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2003 Dishonest Reporting "Award"
Our third annual recognition of the most skewed and biased coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

View the 90-second "award" video
2003: It was the year of the road map, the year of the
hudna.
Abu Mazen and Abu Ala, war in Iraq, targeted strikes in Gaza, the
security fence. Destruction of Maxim in Haifa, Cafe Hillel in
Jerusalem, the horrific "Children's Attack" on bus #2. The year
that brought us an Israeli in space, Der Stuermer in the UK, the
homicide donkey, child guinea pigs, and Rachel Corrie.
2003 was another trying year for Israel ― a nation fighting
simultaneous, uphill battles against terror and for fair coverage
in the world media.
With the year drawing to a close, HonestReporting regretfully
presents the third annual Dishonest Reporting "Award," our yearly
recognition of the most skewed and biased coverage of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Thanks for your nominations and
votes! We begin with the ignoble award "winner," followed by
recipients of Dishonorable Mention:
IGNOBLE AWARD WINNER: REUTERS
With over 200 news
bureaus worldwide, Reuters stakes its
claim as
"the largest international multi-media news agency."
Though Reuters' own
editorial
policy claims the agency's reporters "do not offer subjective
opinion," and intend merely "to enable readers and viewers to form
their own judgement," in fact Reuters' coverage of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is
flagrantly biased against Israel. Some examples from 2003:
* In
January, Reuters blamed Israel for "killing" Palestinian
suicide bombers:
Iraq has paid millions of
dollars to families of Palestinians, including those of suicide
bombers, killed by Israeli forces since the start of the uprising
in September 2000.
* As Israel prepared to build a wall to protect worshippers at
Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, Reuters published this
headline:
"Israel to Split Christ's Birthplace with Barrier"
To emphasize its (completely external) point, Reuters repeated
the word "Christ" or "Christian" in each of the article's first
four sentences.
* On Nov. 18, two Israeli
soldiers were killed outside
Bethlehem and a number of Palestinians were wounded in Gaza.
Reuters had pictures of both events, but journalists who subscribe
to Reuters' photo service were encouraged to publish the
Palestinian victims in this email
(emphasis added):
Dear User of the Reuters Pictures
Archive,
Please find below a single picture presentation showing two
Palestinians rushing a wounded Palestinian to hospital in the Rafah
refugee camp in the southern part of the Gaza strip, November 18,
2003 :
* When Palestinian terrorist groups
announced a hudna with the PA, Israel was not a party in the
agreement, and the official road map demanded a full disarming of
terror groups ―
not a
temporary hudna cease-fire. Yet Reuters took the opportunity to
vilify
Israel with the
headline:
"Israel Pours Scorn on Truce With Militants"
And
when Israel did show flexibility for Palestinian demands,
above and beyond the roadmap's requirements? On Nov. 3, Reuters reported that Israel
reinstated 15,000 Palestinian work permits, and included this comment
in a news report:
150,000 Palestinians [previously] made a living in Israel, so
Sunday's restoration of 15,000 Israeli work permits is still only a
drop in the ocean.
Actually, 15,000 was fully 10%, and a risky loosening of anti-terror
policy. Even the Palestinian official quoted by Reuters called it "an
important step."
* * *
The
previous examples are specific to particular articles, but Reuters'
anti-Israel bias extends to general editorial policy on terminology
and headlines:
REUTERS' TERMINOLOGY
Reuters' refusal to use the term "terrorism" or "terrorist" reached
new levels of absurdity this year. In November,
Reuters released a list of "Worst Guerilla Attacks since
September 11" that omitted terror in Israel entirely.
But
beyond distancing itself from the term "terror," Reuters regularly
legitimized Palestinian terrorist groups and their murderous acts by
ascribing to them a worthy (though false) motive ― the pursuit
of independence:
The military wing of the Islamic militant group Hamas
claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement faxed to Reuters.
Hamas has spearheaded a 28-month-old Palestinian militant uprising
against Israel for a state in Gaza and the West Bank. (Feb. 15
- emphasis added)
Or take this Oct. 3 Reuters
photo and caption:
Members of the Islamic
movement Hamas burn the Israeli and the U.S. flag over a model of the
Star of David during a march through the streets of the Jabalya
refugee camp in Gaza and vow to continue the
three-year-old uprising for statehood.
