HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: FAIR-L
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 6:27 PM
Subject: [FAIR-L] NYT Should Tell Full Story in Terror Blast
FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports
MEDIA ADVISORY:
NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD TELL FULL STORY IN TERROR BLAST
Hamas Leader Was in Palestinian Prison Until Freed by Israeli Attack
December 6, 2001
Three separate terrorist attacks in Israel claimed at least 25 lives this
past weekend, and subsequent Israeli army attacks on Palestinian areas have
killed at least five people. The Palestinian group Hamas claimed
responsibility for the suicide bombings, which it said were in retaliation
for the November 23 assassination of the group's senior West Bank leader,
Mahmoud Abu Hanoud.
Echoing the response of the Bush administration, the U.S. news media have
largely blamed the attacks on Palestinian Authority leader Yasir Arafat,
despite the fact that Hamas is an unaffiliated rival of the PA. "Arafat
didn't send the suicide bombers, but he didn't stop them either," reported
CBS Evening News correspondent David Hawkins (12/3/01). Although no one has
charged that the Palestinian Authority carried out or authorized the suicide
attacks, Israeli airstrikes against Palestinian Authority headquarters and
police facilities were presented in some outlets as a direct response to the
suicide bombings, as with the December 4 New York Daily News front-page
headline: "PAYBACK."
The New York Times made the Palestinian Authority's failure to arrest more
Hamas militants a major theme in its December 3 reporting and commentary.
According to a news analysis piece, "Mr. Arafat's lieutenants said they
would crack down on two powerful extremist groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad,
and began making arrests. Mr. Arafat had said before that he would take this
step, without doing so." The Times added that Arafat's Fatah organization
"has maintained uneasy relations with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Palestinian
analysts and officials say-- relations that are likely to end if he puts
their leaders in prison and keeps them there."
The paper quoted Secretary of State Colin Powell as telling Arafat, "You've
got to go after the organizations who are conducting these kinds of acts of
terror... putting them in real jails where they are not walking free several
days later." The Times' editorial followed the same line, warning that "a
decisive moment is now at hand in which Mr. Arafat has to assert his
authority with actions, not merely words. He must, as Washington demands,
break up the terrorist organizations led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad by
arresting leaders involved in planning violence and by seizing illegally
held arms."
While it is certainly valid to investigate whether either the PA or Israel
have done enough to pursue suspected terrorists or to stop violence under
their control, the New York Times has omitted crucial facts about this
latest cycle of violence, even though the paper has reported these facts in
the past.
On August 26 of last year, Hamas' Hanoud was wounded by Israeli forces in a
shootout near the West Bank town of Nablus. Hanoud then surrendered to the
Palestinian Authority, and four days later he was sentenced to 12 years in
prison by a Palestinian military tribunal for training and arming military
groups (Associated Press, 9/2/00).
On May 18, Israel launched an F-16 attack on the Nablus jail where Hanoud
was being held, in an attempt to kill him. The action proved disastrous:
Eleven Palestinian police officers are believed to have died, and Hanoud
escaped (New York Times, 5/20/01). Castro Salameh, the Palestinian commander
of the Nablus post, told the Times, "Abu Hanoud has been my charge for nine
months, and I have kept him under lock and key... But now Israel has
liberated him. I have absolutely no idea where he has gone to."
These facts have been reported in the New York Times, most recently in a
November 25 story about Hanoud's assassination. But the stories written
after the latest round of violence have omitted these facts. Targeting
civilians is never acceptable, but context is critical as people seek a way
out of the cycle of Mideast violence: If the Times reminded readers that the
Hamas leader whose killing sparked the recent round of violence was in a
Palestinian jail until the Israeli military tried to assassinate him, it
would put the contention that the Palestinian Authority bears most of the
responsibility for the current strife in a different light.
On December 5 the Times did report that Arafat and others believe that
Israeli attacks on Palestinian police facilities are in fact encumbering
their ability to arrest militants. But the troubling connection between
Israel's attempt to kill a prisoner in Palestinian custody and the recent
rash of bombings is still not being pointed out by the paper.
----------
Feel free to respond to FAIR ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ). We can't reply to
everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate
documented example of media bias or censorship. And please send copies of
your email correspondence with media outlets, including any responses, to us
at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
FAIR ON THE AIR: FAIR's founder Jeff Cohen is a regular panelist on the Fox
News Channel's "Fox News Watch," which airs which airs Saturdays at 6:30 pm
and Sundays at 11 pm (Eastern Standard Time). Check your local listings.
FAIR produces CounterSpin, a weekly radio show heard on over 130 stations in
the U.S. and Canada. To find the CounterSpin station nearest you, visit
http://www.fair.org/counterspin/stations.html .
Please support FAIR by subscribing to our bimonthly magazine, Extra!
For more information, go to:
http://www.fair.org/extra/subscribe.html%20.%20Or%20call%201-800-847-3993.
FAIR's INTERNSHIP PROGRAM: FAIR accepts internship applications for its New
York office on a rolling basis. For more information, see:
http://www.fair.org/internships.html
You can subscribe to FAIR-L at our web site: http://www.fair.org , or by
sending a "subscribe FAIR-L enter your full name" command to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] . Our subscriber list is kept confidential.
You may leave the list at any time-- just send a message with "SIGNOFF
FAIR-L" in the body to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
FAIR
(212) 633-6700
http://www.fair.org/
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
list administrators: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Stamp powered by www.mailround.com
Click here to join YOPTIN and WIN COOL PRIZES
==^================================================================
This email was sent to: [email protected]
EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D
Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================
1007683135784.gif
Description: GIF image
