The Guardian
reports today a public embarrassment for Reuters ―
'a senior editor's memo that outlined the media and
information company's "terrible quality problems"':
In a memo that has led to comparisons with former jeweler Gerald Ratner
― who famously described his own
company's product as 'crap'
― Reuters' global managing
editor David Schlesinger wrote: 'Our news is perceived as not having
enough insight. Our data is perceived as having terrible quality
problems'... The note [was] intended to be sent to 10 senior
managers but [was] actually distributed to thousands of Reuters
staff.
HR subscribers will remember Schlesinger for another other candid admission
― that Reuters appeases
Mideast terrorists through the news outlet's choice of language.
Reuters, long criticized by HonestReporting for imbalanced coverage of the
Mideast conflict, was the ignominious winner of the
2003 Dishonest Reporting 'Award'.
ATLANTIC MONTHLY REHASHES SABRA
AND SHATILLA
The May 2005 edition of The Atlantic Monthly
contains a lead article,
'Will Israel Live to 100?',
that questions the
viability of the Jewish state over the next few decades. Author Benjamin
Schwartz, doubtful for any reconciliation between Israel and her Arab
neighbors, feeds his cynical piece with a series of distortions and
half-truths, reaching the conclusion that it's 'inevitable' that
Palestinian 'expansionist energies will be directed to Israel' and possibly
swallow Israel whole, peace deal or not.
Schwartz can be forgiven his doom-and-gloom tone, but the article also dredges
up the oft-repeated, outright lie that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in
Schwartz's words, 'connived in the massacre of Palestinian refugees'.
The reference (delivered prominently ― in the
article's second sentence) is to the 1982 murder of Lebanese Palestinians by Lebanese
Christian militiamen in the camps of Sabra and Shatilla. The IDF, under Sharon's command, controlled the region
at that time. The term used
in the article ― 'connived'
― implies willful intent on
Sharon's part.
But in fact, a 1983 official Israeli inquiry (the
Kahan Commission)
determined that
Sharon was not directly at fault for Sabra and Shatilla. Rather, the
commission found Sharon negligent for merely 'having disregarded the danger'
posed by the vengeful Christian Phalangists.
The falsehood that Sharon 'massacred' Palestinians at Sabra and Shatilla is
common fare in Arab propaganda, but it made its way into major American
publications as well, before The Atlantic. In 1985, a New York jury found that Time
Magazine had defamed Sharon when Time made similar allegations that 1) Sharon
had known in advance that the Phalangists would carry out a massacre, and 2)
Sharon had granted the gunmen permission to do so. Though the jury found no
'willful malice' on Time's part, Time was forced to run a
retraction.
HonestReporting calls on The Atlantic Monthly to publish an immediate
retraction for this similar libelous statement regarding Sharon, prominently
printed in its
current issue.
Comments to The Atlantic Monthly:
click here
For other points of concern with the Atlantic Monthly article, please see
HonestReporting's blog ―
MediaBackspin.
Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.
HonestReporting