(emphasis added)
Hamas makes it perfectly clear in their
official charter that their goal is the destruction of the State
of Israel, and not merely an independent Palestinian state.
Legitimate liberation struggles do not target innocent civilians in a
systematic manner. Yet Reuters persists in this charade, justifying
the horrific terrorist acts.
The terminology even reaches
articles addressing Israeli
perspectives. After the tragic space shuttle
explosion in February,
Reuters described Israelis' sadness over the
death of astronaut Ilan Ramon:
The launch of Ramon's space
flight had virtually erased news of the country's woes, spreading
space fever among Israelis embittered by a Palestinian uprising for
statehood, a scandal-plagued national election and a domestic
recession. (Feb. 2, emphasis added)
Israelis were not
embittered by an "uprising for statehood." They were, as always,
prepared to offer Palestinians a state. They were embittered by
relentless Palestinian terror.
Reuters refuses to use the term "terrorist" because (as
global news editor Steven Jukes states) "one man's terrorist is
another's freedom fighter." But by continually using the term
"uprising for statehood" to describe the terrorist wave, Reuters
chooses to present them as freedom fighters. So much for
journalistic neutrality.
Reuters regularly makes the
effort to help readers "understand" the human side of Palestinian
terrorists. When two Israelis were killed in Negohot, Reuters included
this background information to help readers rationalize the terrorist
act:
Palestinians regard Jewish
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as major obstacles to
peace and have regularly attacked them. (Sept. 26)
This description
suggests ― preposterously ― that Palestinian terrorists perpetrate the
willful murder of civilians out of their quest for peace.
REUTERS' HEADLINES
In July,
HonestReporting released
a study of one month of
Reuters headlines on the conflict. Some findings:
▪
In violent acts by Israelis, "Israel" was named in
100% of the headlines, and the verb was in the active voice in
100% of the headlines, i.e.:
"Israeli Troops Shoot Dead Palestinian in W. Bank" (July 3)
▪ But in violent acts by Palestinians, the Palestinian
perpetrator was
named in just 33% of the headlines, and the verb was generally
in the passive voice, i.e.:
"Bus
Blows Up in Central Jerusalem" (June 11)
That is, in the world
of Reuters headlines, when Israel acts, Israel is always perpetrating
an active assault and the Palestinian victim is consistently
identified. But when Palestinian terrorists act, the event just
"happens" and Israeli victims are left faceless.
Moreover, Reuters
presents Palestinian
diplomats as pursuing peace, but frustrated by their obstinate Israeli
counterparts:
"Palestinians Urge Israel to Free Prisoners" (July
4) "Israel Sets Tough Terms for Prisoner Release" (July
6) "Israel Fumes at U.S. Opening to Doves, Steps Up Raids" (Dec. 3)
The overwhelming
message from Reuters headlines is tendentious indeed: Israel is the
aggressor, and Palestinians are hapless victims.
* * *
Though maintaining that
"the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters must be
upheld at all times," Reuters' news reports indicate that the
agency has
clearly taken sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ceasing to
provide neutral information, Reuters has instead become a sort of
world ambassador for Palestinian factions, operating via the
ubiquitous Reuters news wire.
And for this, the
Reuters "news service" deserves the Dishonest Reporting "Award" for
2003.
DISHONORABLE MENTION
(in alphabetical order)
Associated Press
The world's largest
wire agency featured pro-Palestinian editorializing in
straight news stories, factual mistakes, and coverage that downplayed Palestinian terrorism:
* In late April, a
Palestinian suicide bomber struck a crowded Tel Aviv nightclub. The
attack came just hours after the Palestinian Legislative Council
confirmed the nomination of Mahmoud Abbas as the new
Palestinian Prime Minister. The AP headline:
"Bomb Mars Historic Day For Palestinians." (Actually, the bomb "marred
the day" for three dead Israelis and their families.)
* AP glamorized
Palestinian terrorists ― a Feb. 25 tribute to dead terrorist Abdallah al-Saba waxed eloquent: "a
new chapter in Palestinian lore was being spun" as this "longtime
Islamic militant chose to fight and die rather than give in to Israeli
wrecking crews." AP issued a lengthy, sympathetic
biography
of Hamas terrorist extraordinaire Abdel Aziz Rantisi: "pediatrician
and poet," a caring and gracious patriarch of "six children and 10
grandchildren. He has written poetry for one of them, a girl named
Assma." The AP article then proceeded to quote effusive verses from
Rantisi's love poem.
