Dive into the archives.
- It All Makes So Much Sense Now
The New York Times has all but confirmed to The Electronic Intifada (EI) that the son of its Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner was recently inducted into the Israeli army. Over the weekend, EI received a tip suggesting this had been the case and wrote to Bronner to ask him to confirm or deny the [...]
- “Took”
The Temple Mount, revered by Jews as the site of two ancient temples and by Muslims as the site of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa Mosque, has been the focus of simmering unrest recently. The compound sits in contested territory that Israel took from Jordan in the 1967 war. (full article…) “Took” [...]
- And You’re “Unfairly Portrayed” As a Dove
President Shimon Peres tells Washington Post prime minister’s agreement to two-state solution, freezing of settlements connotes shift from right-wing ideology; adds that Netanyahu is unfairly portrayed as an extremist in US (full article…)
- Republican anti-Semitism
“There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves,” according to the piece published Sunday in The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg. (full article…) As is customary, I’m sure these “good old [...]
- The Yes Men Strike Again!
The Yes Men group issued a press release and held a news conference at the National Press Club, purporting that the business group had decided to support climate change legislation currently before the U.S. Congress. A spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce broke into the news conference, alerting media to the hoax, but Reuters and [...]
- The Only Democracy in the Middle East
Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s military offensive against the Gaza Strip, had an impact on the press. As regards its internal situation, Israel sank 47 places in the index to 93rd position. This nose-dive means it has lost its place at the head of the Middle Eastern countries, falling behind Kuwait (60th), United Arab Emirates (86th) [...]
- Editorializing in the NYT
The council has a long history of focusing on Israel, while ignoring human rights abuses in other member states like China and Saudi Arabia. (full article…)
- Israel Objects to “Reality” TV
An Israeli Foreign Ministry official rebuked Turkey’s acting ambassador on Thursday over a Turkish television series that, among other things, appears to depict an Israeli soldier murdering a Palestinian child. (full article…)
- The NYT Always Gives Israel the Final Word
By the Israeli military’s count, 1,166 people were killed in the war: 295 noncombatants, 709 of what it called Hamas terrorist operatives, and 162 men whose affiliations remain undetermined. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza said 1,417 died: 926 civilians, 236 combatants and 255 police officers. Israel says about 400 Gazans die of [...]
- What?
Offsetting the need for reform is a deep Mediterranean resignation (full article…)
- Standards of the NYT
After the June 28 coup, President Obama joined the region in condemning the action and calling for President Zelaya to be returned to power, even though the Honduran president is an ally of Mr. Chávez, America’s biggest adversary in the region. (full article…) In an article discussing the $400,000 being spent by the coup regime [...]
- Glenn Greenwald on the Standards of the Washington Post
The Washington Post’s Anne Kornblut today produces an extreme piece of government-serving, stenographic “journalism,” publishing a dubious administration press release masquerading as a lengthy news article on Obama’s approach to Terrorism and civil liberties. The Post depicts Obama as heavily and heroically engaged in disrupting the alleged Najibullah Zazi domestic terrorist plot and — repeatedly [...]
- Standards of the Washington Post
The brewery was started in 1995 by David Khoury and his brother Nadim, who had returned from the United States with his head full of ideas about hops and German beer-purity laws as well as his own recipes. They almost went broke during the intifada that erupted in 2000, and while never directly challenged by [...]
- NYT Fails To Mention that Noriega Was Also “Made in America”
Time magazine observed that “his fledgling regime distinctly bore the label ‘Made in U.S.A.’ ” Always sensitive to any hint of Yankee imperialism, Latin American governments, including Communist Cuba and Chile’s right-wing military regime, sharply criticized the United States’ action and the new Panamanian government — even though some of these countries had severely castigated [...]
- Of course.
The Israeli press loves the Washington Post‘s ridiculous editorial.(full article…)
- Al-Jazeera
(October 2009)
Of course, Al Jazeera has some overt prejudices. In covering the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, for example, it is clearly on the Palestinian side. Tear-jerking features about the sufferings of the Palestinians are not matched with equal coverage of the Israeli human terrain. What you get from Al Jazeera is the developing-world point of view, or, more [...]
- Surprising… But You Wouldn’t Realize This By Reading the NYT
Most Iranians express acceptance of the outcome of the Presidential election. Eighty-one percent say they consider Ahmadinejad to be Iran’s legitimate president, and 62 percent say they have a lot of confidence in the declared election results, while 21 percent say they have some confidence. Just 13 percent say they do not have much confidence [...]
