My letter follows the FAIR Alert below. - Walter
FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2516
ACTION ALERT:
CPB Turns to NPR as Latest "Bias" Target
Right-wing group may study "pro-Arab" slant
May 17, 2005
According to a May 16 New York Times report, the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting (CPB) is considering "a study on whether NPR's
Middle East coverage was more favorable to Arabs than to
Israelis"--further evidence that the agency intends to police public
media for content it deems too "liberal."
The Times reported that two of the CPB board members had expressed
concern over the alleged bias of the public radio network's
reporting. Gay Hart Gaines, formerly a Republican fundraiser, "talked
about the need to change programming in light of a conversation she
had had with a taxi driver about his listening habits." Her colleague
on the CPB board, Cheryl Halpern, reportedly raised complaints about
NPR's reporting. The Times noted that Halpern is "a former chairwoman
of the Republican Jewish Coalition and leading party fund-raiser
whose family has business interests in Israel."
While NPR's Mideast coverage has frequently been criticized by
pro-Israel partisans, research and analysis by FAIR has found a
strong and consistent slant on NPR toward an Israeli perspective on
the conflict. A FAIR study (Extra!, 11-12/01) found that during a
six-month period, NPR's main news shows reported 81 percent of
Israeli deaths in the conflict and only 34 percent of Palestinian
deaths. Tellingly, when Israeli minors were killed, NPR reported on
their deaths 89 percent of the time, while mentioning only 20 percent
of the Palestinians youths killed.
FAIR Action Alerts (1/10/02, 2/5/02) repeatedly criticized NPR for
describing periods when only Palestinians were being killed in the
conflict as times of "relative calm" or "comparative quiet"--odd
choices of words for an outlet that is supposedly "more favorable to
Arabs than to Israelis."
As if the idea of a political inquiry launched by an institution that
is supposed to protect public broadcasting from political inquiry
weren't disturbing enough, the Times also reported that CPB chair
Kenneth Tomlinson had contacted conservative media analyst Robert
Lichter of the Center for Media & Public Affairs (CMPA) about the
possibility of conducting research for the agency. Lichter is no
stranger to battles over public broadcasting's so-called "liberal
bias." In 1992, as congressional debate over PBS's funding was
heating up, the Center released a study alleging rampant left-wing
bias on PBS. But the methodology was dubious, at best: The CMPA
studied only documentaries that aired on PBS, neglecting popular
conservative programs like William F. Buckley's Firing Line and
Morton Kondracke's American Interests show.
The CMPA study broke down the documentaries into over 35,000
segments--yet only "studied" 614 of those segments that had a clear
"thematic message." And the findings that CMPA presented were hardly
evidence of liberal bias. The Center's report explained one form of
bias: "Racial discrimination was described as a condition of American
society 50 times without a single dissenting opinion." Apparently
acknowledging the existence of discrimination is a "liberal" idea.
Another example bizarrely counted as a "liberal" viewpoint by CMPA
was a Catholic priest's opposition to in vitro fertilization. The
report argued that PBS has a pacifistic bent, even though 1,309
military personnel appeared as sources during the period studied. The
rest of the CMPA's study is similarly flawed--see:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2515 for more.
The news of a possible investigation into NPR's Mideast slant comes
on the heels of a similar report about CPB's plans to monitor PBS
programming for liberal bias (FAIR Media Advisory, 5/5/05). Under
Tomlinson's direction, the CPB has successfully lobbied to add
conservative programming to PBS's public affairs lineup, apparently
in an attempt to "balance" the program Now, which until recently was
hosted by Bill Moyers. One new show that Tomlinson pushed for is the
Journal Editorial Report, a program that is virtually 100 percent
conservative opinion.
ACTION: Please write to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and
urge it to abandon the idea of a politically motivated investigation
of NPR's Mideast coverage.
CONTACT:
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Phone Numbers:
202-879-9600
800-272-2190
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
As always, please remember that your comments have more impact if you
maintain a polite tone.
See also FAIR's report on NPR's Middle East coverage:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1086
You can subscribe to FAIR-L at our web site: http://www.fair.org .
Our subscriber list is kept confidential.
FAIR
(212) 633-6700
http://www.fair.org/
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
_________________________
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
How do you suppose political pressure on public broacasting by the
CPB, which is supposed to protect public broadcasting from political
pressure, is regarded by the public?
Certainly both sides of any conflict should be treated fairly. But
the public does not need a balance between integrity and propaganda.
The idea that NPR has a bias against Israel is too cynical for words.
Outside of circles where truth is routinely and unconsciously
subordinated to power, this lacks the smallest measure of
plausibility.
Consider these crimes: collective punishment; torture; political
assassination; permanent occupation of occupied territory; seizing of
land; institutionalized humiliation at checkpoints; use of high tech
weaponry against residential neighborhoods; bulldozing of homes
without warning; destruction of olive orchards; destruction of
Palestinian civil society; the patently illegal character of these
policies; the prime minister's known history as a major war criminal;
etc.
I rarely hear about any of these crimes on NPR. Some I have NEVER
heard about. Anti-Israel bias? What does this say about the integrity
of public broadcasting?
Walter Miale
...
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