Abby Wisse Schachter delivers a devastating critique of the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz
But Haaretz’s ideological crusade is not limited to the editorial or opinion pages. Its editors are only too happy to publish defamatory feature stories as well. On November 30, the weekend section of Haaretz (the equivalent of the New York Times’s Sunday Magazine) featured a cover story on the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem think tank that, incidentally, used to employ Mr. Hazony. A shorter English version of the article is available here. So egregious were the mistakes and so blatant the inaccuracies that the Shalem Center posted the following response on its own Web site. Haaretz has thus far issued no correction nor has it provided space to rebut the claims made in its original article. And for good reason: The sole purpose of the story is to disparage a think-tank whose world-view the editors of Haaretz oppose. But instead of a feature analyzing the center’s stated beliefs versus its accomplishments, or even questioning the legitimacy of Shalem’s Zionist mission, the story deals in gossip, supposed improprieties, and the personal habits and salaries of Shalem’s founders. This is worth 4,500 words? It is when your goal is to defame an organization whose success you envy and whose vision you loathe.
As far as the idea that Ha’aretz is Israel’s New York Times she writes:
…the New York Times doesn’t stoop this low.
(I’m not so certain about that. But certainly it doesn’t stoop so low as frequently as Ha’aretz does.)
Not a good day for media as Honest Reporting issues its annual Dishonest Reporter awards for 2007. The winner this year is Mrs. Jamie Rubin – better known as Christiane Amanpour – for her series God’s Warriors. Congratulations Christiane.
The awards are well earned. (Though the spectacle of Clark Hoyt defending his paper’s decision to run an op-ed by Ahmed Youssef of Hamas didn’t make it.) I do have a quibble though with one item. Father Manuail Musalam is always good for an anti-Israel quote, he didn’t need to be strongarmed into anything.
And while we’re in an awards mode, check out Elder of Ziyon’s Splodie Awards. They’re like the Darwins but with limited eligibility.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
