Accuracy and accountability are among the most important tenets of journalism. In combination, they mean media organizations are expected to publish or broadcast forthright corrections after sharing inaccurate information. The following corrections are among the many prompted by CAMERA’s communication with reporters and editors.
CAMERA has obtained the following clarification from the Boston Globe:
Clarification (12/11/03): A Dec. 3 column by Tom Wallace stated that the security fence in Israel will confiscate 55 percent of the West Bank. This is a projection by Gush Shalom and other peace groups. The United Nations estimates less than 20 percent of the West Bank will be on the Israeli side of the fence.
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.
A headline in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune erroneously suggested that Israeli troops carelessly killed a Palestinian child when, in fact, Israeli troops destroyed the home of a Palestinian gunman who had killed an Israeli baby. Apparently, the headline writer's operating assumption was that when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a dead baby, the Israelis are culpable and the tiny victim is, of course, Palestinian. No matter what the articles themselves say.
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.
National Public Radio, which routinely calls Hamas suicide bombers "militants" or "activists," rather than terrorists, has finally found some West Bankers it can comfortably refer to with the "T" word. And no, these terrorists are not from Islamic Jihad, or the Al- Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine ...
In their evening broadcasts of June 22, ABC and NBC reported as fact that Israel killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite the fact that the circumstances surrounding their deaths were disputed.
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.
On April 24, ABC's Peter Jennings incorrectly reported the location of a Palestinian suicide bombing:
Yet another two-month study reveals National Public Radio coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict continues to be marred by factual distortions and disproportionate presentation of Arab and pro-Arab speakers. Skewed and serious allegations against Israel are, at times, aired in completely one-sided programs without giving Israel the right of response. Partisan language shades reporting, blurring the terrorist role of Palestinian groups and leaders and casting Israeli leaders alone as “hard-line.”