Borders, Security Barrier and Checkpoints

May 17, 2005

Judgement, Accuracy and Accountability Lacking at Detroit News

A column in the Detroit News relied on numerous factual errors to support its call for economic divestment from Israel, yet the newspaper is avoiding its obligation to correct the factual errors in its pages. Though it is legitimate for the paper to publish such advocacy in the opinion pages, it is not acceptable that it allow the false information to pass uncorrected.
April 19, 2005

Updated: The “Contiguity” Double Standard

After Israel approved building a new neighborhood in Ma'aleh Adumim, a few miles east of Jerusalem, many news reports wrongly indicated that such building would prevent Palestinians from controlling "contiguous territory" in the West Bank. 
April 12, 2005

NPR’s Robert Siegel Reacts (Badly) to Bias Charge

NPR Host Robert Siegel responded angrily to criticism of his coverage in a column by Andrea Levin that ran in the Jerusalem Post and was later circulated by IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analyis. Name-calling and insults featured in his rejoinder. The exchange follows:
March 3, 2005

Los Angeles Times Editors Fail to Distinguish Fact from Interpretation

Although opinion and editorial writers have more leeway than news correspondents, the Statement of Principles of the American Society of Newspaper Editors makes clear that they are not off the hook when it comes to the facts. Thus, while editorial writers are free to interpret the meaning of events, they are not supposed to misreport what has actually transpired. The Los Angeles Times did just that in a Feb. 22 editorial.
January 17, 2005

LA Times ‘Correction’ on Binational State Op-Ed Further Misleads

Saree Makdisi, an English professor at UCLA, made falsified charges against Israel to bolster his case that the country is a racist, illegitimate state unworthy of existence. The Los Angeles Times' partial correction yesterday of distorted charges regarding the West Bank security barrier does not inform readers, but further misleads them.
December 1, 2004

An IDF Checkpoint, A Violin and A Media Uproar

An incident involving a Palestinian caught on video playing his violin at an Israeli checkpoint near Nablus prompted an eruption of distorted media coverage. News stories and commentary condemned Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoint, deplored the morals of the Israeli army in general, and even in some articles compared the incident to Jews forced by the Nazis to play music in German concentration camps.