New York Times Bias Reporting
December 25, 2000
Mr. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.
New York Times
229 W 43rd Street
New York City, NY 10036
Dear Mr. Sulzberger,
When a Muslim religious leader, Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, on October 13, 2000, called for Jews to be “butchered and killed...have no mercy on the Jews no matter where they are, in any country...wherever you are , kill them...and those Americans who are like them–and those who stand by them,”your reporter, William Orme did not include that hateful diatribe in his report. Yet his wife, Deborah Sontag, reported that some Jews at the site of a fatal car bombing chanted, “Death to the Arabs! Death to Arafat!” Only she picked up that chant at the scene.
Why are such chants from Jews worthy for the Times to print when the call to murder all Jew is ignored by Mr. and Mrs. Orme? How do you explain such one sided reporting from what is still considered the best newspaper in the world? Are your reporters Arabists or just hateful of the Jewish people? Whatever they are, it does not speak well for you or your newspaper’s credibility.
I would like you to read the following excerpt from a letter that came to me from Israel.
“What distresses me and Mordechai most of all is that there is no one here who presents to the world, the truth of what is going on. We don’t have any public relations person who sets straight the Palestinian propaganda and distortions that go out to the world. For instance, did you hear any outcry from the international community when the Tomb of Joseph was desecrated, taken apart stone by stone? Did you know that the Palestinians have four lines of defense? In the front line, they put children, ten, eleven, twelve years old (the first to get shot if bullets are flying).
In the second line, they have the masked stone throwers, mostly teenagers. In the third line, they have the older teens and young adults, throwing Molotov Cocktails, and explosive. And in the back, the fourth line, they have the adults with guns and live ammunition. It is the rear lines that attack Israeli soldiers with explosive and bullets and when they fire back, the world sees children being killed. They have been put there by their own people to mobilize the world’s outrage.”
The U.S. media, especially CNN, has bought into the Arab propaganda and it is shameful that the New York Times will allow such one sided coverage. Everyday, when the body count is tallied, the line following the number is, “mostly Palestinians” or “the vast majority, Palestinians.” It has become a mantra in every article we read. Would the reporters feel better if the vast majority of deaths in this terrible conflict were Jews or would a body count of Jews not be newsworthy? Would more Jews being killed be too sympathetic to the Israelis and the Jewish People or would the deaths of Jews just not make a difference?
Mr. Sulzberger, I am saddened by the way your foreign editor allows the news from Israel to be reported in your paper when he has to know what the truth really is. But I am especially saddened by the fact that I can no longer trust the Times to report honestly what is really going on out in the Middle East. How else are I to know if what I am reading in other stories is also honest reporting?
I don’t like being disillusioned with my country, Mr. Sulzberger. But recently, The Presidency has been lessened by scandal, the Supreme Court has lessened itself by blatant partisanship and the best newspaper in the world, the New York Times, has lessened itself by allowing the truth to be muffled. Where are we to go now, Mr. Sulzberger? Where are we to go now?
A Saddened American,
Leonard H. Berman
Mr. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.
New York Times
229 W 43rd Street
New York City, NY 10036
Dear Mr. Sulzberger,
When a Muslim religious leader, Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, on October 13, 2000, called for Jews to be “butchered and killed...have no mercy on the Jews no matter where they are, in any country...wherever you are , kill them...and those Americans who are like them–and those who stand by them,”your reporter, William Orme did not include that hateful diatribe in his report. Yet his wife, Deborah Sontag, reported that some Jews at the site of a fatal car bombing chanted, “Death to the Arabs! Death to Arafat!” Only she picked up that chant at the scene.
Why are such chants from Jews worthy for the Times to print when the call to murder all Jew is ignored by Mr. and Mrs. Orme? How do you explain such one sided reporting from what is still considered the best newspaper in the world? Are your reporters Arabists or just hateful of the Jewish people? Whatever they are, it does not speak well for you or your newspaper’s credibility.
I would like you to read the following excerpt from a letter that came to me from Israel.
“What distresses me and Mordechai most of all is that there is no one here who presents to the world, the truth of what is going on. We don’t have any public relations person who sets straight the Palestinian propaganda and distortions that go out to the world. For instance, did you hear any outcry from the international community when the Tomb of Joseph was desecrated, taken apart stone by stone? Did you know that the Palestinians have four lines of defense? In the front line, they put children, ten, eleven, twelve years old (the first to get shot if bullets are flying).
In the second line, they have the masked stone throwers, mostly teenagers. In the third line, they have the older teens and young adults, throwing Molotov Cocktails, and explosive. And in the back, the fourth line, they have the adults with guns and live ammunition. It is the rear lines that attack Israeli soldiers with explosive and bullets and when they fire back, the world sees children being killed. They have been put there by their own people to mobilize the world’s outrage.”
The U.S. media, especially CNN, has bought into the Arab propaganda and it is shameful that the New York Times will allow such one sided coverage. Everyday, when the body count is tallied, the line following the number is, “mostly Palestinians” or “the vast majority, Palestinians.” It has become a mantra in every article we read. Would the reporters feel better if the vast majority of deaths in this terrible conflict were Jews or would a body count of Jews not be newsworthy? Would more Jews being killed be too sympathetic to the Israelis and the Jewish People or would the deaths of Jews just not make a difference?
Mr. Sulzberger, I am saddened by the way your foreign editor allows the news from Israel to be reported in your paper when he has to know what the truth really is. But I am especially saddened by the fact that I can no longer trust the Times to report honestly what is really going on out in the Middle East. How else are I to know if what I am reading in other stories is also honest reporting?
I don’t like being disillusioned with my country, Mr. Sulzberger. But recently, The Presidency has been lessened by scandal, the Supreme Court has lessened itself by blatant partisanship and the best newspaper in the world, the New York Times, has lessened itself by allowing the truth to be muffled. Where are we to go now, Mr. Sulzberger? Where are we to go now?
A Saddened American,
Leonard H. Berman