In a message dated 1/23/02 5:48:12 PM, Marvin writes: << > Unfortunately, NPR is completely unreliable as a news source thanks to biased > reporting in a number of political arenas. The most notable has been the > recent uproar over both subtle and overtly anti-Israeli stories that have > been broadcast and presented as objective reports.
While I would never argue that any news source is unbiased, aren't we talking about the same organization recently criticized by FAIR for it's overtly anti-Palestinian bias (http://www.fair.org/activism/npr-israel-quiet.html)? I'm unfamiliar with the other uproar you cite. >> Camera, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is a pro-Israel media-watch site has been complaining about it for some time. I've seen this other places as well. Here's the stuff: http://world.std.com/~camera/docs/report/nprrecord.html Excerpt: A Record of Bias National Public Radio's Coverage of the Arab-Israeli Conflict September 26 – November 26, 2000 March 27, 2001 Executive Summary National Public Radio has an Israel problem. The tax-supported network’s coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict has long been marred by a striking anti-Israel tilt, with severe bias, error and lack of balance commonplace. A rigorous analysis of NPR’s broadcasts over a recent two-month period dramatically underscores the network’s skewed approach to covering Israel. Beginning with the outbreak of violence in Israel and the Palestinian Authority areas on September 26, 2000, the analysis examined all of NPR’s major news and interview programs. Although there were, in this period, occasional NPR segments that presented information in a straightforward and balanced way, distorted, erroneous, and biased reports were broadcast onvirtually a daily basis, continuing the pattern documented in previous CAMERA studies of the network’s output. NPR’s partisanship was evident, first of all, in the disproportionate reliance on Arab/Palestinian and pro-Arab speakers compared to Israeli and pro-Israeli speakers. During the two months of study more than 56 percent of the guests were Palestinian/Arab or pro-Arab, and those guests were afforded 77 percent more words than the Israeli/pro-Israeli guests. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Also, at http://world.std.com/~camera/docs/alert/nprbias.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ National Public Radio – All Bias, All the Time August 12, 2001 National Public Radio reporters may not be fair or balanced when it comes to covering the Middle East, they may not be paragons of accuracy, or exemplars of journalistic ethics, but say this much for them – they are consistent. When it comes to putting forth a pro-Palestinian line, day in and day out, they have no equals in the United States. On the morning of July 27, for example, there were two Middle East stories for NPR to cover: 1. Palestinian gunmen shot and killed a seventeen-year-old Israeli boy named Ronen Landau as he was driving home with his father and brother. Just before this attack the same gunmen had shot at Israeli children in a playground. 2. The funeral of Saleh Darwazeh, a senior Hamas operative who had been killed by Israeli troops. Darwazeh had engineered numerous fatal attacks against Israelis. Which story did NPR emphasize, which person did the publicly-funded network humanize with details and names and interviews? In an 1141 word story, NPR devoted exactly 26 words to the murder of the Israeli boy in front of his father and brother, not even bothering to mention his name: Israeli tanks shelled Palestinian security posts in the West Bank early today after Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli teenager at the entrance to a Jewish settlement. The rest of the story – all 1115 words – were devoted to Saleh Darwazeh, who was described as an “activist,” and his cause. The Governor of Nablus, Mahmoud Aloul, was quoted by reporter Linda Gradstein as saying “They are killing our children everyday, so we have no choice but to resist and to struggle.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://world.std.com/~camera/docs/alert/otm.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NPR's "On the Media" Distorts Interview with CAMERA December 26, 2001 National Public Radio is under fire for its distorted reporting on Israel, as everyone familiar with media coverage of the Middle East knows. The controversy has intensified as underwriters have withdrawn their support from NPR affiliates to protest the bias. A network confident of its performance and genuinely open to the "public" would presumably welcome on its own airwaves a full and forthright debate about the controversial issue. That was supposedly the aim of interviews by an "On the Media" reporter with a former underwriter of an NPR affiliate and with CAMERA's Executive Director and Associate Director. "On The Media" is a weekly program produced by NPR affiliate WNYC in New York. But the final, edited version of the interview (broadcast on NPR December 22 and December 23) with CAMERA officials was marred by the same manipulative anti-Israel tilt so pervasive on the network. You can listen to the report on RealAudio or print out a transcript at the WNYC website. Although the CAMERA website is provided as a link on the WNYC site, and key information documenting NPR's anti-Israel bias was provided by CAMERA to "On the Media" and NPR, it was entirely ignored by interviewer Philip Martin and program host Brooke Gladstone. There is no mention in the segment of the in-depth CAMERA study of NPR's Middle East reporting, even though the study is available on CAMERA's website, was provided directly to NPR and Philip Martin, and was discussed in detail during the lengthy, pre-recorded interview with CAMERA officials. The study looked at hundreds of NPR transcripts in a two-month period and found that NPR presented many more Arab views than Israeli ones. The report also documented errors, distortions and partisan language.
