CAMERA Prompts Washington Post Correction

CAMERA staff prompted the following correction Thursday in the Washington Post regarding an opinion piece which vastly inflated the number of Palestinians living in Gaza refugee camps:

Writers on the Borders (2004)

Directed by Samir Abdullah and Jose Reynes 80 minutes, Arabic, French and Hebrew with English Subtitles
The film, commissioned by the International Parliament of Writers (IPW) and directed by two anti-Israel activists presents propaganda meant to inflame public opinion against Israel. The film likens Israel to the South African apartheid state, compares Israelis to Nazis and presents Palestinians as blameless victims of Israeli brutality.

Star Tribune Editors Exonerate Hamas

The Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul) stands by highly disturbing changes they made to an Associated Press story. The newspaper removed key information so that readers were left with the misleading impression that Israel alone is blamed for a Sept. 23 explosion in Gaza that killed many – an explosion that Palestinian eyewitnesses and even the Palestinian Authority blame on Hamas.

Washington Post’s Features Palestinian Propaganda Piece

A piece featured in the Washington Post's October 2, 2005 "Outlook" section is a magazine-length gripe filled with factual distortions. And since it also includes, in apparent obliviousness, information contradicting major points, it comes across as illogical and unintelligent. This raises a question: why did Post editors grant the author 1,717 words for "Unoccupied: No Israelis in Gaza. No Jobs, Either"?

CAMERA Action Prompts Improved AFP Report

An AFP story on the wire today reported without challenge Saeb Erakat's claim that the "road map" requires Israel to release Palestinian prisoners. In response to communication from CAMERA, subsequent AFP stories noted that "the roadmap makes no mention of Israel releasing Palestinian detainees."

New National Poll: Public Expects Higher Standards from NPR and other Publicly-Funded Broadcasters

Seventy-three percent of the general public expects National Public Radio and other publicly-supported broadcasters to be held to higher standards of balance and objectivity than commercial news outlets, according to a public opinion survey conducted for CAMERA by the polling firm Luntz Maslansky Strategic Research. And 70 percent of daily NPR listeners agree that the network should be held to the higher standards.

AFP Promotes Propaganda on Gaza Water Issues

An Agence France Press article by Safaa Kanj about water shortages and contamination in Gaza suffered from one-sidedness, distortions and factual inaccuracies. The writer consulted only Palestinian sources, put the onus entirely on Israel (mostly incorrectly) for water scarcity problems,  and ignored any information which implicated the Palestinians or which portrayed Israel in a positive light.

New York Times Reports Palestinian Obligations as Israeli Demands

In his story on upcoming Palestinian elections, "Israel to Disrupt Palestinian Vote if Hamas Runs," (Sept. 17, 2005), reporter Joel Brinkley portrayed as a unilateral Israeli demand what is in fact a Palestinian obligation under the Oslo Accords to bar terror groups from elections. In a further display of bias Brinkley ignored all other Palestinian obligations under the various peace plans as well, but did note an alleged Israeli violation of the Road Map.

IHT Fabricates Purpose of Bush-Sharon Meeting

The International Herald Tribune, published by the New York Times, has taken a page from the Times' book of journalistic wrongdoing. The Times earlier distorted the Bush Administration's decision to not pressure Sharon about West Bank settlements, and now the Tribune falsely claims that the Bush-Sharon meeting yesterday was "intended to press Sharon to move . . . on the West Bank."