Their example?

….in 2009 a Swedish report came out exposing some Israeli troops of selling organs of Palestinians who died in their custody.

(Around the 1:15 mark of the video.)

The reference is to a completely made up tabloid style article in an obscure Swedish paper, that even the author admitted was not based on any evidence.

http://honestreporting.com/time-magazine-accuses-idf-of-stealing-palestinian-organs/ 8/24/2014.

---

Time Magazine excised the truth-offending portion of its video, which continues to play at the bottom of the Honest Reporting piece cited.

How did that error in judgment occur in the first place?

It may be too soon to suggest that Prince al-Waleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holdings investment in Time-Warner has gravitational pull down in the news room, but we may be getting to the point where the public will want to know more about how journalists write the news and with what level of balance, introspection, and integrity.

Related: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/08/25/bias-blood-libels-and-the-medias-race-to-the-bottom/ 8-25/2014.

---

There has been much discussion recently of Hamas attempts to intimidate reporters. Any veteran of the press corps here knows the intimidation is real, and I saw it in action myself as an editor on the AP news desk. During the 2008-2009 Gaza fighting I personally erased a key detail—that Hamas fighters were dressed as civilians and being counted as civilians in the death toll—because of a threat to our reporter in Gaza. (The policy was then, and remains, not to inform readers that the story is censored unless the censorship is Israeli. Earlier this month, the AP’s Jerusalem news editor reported and submitted a story on Hamas intimidation; the story was shunted into deep freeze by his superiors and has not been published.)

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/183033/israel-insider-guide?all=1 – 8/26/2014.

Matti Friedman’s story for Tablet has been getting around the web this morning. Breathtaking in scope, Friedman’s tell-all turns media policy in the Gaza-based Hamas-driven conflict inside-out. A recent Cif Watch article relayed here played up the highlights.

---

Journalism ethics professors and historians take note: You are bearing witness, with few exceptions, to some of the most abysmal overseas reporting since Hearst’s New York Journal in 1898 got us into the Spanish-American War and Walter Duranty of the New York Times was ignoring Stalin’s crimes in the 1930s. “We’re not just talking bad journalism,” says Weiss. “We’re talking about journalism that functions as a tool of a terrorist organization, Hamas: breathlessly pushing its narrative, whether cowed by its threats, sympathetic to its cause, or simply ignorant.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2014/08/21/the-media-intifada-bad-math-ugly-truths-about-new-york-times-in-israel-hamas-war/ – 8/21/2014.

---

Fareed Zakaria: “Hezbollah’s view on the renovation goes like this. “We respect divine religions, including the Jewish religion. The problem is with Israel’s occupation of Arab lands … not with the Jews.” Food for thought.” (http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2010/08/22/gps.last.look.synagogue.cnn.html – 8/22/2010).

CAMERA: “Zakaria’s indirect main point may have been about the NYC mosque. But his more immediate point — that Hezbollah respects the Jews and is merely opposed to Israel’s “occupation of Arab lands” — dramatically misinformed viewers about the radical and anti-Semitic nature of the Lebanese terror group. Hezbollah has repeatedly made clear not only its opposition to Israel’s very existence, but also its contempt for Jews.” (http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=3&x_outlet=14&x_article=1912 – 8/26/2010).

*

Abu Omar al-Shishani: (6:50) “Christians are welcome to khilafa.  They only pay protection money.” (Interview dated: 8/18/2014).

*

Hezbollah mouthpiece or ISIS commander, it appears such Jihad Muslims must have always the upper hand, ownership of the universe, and, back on earth, the plundering and subjugation of all others.

*

Despite Zakaria’s defense of Hezbollah’s alleged decency as regards freedom of religion, “contempt for Jews” would seem matched elsewhere along the same Islamist seam by contempt for Christians.  Of course, the matter of “dhimmitude” is well known in association with “Islamic Jihad” whether Shiite- or Sunni-based.  Why a western writer should wish to diminish its import and promote Hezbollah as the soul of a generous humanity begs for answers.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting (CAMERA) has an archive of incidents involving Fareed Zakaria’s journalism.  The latest involves Zakaria asserting that Israel has interfered with the latest scheduled elections on the “West Bank”, as direct an act of misdirection through language as is possible.  The Washington Post filed a straightforward correction on the matter.  CAMERA noted that Zakaria could not bring himself to state the same plainly but preferred to send yet another arrow at Israel.

---

Fast blogging merely marks a note on the day’s passing news.

Beneath the pain and smoke of conflict, it takes investigation along audit lines to ferret out relationships between state-level adversaries and their activities — direct propaganda, influence on general reportage, ownership and sponsorship of academic assets — campuses, institutions, departments and their research funding — and that may be beyond both my pocketbook and purview.  Whether it’s noodling around the Internet on “Iran, Zakaria” or outlining the contours of the International Solidarity Movement, as much demands focused time on a system that moves at light speed.

All of which may be my way of complaining, “Ain’t no low hanging fruit no more”.

🙂

Whether with Time Magazine publishing in a video an updated anti-Semitic “blood libel” or Fareed Zakariah praising the love and moderation toward Jews exhibited by Hezbollah (oy vey!), I would like to know what has compelled or influenced that gaslighting happy faced lunacy.

Related Reference

Home

http://honestreporting.com/

ADL. “Iran’s Press TV: Broadcasting Anti-Semitism To English Speaking World” – 10/17/2013.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-front-of-cnn-hundreds-protest-anti-israel-media-bias/ – 8/8/2014.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2014/08/21/the-media-intifada-bad-math-ugly-truths-about-new-york-times-in-israel-hamas-war/ – 8/21/2014.

# # #