- Poor Coverage By The Economist
The Economist‘s reporting on the Middle East has been declining for the past year, but since when is the newspaper in the practice of apologizing for Israel? This came as quite a shock after years of what I considered to be fairly well-balanced and objective coverage — certainly the best coverage out of the Western [...]
- Zionism is Racism
The Israeli government has launched a television and internet advertising campaign urging Israelis to inform on Jewish friends and relatives abroad who may be in danger of marrying non-Jews. The advertisements, employing what the Israeli media described as “scare tactics”, are designed to stop assimilation through intermarriage among young diaspora Jews by encouraging them to [...]
- Zionist Media
“during the Gaza war I felt as though every radio station was staffed by propagandists, every newspaper by a government spokesman or spokeswomen. It was not any law which told them to say and write as they did. There was no need for a law – the journalists and analysts probably felt what I was [...]
- Unreported in the U.S.
The English-language cousin of the Qatar based news channel Al Jazeera launched yesterday in the Washington D.C. area after signing its first major U.S. cable deal with non-commercial MHz Networks last week. The MHz deal means 2.3 million subscribers will now have access to the channel, adding to the 140 million households currently receiving Al [...]
- (Baseless) Statements from the NYT
He made no mention of American troops in a nationally televised speech, even though nearly 130,000 remain in the country; most had already pulled back from Iraq’s cities before Tuesday’s deadline. The excitement, however, has rung hollow for many Iraqis, who fear that their country’s security forces are not ready to stand alone and who [...]
- The Western Press Justifies the Overthrow of Democracy
Mr. Zelaya, who took office in 2006, has moved steadily to the left during his presidency, railing increasingly against the country’s elite, who he says have opposed his politics of inclusion. Critics accuse Mr. Zelaya, who comes from a well-off family of landowners, of blatant populism and of doling out cash to try to solidify [...]
- Israeli Demands
Those steps would probably include permitting Israeli airplanes to fly in Arab airspace and establishing limited ties. (more…) Of course, as the New York Times well knows… controlling Palestinian air space is hardly a new idea. The Israeli terrorist military has controlled Palestinian skies since before 1967. What I’m sure the Times intended to report [...]
- “Brutal”
Iranian officials stepped up efforts to crush the remaining resistance to a disputed presidential election on Wednesday, as security forces overwhelmed a small group of protesters with brutal beatings, tear gas and gunshots in the air. (more…) Somehow, I don’t think the Western press has ever referred to Israel’s weekly beating of demonstrators in the [...]
- Training the Proxy Occupation
The U.S. Congress recently approved additional funding for the training in Jordan of three more battalions of the Palestinian national security force, and by the end of the year the Palestinian Authority will have a total of seven battalions at its disposal whose training was supervised by the Americans. (more…) Notice that Isabel Kershner’s report [...]
- Virtually No Coverage
These reasons explain why over recent weeks while the Iran elections were happening there has been virtually no coverage in most media of demonstrations numbering in the tens of thousands in Georgia or Peru. It has even been reported in Peru that dozens of persons have been killed during the protests, or “clashes” as they’ve [...]
- Thomas Friedman’s Standards
Third, the Bush team opened a hole in the wall of Arab autocracy but did a poor job following through. In the vacuum, the parties most organized to seize power were the Islamists — Hezbollah in Lebanon; pro-Al Qaeda forces among Iraqi Sunnis, and the pro-Iranian Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and Mahdi Army among [...]
- Editing
AP Edits Palestinian Suffering Out of Obama’s Speech (more…)
- Israeli Propaganda, Courtesy of the NYT
Israeli forces on Monday killed four gunmen from Gaza who attacked an army patrol along the Gaza border in one of the most audacious raids since Israel ended its military campaign in the Palestinian coastal strip in January. (more…) When has Isabel Kershner ever described Israeli attacks as “audacious”? Israeli attacks are always “anguished retaliation” [...]
- Angry Arab on the Lebanese Elections
Tomorrow’s US media coverage will refer to the winning coalition as “pro-Western.” Tell them that Khalid Daher (a staunch pro-Bin Ladenite from Tripoli who was a major campaigner for recruits for Zarqawi in Iraq) won on Hariri list in North Lebanon. (more…)
- This is “Change”
The Saudi government is permitting journalists accompanying President Obama entry into the country without a visa or the usual customs procedures. While in Saudi Arabia, therefore, journalists are expressly prohibited from leaving the hotel or engaging in any journalistic activities outside of coverage of the POTUS visit. Those who do so risk arrest and detention [...]