* In March, AP
brushed off terrorist rockets as insignificant: "Palestinians have
been firing primitive, homemade Qassam rockets from northern Gaza at
the Israeli town of Sderot. Most of them miss their target, and those
that land cause little damage with their small explosive warheads."
(March 6)
In fact, the
increasingly sophisticated
Qassam missile constitutes an extremely
serious threat to Israeli cities, and the over 2,000 Qassams fired by
Hamas have injured numerous Israelis, some seriously. Would AP
minimize the threat if, say, Mexicans began lobbing missiles toward
Houston?
* In May, AP began
using the term "bystanders" to refer to Israeli victims of
Palestinian terror: "In 93 suicide attacks since the current violence
erupted in September 2000, 357 bystanders have been killed." (May 18)
A "bystander" is an individual peripheral to the central action in a
given event. AP's term masks the true, civilian target of nearly all
Palestinian terror.
* In one week in March, an Iraqi
killed five American soldiers by blowing himself up in a taxi, while
in Netanya, a Palestinian ignited his explosive belt at the
entrance to a cafe, causing 50 Israeli casualties. AP listed the Iraqi attack among other
historical "terror attacks against the U.S. military," but called the
Netanya attack the work of a "Palestinian militant."
* In a report addressing
the Palestinian claim to a "right of return," AP erroneously stated:
"Israel has always objected to the right of return for about 4 million
Arabs who fled the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948, but
never made renouncing the demand a condition for peace talks before."
(May 7)
In fact, no party
has ever claimed that 4 million Arabs fled Israel during its War of
Independence. The actual number of Arab refugees in 1948-9 was,
according to Israeli sources, 538,000. The UN puts the figure at 720,000,
while Palestinians have claimed up to
850,000.
* When American
Rachel Corrie died under
an IDF bulldozer in March, AP distributed a photo showing Corrie,
standing in direct view of the bulldozer driver, dressed in orange and
speaking into a megaphone in the direction of the oncoming vehicle:
The AP caption read:
"Rachel was run over Sunday by the bulldozer that she was trying to
stop from tearing down a building in the Rafah refugee camp, witnesses
said."
The photo was carried in hundreds of newspapers worldwide.
The AP
caption led readers to believe that this photo depicted the very scene
and moment of the accident, and implied cruel, criminal recklessness
on the part of the IDF driver. But in fact, the photo was taken hours
before Corrie's death, which the IDF later deemed an unfortunate
accident. Corrie's death occurred while she was hidden from the
driver's view.
* On numerous
occasions, AP called Palestinian terrorists "revenge bombers"
―
Israeli anti-terror strikes were said to "trigger" "revenge attacks." For example: "Generally the militant group Hamas carries out revenge
attacks ― as it did
this week, when a suicide bomber killed 17 people in a Jerusalem bus
blast." (June 13) This term paints Israel as the source of
the conflict, and denies the sworn, documented
commitment of Hamas and other terrorist groups to destroy Israel
regardless of Israeli actions.
This year, the Beeb (the 2001 Dishonest Reporting "Award" laureate)
was brought to its knees by domestic controversy, but found time to promote and
broadcast a
film that makes the outrageous claim that Israel used nerve gas against
Palestinians in the Khan Younis refugee camp. And in September, when a
terrorist killed two Israelis while they were eating a holiday meal
(and was then felled by a nearby soldier),
BBC
headlined the event: "Three Dead in West Bank Attack."
Former Palestinian Prime Minster Mahmoud Abbas authored a book that
denies the horrors of the Holocaust, but you wouldn't know it from the
BBC profile that introduced Abbas to their readers: "A highly
intellectual man, Abu Mazen [Abbas] studied law in Egypt before doing
a PhD in Moscow. He is the author of several books." (BBC later
updated the profile to include criticism of Abbas' positions.)
When twin
suicide bombers murdered two Israelis and injured many others one
August day, the
Christian Science Monitor's
homepage headline
read: "Suicide attacks jolt Mideast peace
hopes; Bombings may hurt Palestinian effort to stop Israel's
barrier." The
text of the article first indicated that the
bombings "threaten to undermine the Palestinian Authority's
campaign to stop Israel's barrier," and only afterward
noted that the terror attack "left two Israelis dead and 11
wounded." Apparently, the warped moral compass of CSM determined
that the most serious injury the twin suicide bombings inflicted
was not to actual human victims, but to the "hurt" Palestinian
political goals.
