JeremySF

Classic liberal media bias.....read on....


Dishonest Reporting 'Award' for 2002
Our annual award for the most skewed and biased reporting.



We thank all the HonestReporting members for submitting nominations for this year's Dishonest Reporting "Award". There were many ignoble candidates, and we distilled the list down to the worst offenders.

HonestReporting took many factors into account: Was there a policy of deliberate bias? Were reports based on unreliable sources or no sources at all? Did the reporter or publication refuse to admit its errors?

So without further ado, we regretfully present the Dishonest Reporting Award 2002. "Dishonorable mentions" are listed first (in alphabetical order), followed by the bias champion.

== ASSOCIATED PRESS HEADLINE WRITERS ==

In January 2002, two separate incidents occurred on the same day: 1) A Palestinian terrorist sprayed machine-gun fire on shoppers in downtown Jerusalem, and 2) Israel uncovered a bomb factory in the West Bank, subsequently killing the 4 Hamas terrorists who operated it. In a vile case of "moral equivalency," the Associated Press ran the following headline: "ISRAEL KILLS 4, PALESTINIAN WOUNDS 8".

A few days later, a Palestinian rampaged through central Israel in stolen cars for 3 hours, driving over police, soldiers and pedestrians, before finally being shot. A terribly misleading headline appeared on an Associated Press story (in the Times of London): "PALESTINIAN SHOT DEAD IN TEL AVIV".

Earlier that week, AP delivered another botched headline, in reporting on Israel's incursion into the town of Tulkarem: "ISRAEL TAKES OVER ENTIRE WEST BANK".

Extrapolate from there and you'll get an idea of the bias that AP headline writers were engaging in all year.

==== BBC ====

Last year's winner of the Dishonest Reporting Award received a slew of nominations again this year. Members particularly criticized B BC for being caught altering a quote by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, substituting the word "terror" with the word "violence" in reference to Palestinians. Does BBC still believe that terror only occurs in the British Isles?

==== CBC ====

Canadian members nominated correspondent Neil MacDonald of the CBC for trying to disprove comments made by Hezbollah's Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, in which he promised to export "martyrdom operations" worldwide. The comments -- reported by journalist Paul Martin -- sparked a Canadian ban on Hezbollah. MacDonald suggested that Martin fabricated the comments -- prompting Martin to file a defamation suit against CBC.

Also in April, CBC devoted three days to intensive broadcasting on the Middle East, presenting documentaries rehashing the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla massacre ("The Accused"), glorifying Arafat ("Arafat: The Struggle for Palestine"), a personal profile of a homicide bomber ("Suicide As a Weapon"), and showing aggressive Israeli military actions against Palestinians ("The Ugly War: Israel Undercover"). The films were accompanied by the "Counterspin" talk show that gave forum to anti-Israel voices.

==== CNN ====

In May, HonestReporting members took CNN to task for originally giving more airtime to the family of a suicide bomber, than to the Israeli victims' family. Resentment built up more after founder Ted Turner equated Israeli security measures with Palestinian terror. Israeli satellite TV companies nearly dropped the network in favor of Fox News, and CNN instituted some sweeping editorial changes. The New York Times cited HonestReporting for its role in affecting policy, and the Jerusalem Post reported that "HonestReporting.com readers sent up to 6,000 e-mails a day to CNN executives, effectively paralyzing their internal e-mail system."

==== MSNBC ====

MSNBC ombudsman Dan Fisher wrote that "reporters and producers have been instructed not to use [the term 'terrorism'] in news reports on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict except in direct quotations."

When HonestReporting criticized this bizarre policy, MSNBC columnist Michael Moran wrote that HonestReporting is "aimed at muzzling free speech," and sensationalized that HonestReporting "has urged its subscribers to vent their collective spleen by pelting the accused with angry e-mails demanding that we fall into line, or else."

Calling for journalistic accountability is hardly equated with muzzling free speech, and surely the vast majority of HonestReporting members have non-vented spleens.

MSNBC.com also featured a web log by Eric Alterman, who called the arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti "the very definition of a freedom fighter," and said that Ariel Sharon is "like Hamas" and is leading the "horrifying spiral of death."

==== NPR ====

Most NPR nominations singled out for censure "The Mideast: A Century in Conflict," a seven-part historical series by Mike Schuster. The October broadcast "whitewashed a history of Arab violence and extremism while attempting to paint Israel as a colonial power," as one member succinctly wrote.

==== NEW YORK TIMES ====

Among the many nominations for the NY Times, an April report by Joel Greenberg stood out. "2 Girls, Divided by War, Joined in Carnage" shocked readers with moral equivalence between Rachel Levy, killed while shopping for the Sabbath, and Ayat al-Akhras, who blew herself up, killing Levy and a security guard. (A Newsweek cover story made the same side-by-side comparison.)

In January 2002, the first woman suicide bomber, Wafa Idris blew herself up on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. In a gross example of misplaced sympathy, The Times described Idris as "chestnut hair curling past her shoulders... [who] raised doves and adored children." This despite the fact that she had killed or wounded 150 innocent civilians.

==== JOHN PILGER ====

For weeks, outrage poured in from UK, Australia and South African over Pilger's documentary, "Palestine is Still the Issue." In the UK, the documentary aired immediately after Yom Kippur, exacerbating the ill-will. Even Michael Green, chairman of Carlton Television which produced the documentary, called Pilger's show, "factually incorrect, historically incorrect," and a "tragedy for Israel so far as accuracy is concerned."

==== REUTERS ====

Reuters reported on the deportation of two Palestinians to the Gaza Strip, saying that they were "dumped... to fend for themselves." Reuters made no mention of the fact that Israel arranged a family reunion prior to the deportation, and gave them food and bottled water, plus 1000 shekels each for relocation assistance, and that they spent the night comfortably at a Red Cross facility in Gaza. A far cry from "dumped to fend for themselves."

==== GERALDO RIVERA ====

Covering Operation Defensive Wall, Geraldo Rivera told Fox viewers: "When you use tanks and F-16s, and these sledgehammers against thickly populated civilian towns and cities, that's not fighting terrorism. That is inflicting terrorism... I have been a Zionist my entire life. I would die for Israel. But watching the suffering of the Palestinian people, I'm also becoming a Palestinian-ist..." Rivera said he received 18,000 emails in response to his comment.

==== WASHINGTON POST ====

Top Hamas terrorist Nasser Jarrar lost both his legs and an arm last year when a bomb he was making exploded; he then continued to organize suicide bombings. In August, when Israel made a pinpoint strike against Jarrar, the Washington Post published the following distorted headline: "DISABLED MILITANT'S DEFIANT LAST BATTLE: LEGLESS, ONE-ARMED PALESTINIAN DIES SHOOTING." Writer Molly Moore glorified Jarrar as some type of folk hero, referring to his "resilient career," and only in the final paragraph mentioned how Jarrar's bomb-making caused the loss of his own limbs.

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