Israel Matzav

Adam Kredo destroys Jodi Rudoren

Earlier this week, I reported on a New York Times article by Jodi Rudoren in which 'Palestinian' stone throwing was lionized as a 'hobby.' In response, Adam Kredo looks into some of the influences on Rudoren's writing and presents a portrayal that clearly shows her to be anti-Israel pro-'Palestinian.'

Pro-Israel officials say Rudoren’s most recent inaccurate statements should prompt readers to question her objectivity.

“This is an ongoing problem with Rudoren,” said Noah Pollak, executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel. “Not only is she stunningly ignorant of her beat, but her knowledge vacuum is filled every time by the same kind of ‘mistake’—namely, substituting what the anti-Israel left wishes was true for what is actually true.”

Some insiders allege that Rudoren’s writing has been influenced by Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, a website that has come under fire for what critics describe as its anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bias.

Abunimah, who has referred to Zionism as “one of the worst forms of anti-Semitism in existence today,” chastised Rudoren in a July 16 article.

“Why can’t Rudoren just say clearly that the settlements have been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice, the U.N. Security Council, the U.N. General Assembly, and almost every government in the world, repeatedly and consistently, for decades?”

Abunimah wrote in an article headlined, “Why is New York Times reporting on Israeli settlements so timid?”

Rudoren acknowledged to the Free Beacon that she has seen Abunimah’s article but that it did not factor into her Sunday dispatch.

Rudoren has written in past articles that “most” of the international community views “the settlements as a violation of international law.”

Rudoren’s reporting “is the result of sending a journalist to the Middle East who doesn’t know anything about the Middle East,” one senior official with a pro-Israel organization told the Free Beacon.

“This is why journalists shouldn’t take their cues from random fringe blog sites,” the official said. “They stop producing accurate copy and instead start misleading their readers. Sad for her and sad for the Times.”

Rudoren forwarded to the Free Beacon a response that Times’s standards editor Philip Corbett has been sending to readers who have “expressed concern” over her article on Palestinian stone throwers. 

“We understand the sensitivity of these issues and the complexity of the ongoing conflict,” Corbett wrote. “But I respectfully disagree with the idea that our story was biased or in any way supported or glamorized the stone-throwers.”

“The purpose of the piece was to give a close-up, detailed look, to help readers better understand this ongoing element of the conflict,” he wrote, adding that “it included the justifications offered by some youths and others in the town, but it also very clearly showed the corrosive and negative effects.”

“I think few readers would feel that our story glorified the practice or its consequences,” Corbett concluded.

Funny. I've spoken to dozens of people who read the article and every one of them thinks that the article glorifies stone throwing and implicitly glorifies its consequences.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: anti-Israel media bias, Jodi Rudoren, New York Times

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:51 PM