In a grave act of
disrespect, The Guardian (UK) exploited the death of Col. Ilan Ramon
to take a swipe at the Israeli government. In a
report headlined,
"Israel remembers astronaut as Sharon capitalises on US links," Chris
McGreal wrote that the Israeli government "used the tragedy to paint
Israel as a democratic western nation standing firm with the US
against the barbarians."
In August, Yassir Arafat made a claim to
"mass arrests of Palestinians," and
The Guardian repeated Arafat's
unsubstantiated claim as fact.
The Guardian
noted the hundreds of emails from HonestReporting
subscribers on this matter, then surreptitiously moved back the frame
of reference for their "mass arrests" claim, to a full month before
the date referred to in the original article. We noticed.
In January, The Independent (UK) published an editorial cartoon by
Dave Brown depicting Ariel Sharon biting into the flesh of a
Palestinian baby:
In a decision as
shocking as the original one to publish the cartoon, the British
Political
Cartoon Society awarded its
Cartoon of the Year for 2003 to Brown's appalling and libelous
work. (The Society deflected criticism by saying the award was based
on popular vote.)
In July,
The Independent
painted Sharon as sly and evasive in
Washington ― the Israeli Prime Minister "reverted to the familiar tactic of laying the blame on the
Palestinians for not moving more forcefully to crack down on
terrorism." (Far from a diversionary "tactic," the
uprooting of Palestinian terror would certainly foster peace.) And The Independent was apparently irritated by the warm
personal relationship the two leaders have built: "Though Israel gave
so little discernable ground, the two men were all smiles and
friendliness, referring to each other as 'Ariel' and 'George.'"
In July, the LA
Times made the patently false assertion: "Along with prisoner
releases, the next important element in moving ahead with the 'road
map' is the Palestinian demand that Israel withdraw from more of the
West Bank." In fact, prisoner releases are not even mentioned in the
road map.
And according to the road map, the PA's obligation to uproot terror
was clearly "the next important element."
In August, after the
IDF killed a Hamas leader, a
Hamas
spokesman fed reporters this line: "The Zionist enemy has
assassinated the truce," so therefore "we consider ourselves no longer
bound by this cease-fire." This, despite the fact that Hamas
themselves admitted to engineering the horrific Jerusalem bus bombing
the week before. Nonetheless, the
LA Times swallowed Hamas' propaganda and issued the headline:
"Truce Ended After Israeli Airstrike."
A July
San Diego Union-Tribune article merited the ignominious honor of
generating the most letters from HonestReporting subscribers.
The Union-Tribune blithely compared the death of an innocent terror
victim to Rachel Corrie, whose militant organization was found
harboring an Islamic Jihad terrorist in March. Both young West Coast
women, said the Union-Tribune,
"believed in their struggle."
A July Washington Post editorial repeatedly called Palestinian
terrorist organizations "militant groups," and then
―
sandwiched among those references
―
referred to "militant Jewish settlers." The editorial claimed these
two groups constitute "the extremists on both sides." HonestReporting investigated,
but has yet to find any cases of Jewish
suicide bombers.
After Israeli planes
hit an abandoned Syrian camp, the
Washington Post
opined that "Mr. Sharon prodded a country suspected of supporting
terrorism." Suspected? Since 1979, Syria has never failed to make the
U.S. State Department's annual listing of nations that sponsor
terrorism.
On April 30, the road
map was delivered in Israel, and on that very day a terrorist struck a
Tel Aviv bar, killing 3 and wounding 40. The Washington Post not only
failed to give the terrorist attack headline coverage, but granted it
only one brief paragraph, buried deep in the article covering the
launch of the road map.
On the other hand,
the very next day (May 2), on the front page above the fold, The
Washington Post published an article headlined "Israeli
Incursion Kills 13 in Gaza, 'Map' Sabotaged Palestinians Say."
* * *
HonestReporting encourages subscribers to write to Reuters, expressing
your perspective on their "news" coverage:
editor@reuters.com
Thank you for your
ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.
HonestReporting.com
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