Not for the first time this year, the New York Times misrepresents Pew polling of Israelis. The author, David Halbfinger, and Times editors are aware of the straightforward factual error, but have not corrected.
In covering the UN Human Rights Council's Gaza report, the New York Times misleads readers about Palestinian demands for a “right of return,” ignores widespread international criticism of the UNHRC’s anti-Israel bias, and conceals accounts of gunfire and explosives used by rioters.
An article published in the March 2019 edition of Commentary compares the New York Times' promises and performance in 2018, and finds striking patterns of bias.
In a 4700-word story about a Palestinian medic killed in Gaza border violence, there is no mention of the thousand Hamas rockets fired into Israel in 2018 and Israeli families sleeping in shelters. There is no mention of Hamas chieftains leading chants of "Death to Israel."
Why does the New York Times pretend Israeli civilians are "caught up in the fighting" between Hamas and Israel instead of acknowledging that Hamas targets Israeli civilians? Perhaps because that gets in the way of the newspaper's preferred "both sides" narrative.
A negative narrative that's rapidly gaining currency in the media is about a broadening rift between Israeli and American Jews caused by an Orthodox rabbinate in Israel intolerant of other Jewish denominations. So popular is this theme that it is sometimes imposed upon news events as context, even when the evidence suggests otherwise.
The New York Times story about Israel's High Court ruling to allow graduate student and BDS activist Lara Alqasem into the country serves as yet another vehicle for the newspaper to whitewash the campaign as one that simply promotes "Palestinian rights."
Almost every day brings new evidence that the New York Times has become a propaganda source, where history and current events alike are distorted and ordinary professional norms of objectivity are cast aside. A case in point is the recent "analysis" of the failed Oslo talks.
One can debate the merits and demerits of a law while presenting the facts accurately. Indeed, that is the role of a journalist. Both news stories and opinion columns should be based on accurate facts without overstatement or distortion. Unfortunately, many in the mainstream media have failed in these respects.
