In its extensive coverage of Israel's targeted killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder and supreme leader of Hamas, the San Francisco Chronicle included an op-ed by Arab propagandist Mazin Qumsiyeh. The column distorted Israeli history in several ways. (The same day, the paper ran its own similarly themed editorial, yet no opinion piece appeared carrying exclusively Israeli views of the Yassin killing.)
Within the vast coverage of Israel's targeted killing of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin and its possible implications for the Middle East, there are several important points that tend to be overlooked or de-emphasized in the media.
In a March 1, 2004 article about Palestinian emigration, Associated Press Writer Jason Keyser makes selective use of context to illustrate why Palestinians are leaving the West Bank. The essential backdrop of terrorism — supported in principle by a majority of Palestinians, and made possible by PA complicity and funding — is omitted from this article, as are lawlessness and Palestinian Authority corruption.
A correction by James Carroll in the Boston Globe fails to clarify his mischaracterization of Israel's security barrier as "a high cement barrier that will run hundreds of miles..." His incomplete correction does not indicate that concrete sections will constitute only a tiny proportion of the projected 480-mile route. More than 97 percent will consist of a chain-link fence, with walled parts confined to areas that present an immediate risk of sniper gunfire.
The February 13, 2004 edition of USA Today published as an advertisement a large editorial cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon controlling the US media, a cartoon closely mirroring anti-Israeli, anti-American illustrations common in the Middle Eastern press and even neo-Nazi publications. CAMERA contacted the newspaper and was promised that future ads will be more closely scrutinized and vetted.