In perhaps the most distorted coverage of the brutal murder of a pregnant Israeli mother and her four young daughters, NPR's Julie McCarthy blamed the victims for their own slaughter. On May 5, NPR posted a correction on its Web site, but elected not to air it.
In navigating the complex lexicon of Middle East terminology, journalists may easily run into verbal land mines. The following guide is designed to assist those seeking to avoid partisan language which frequently crops up in Western news reports.
Since the discovery of massive journalistic fraud involving plagiarism and fabrication by the New York Times’ Jayson Blair, new revelations have emerged about similar offenses by journalists at other prominent newspapers. Underscoring that journalism is as infallible as any other endeavor, these additional cases of dereliction will hopefully reinforce editors’ willingness to address reader concerns about error and distortion.
A Jan. 25 Los Angeles Times op-ed by George Bisharat, "Two State Solution Again Sells Palestinians Short," contained multiple errors -- including the claim that Arabs "cannot serve in the armed forces" of Israel.
"Nightline and ABC News devote a significant amount of time to both Israeli and Palestinian issues and we consider our record even on the whole," wrote Kerry Smith Marash, ABC's VP for editorial quality, in her Nov. 13 letter to CAMERA. If the Dec. 2 "Nightline" focusing on "Israeli issues"–the 27 pilots objecting to Israel's targeted killings followed by a piece on the "demographic bomb"–was meant to balance the tendentious Oct. 9 broadcast featuring the suicide bomber as victim and criticizing Israel's security barrier, then it was a dismal failure.