Rami Khouri, editor-at-large of Lebanon's Daily Star, and a frequent NPR guest, today on the network actually blamed Ariel Sharon for the rise of Islamism in the Middle East. Perhaps Khouri has never heard of the Wahhabis, or the Saudis and their vast oil wealth, or the Taliban, or Sudan under al-Turabi. That being the case, it's too bad for NPR listeners that the network has heard of Khouri, and invites him on so often.
Robert Fisk, the notoriously anti-Israel journalist, wrote a column charging that Israel's friends have successfully influenced the semantics of Middle East coverage by American journalists, supposedly leading to "journalistic obfuscation" to the detriment of the Palestinians. Underlying Fisk's ire about American coverage is the reality that from his perspective as an extreme pro-Palestinian partisan, reporting by U.S. media is insufficiently tilted in the direction he prefers.
On December 13th, the Boston Globe reported that Saudi Arabian prince Alwaleed bin Talal is giving $20 million to Harvard University to establish a university-wide program in Islamic studies. He is also donating another $20 million gift to Georgetown University for a similar program. What the Globe failed to mention, however, is that the prince had previously pledged $27 million during a 2002 telethon for the Support of the al-Quds Intifada.
BBC/PBS Documentary
Produced and Directed by Norma Percy
150 minutesThis BBC documentary spares no effort to portray the Palestinians as blameless victims and the Israelis as heartless oppressors. Ignoring most Palestinian terror attacks, and blaming the eventual Israeli response to those attacks for the demise of cease-fire efforts, is just one of the many techniques used by the filmmakers in their tendentious effort to indict Israel.
Directed by Kevin Macdonald
Narrated by Michael Douglas
English, German, B&W, Color
94 minWhile Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film, "Munich," blurs the line between historical fiction and real events to tell the story of an Israeli hit team’s hunt for those involved in the 1972 Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes, this Academy Award-winning film focuses on the massacre itself through live film clips, news broadcasts and interviews with police, close relatives of victims, and the sole surviving perpetrator.
The influential wire service is more responsive in correcting some factual errors, but continues to downplay attacks against Israelis. The Associated Press might be the single most influential news organization
in the United States if numbers are the measure. The agency serves 1,700 newspapers and 5,000 radio and television stations nationally. Worldwide, over one billion people a day obtain news from the AP, according to the organization.
In recent months the Washington Post has moved from typically
referring to Palestinian terrorist groups as "militants," Unfortunately, the Post
now typically refers to the "military leaders," "military
wings," and "military" or "offensive operations" of
these "armed groups" – Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades of Fatah.