- Terrorists the NYT Can Appreciate
Pre-State Jewish Underground Leader Dies.
- Humanizing Ethnic Cleansing
“An old man sat with his back to the village — he could not bear to watch it burn,” said Yisrael Cohen, a Jewish militia officer, recalling the conquest of an Arab village. “From a burning courtyard a young boy came running to me laughing; he wanted to play. He came up and I took [...]
- NYT Image Selection
Wrong. Instead, they went with a poetic Getty image: little children peaking over a little wall. How enchanting! (more…)
- Noam Chomsky: “Exterminate All the Brutes”
On Saturday December 27, the latest US-Israeli attack on helpless Palestinians was launched. The attack had been meticulously planned, for over 6 months according to the Israeli press. The planning had two components: military and propaganda. It was based on the lessons of Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon, which was considered to be poorly planned [...]
- Impartiality?
“For us to broadcast such a thing would in my view be out of keeping with our strict duty to be impartial,” he told one of the BBC’s radio channels. (more…) The BBC has a difficult choice before them indeed—should they appeal to help save lives and in doing so demonstrate a partiality for humanitarian [...]
- Israeli Newspeak
Over the last four weeks the powerful Israeli propaganda machine has been churning out lie after lie about Hamas in order to excuse its own inexcusable onslaught. Israel stopped journalists going into Gaza, preventing any independent reporting on the war crimes its forces were committing. Truth is usually the first casualty in war. Gaza was [...]
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How the Press, the Pentagon, and Even Human Rights Groups Sold Us an Army Field Manual that (Still) Sanctions Torture (more…)
- Spoiled Crybabies
Branding foreign journalists “spoiled crybabies” unwilling to make “a little effort” to get into Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, Government Press Office head Danny Seaman denied Sunday there had been any ban on their entry into the Strip during the battle. (more…) Just like an Israeli propaganda chief to call the international media “crybabies” while [...]
- The American Media Monopoly
Since Al-Jazeera English went on the air in November 2006, it has struggled to gain a spot on traditional American airwaves. The station says only three small cable operators offer the network in Ohio, Vermont and Washington, D.C. None of the biggest U.S. cable systems carries Al-Jazeera English, claiming viewer interest is not sufficient. (more…)
- An Extension of Israel
Look at New York City. Look at the major newspapers. They have a Zionist agenda. They do. I’m not Jewish. I’m not anything. I don’t care about the Israelis. And I’m not anti-Semitic. It’s just a fact. I suggested to my publisher writing a book on Israel, and he said forget it. You can’t talk [...]
- Israeli Propaganda
The report concludes that, when it comes to covering wars, editors and reporters behave in a patriotic manner that is “almost instinctual” and that, instead of scrutinizing press releases, they eat out of the hands of official spokespersons. As Be’er puts it: “In crisis situations, the media constantly endeavor to justify military actions, and they [...]
- Bill Fletcher on the Massacre in Gaza
The media continued to make excuses around the Israeli operations in Gaza. What was striking was the attacks on the United Nations facilities, which under other circumstances would have brought outrage in the major media in the United States; certainly if Hamas had accidentally hit a United Nations facility, there would have been charges of [...]
- What You Won’t Read in the New York Times
“We will not give up. In the next Knesset we will pass the Citizenship Law, which will put a border on the disloyalty of some of the Israeli Arabs,” he added. (more…)
- Manufacturing Consent
Despite subsequent probes by the UN and the IDF, which found that there had been no gunmen within the school compound hit by an IDF tank shell that killed up to 40 civilians, the major Hebrew dailies didn’t cover the probes in their news pages. (more…)
- Israeli Propaganda (Courtesy of the New York Times)
The Israeli government’s stated war goals were relatively modest: to reduce Hamas’s ability and will to fire rockets and to change the security equation in the south. (more…) Isabel Kershner really takes the cake when it comes to waving the Israeli flag for the New York Times. I mean, Steven Erlanger and Ethan Bronner are [...]
- Israel Still Restricting Media Access
In Gaza Monday, Palestinians went to the site of their homes and picked at the rubble in disbelief, looking to salvage belongings. After the cease-fire went into effect, at least 100 Palestinians were found beneath the ruins, according to a print reporter allowed into Gaza. Israel has not allowed foreign journalists into Gaza during the [...]
