New York Times correspondent James Bennet mistakenly asserted that no Israelis had been injured in Qassam rocket attacks. Contrary to the Times' claim, a number of Israelis, including infants, have been seriously wounded by Qassam rockets.

July 20, 2003

CAMERA Op-Ed: Access and Ethics at the New York Times

Like CNN, the New York Times aims to cover the globe, even from inside despotic regimes. Yet ethical compromise is inevitable in the controlled realms of dictators and medieval monarchs. Language must not offend, nor can there be reminders of unflattering policies and events. Watchful officials keep records, and journalists pay a price for perceived infractions.

July 11, 2003

UPDATED: Journalists Veer Off ‘Road Map,’ Crash Into Cease-Fire

It seems that some members of the media are having a tough time differentiating the terms of the American brokered "road map" from Palestinian unilateral demands on Israel. Namely, while Palestinians have conditioned their cease-fire on the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons (among other demands), the "road map" plan, drawn up by the United States, European Union, Russia, and the United Nations, has nothing at all to say about Palestinian prisoners.

July 7, 2003

New York Times Turns to Comic-Book Journalist on Arab-Israeli Conflict

Cartoonist Joe Sacco has made it a professional goal to champion the Palestinian cause, presenting their perspectives on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in easily-accessible, comic strip form to the American public. His longest work to date on this issue is a 9-issue comic book entitled "Palestine," originally published by Fantagraphics in 1993 and republished in book form in 2002 with an introduction by noted Palestinian polemicist Edward Said. Written after a 2-month backpacking stint in the Gaza Strip during the first Intifada, the comic book depicts Israeli interrogators, soldiers, and Jewish settlers brutalizing and harassing innocent Palestinians.

June 15, 2003

New York Times Veers Off the ‘Road Map’

The New York Times has trouble reporting the facts straight about Middle East documents, repeatedly distorting their terms and shifting responsibility — and fault — to Israel. Recent misinformation about the road map by correspondent Steven Weisman is fuel for critics who see the paper increasingly marshaling its news pages to advance an editorial agenda.

June 13, 2003

Newspaper Headlines Omit Terror Perpetrators

Newspaper headlines about the Hamas terrorist bombing in Jerusalem — for which the death tally has now reached 17 — and Israel's strike against Hamas in Gaza that killed four members of that organization and five bystanders have very often failed to represent events clearly.