- Israeli Propaganda Targets harmonicminor.com
The Immigrant Absorption Ministry announced on Sunday it was setting up an “army of bloggers,” to be made up of Israelis who speak a second language, to represent Israel in “anti-Zionist blogs” in English, French, Spanish and German. I had been receiving an unusual quantity of pro-Zionist comments over the last few days, some of [...]
- Angry Arab on Steven Erlanger
I am not sure whether the top Israeli propaganda award should go to Steven Elranger or Ethan Bronner or Isabel Kershner of the Times. I mean all three did their best to explain and justifiy Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians. Look at this article by Erlanger: “Whatever the military and political results of Israel’s 21-day [...]
- Israeli Propaganda (Courtesy of the New York Times)
Steven Erlanger, in a particularly appalling article, excuses Israel’s grotesque behavior in Gaza. He no longer even attempts to justify his reporting of Israeli allegations as fact; he simply accepts it all verbatim: “Hamas fighters are also putting civilians at undue risk by storing weapons among them, including in mosques, schools and allegedly hospitals, too, [...]
- Sorry… But Israel Has No Moral Authority
Those who want to create a Palestinian state living peaceably with Israel could, then, reasonably conclude that what Palestinians need foremost is some kind of trusteeship to help them create a civil society, accountable institutions, transparent government… and political socialization toward tolerance. (more…) How can the Israeli press write of a Palestinian proclivity for violence [...]
- Israeli Attacks on Gaza Escape Global Media Scrutiny
Israel’s relentless air attacks on a besieged Gaza, which have killed over 1,000 Palestinians and destroyed hundreds of homes, continue to take place away from the gaze of the international news media. A country that claims to be the only multi-party democracy in the Middle East, Israel has barred all foreign journalists from entering Gaza, [...]
- Israel Shuts Out World Press
Then Seaman lets everyone know what he expects from them: “You’re here, and you are covering our side.” This means that — even two weeks into Israel’s Operation Cast Lead against the Palestinian organization Hamas — no independent reporters are being allowed into Gaza. Seaman has no qualms about making it clear that Israel wants [...]
- Silent on International Law
US corporate media coverage of the Israeli military attacks that have reportedly killed more than 900 — many of them civilians — since 27 December has overwhelmingly failed to mention that indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets are illegal under international humanitarian law. (more…)
- What Clinton Should Have Addressed
Human rights groups have criticized Israeli attacks on Gaza as disproportionate and indiscriminate, bordering on war crimes. Yet the Bush administration has encouraged Israel’s offensive, blaming Hamas for the violence. Unconditional American support in the face of Israeli brutality is one of the principal reasons so many people in the Arab world hate the United [...]
- We Want To Taste More Blood
Israel, which is often a fractured, bickering society, has turned in the past couple of weeks into a paradigm of unity and mutual support. Flags are flying high. Celebrities are visiting schoolchildren in at-risk areas, soldiers are praising the equipment and camaraderie of their army units, neighbors are worried about families whose fathers are on [...]
- This is Zionist Media
“The suffering of the citizens of Gaza is unbelievable. It’s hell. But we are not uninvolved. We are broadcasting for our citizens,” said Reudor Benziman, chief executive of Channel 10 News, one of the two major private stations in Israel. “We don’t pretend to show the whole picture, as though we are covering a war [...]
- This is the American Media
[Newsweek:] It must have been a difficult decision to send Israeli troops into Gaza by land. [Tzipi Livni:] Yes, it was a very difficult decision, but right now it looks good. (more…)
- A Headline You Would Never See in the New York Times
How Israel Gets Away With Murder
- Israeli Propaganda (Courtesy of the New York Times)
Before boarding my flight this morning, I picked up a copy of the New York Times (I had forgotten what a strange printing dimension it is – very narrow) and discovered this picture adorning the front page: According to the caption, the image depicts, “Soldiers rested on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza [...]
- Hiding Atrocities
Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza
- Israeli Propaganda (Courtesy of the New York Times)
Most notably, after more than eight days of Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket launching in Gaza, The New York Times had produced exactly one editorial, not a single commentary by any of its columnists, and only two op-eds (one already published elsewhere). The editorial, several days ago, did argue against the wisdom of a ground [...]
- What You Won’t Read in the Western Press
An Israeli infantry patrol crossed into Lebanon and kidnapped two Lebanese citizens from their olive grove near the southern village of Blida on Friday. The two were only identified as members of the Tarraf family. (more…)
- They Also Have a ‘Rich History’ of War Criminals Moving Into Politics
Israel has a rich history of journalists moving into politics. (more…)
- Chinese Censorship
China appears to have banned a number of foreign websites, including the BBC’s Chinese language news site and Voice of America in Chinese. The sites had been unblocked after journalists attending the Beijing Olympics complained that the government was censoring sites deemed sensitive. (more…)
- Noam Chomsky: On The Economy, Democracy and the American Presidential Elections
Assaf Kfoury: The economic crisis is felt acutely in the US, but has now spread to the entire world, even to countries (in South America, for example) that initially thought they would be spared. And the American presidential campaign and elections cannot but concern people everywhere, given the dominant role of the US globally. The [...]
- Noam Chomsky: What Next? The Elections, the Economy, and the World
Well, let’s begin with the elections. The word that the rolls off of everyone’s tongue is historic. Historic election. And I agree with it. It was an historic election. To have a black family in the white house is a momentous achievement. In fact, it’s historic in a broader sense. The two Democratic candidates were [...]
- EI: PA Blocks Website Reporting Corruption
The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah has blocked access to a popular news website because of the site’s reporting on widespread corruption among the entourage of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. For several days, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been unable to view the website Donia al-Watan (http://www.alwatanvoice.com) as access has been [...]
- Blocking the Witnesses to History
This week, we have seen once again how Israel employs the “unlimited use of limited force” to provoke a response from Gaza and to thereby undermine the fragile tahdiya—the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in place since last June. Last Tuesday, while the world’s attention was focused on the United States’ presidential election, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip… [...]
- As’ad Abu-Khalil: Obama Bashing Begins Here
It was a noisy night in Washington, DC. Cars were parading the streets and honking their horns all night long. People around were very excited and people walked the streets and yelled and shouted in joy. AlJazeera offices: now that was a different story. The chaos there could not hide the festive atmosphere. People took [...]
- Juan Cole: The Non-Debate
It was not a debate. Just as television in prime time has been largely emptied of drama and innovative comedy, with a few exceptions, in favor of empty-headed “reality shows,” so the political debates have mostly been gutted. Judging “how the candidates did” is rather like weighing in on the wittiness of the libretto of [...]
- Mohammed Omer: IOF Was “Trying to Torture Me”
When I was coming back from my award ceremony and also a speaking engagement, I was stopped for nearly one hour and a half before an Israeli Shin Bet officer came to me and started collecting my bags, which were securely checked already. I kept waiting for some time until they got my luggage and [...]
- My Friend, Mohammed Omer, Assaulted by the Israeli Occupation Forces
I would like to share some rather disturbing news regarding a friend of mine from Gaza. Mohammed Omer, an award winning journalist, was recently assaulted by the Israeli Occupation forces without justification as he attempted to return to Gaza via the Allenby Bridge crossing on the Jordanian-West Bank border. Mohammed, whom I came to know [...]
- Control Room
Control Room, directed by Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, provides unique insights into the media dynamics on the eve of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. It primarily portrays the interactions between Al Jazeera journalists on the one hand and US military spokespersons and Western journalists on the other hand. Al Jazeera is a TV station [...]
- Amy Goodman: Whistle-Blower Points to Target List in U.S. Attack on Hotel
More than five years have passed since the invasion of Iraq, since President Bush stood under the “Mission Accomplished” banner on that aircraft carrier. While these fifth anniversaries got some notice, another did not: the shelling of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad by a U.S. Army tank on April 8, 2003. The tank attack killed [...]
- Obama Defends Israel’s Right To Kill Civilians
The frontrunner for the Democratic U.S. Presidential nomination, Barack Obama, was apparently very impressed with the killing of Palestinian children and a Reuters cameraman yesterday. Obama voiced his support for Israel’s “right to defend itself” and condemned Jimmy Carter’s meeting with Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal—even as bombs rained down on Gaza’s refugee camps. Immediately following [...]
- Jimmy Carter To Meet With Hamas Leader
At a time when a majority of Israelis support an open dialog with Hamas, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is on his way to Damascus to meet with exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal. Now don’t get me wrong: I am not at all impressed by Carter’s lukewarm criticism of the Israeli occupation (yes, I read [...]
- Half a Decade of War: Five Years After Iraq Invasion, Soldiers Testify at Winter Soldier Hearings
AMY GOODMAN: [Five years ago] on March 19th, 2003, the US began bombing Baghdad. The invasion was on. Six weeks later, President Bush stood under a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” and declared an end to major military combat operations in Iraq. Now, half a decade later, the war continues with no end in sight. In [...]
