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May 07, 2012

By the Numbers: Jodi Rudoren's Palestinian Prisoner Article

Jodi Rudoren

Even before Jodi Rudoren began her tenure as the New York Times' bureau chief in Jerusalem, serious concerns were raised about her objectivity.

Here at Snapshots we said, "Only time will tell whether [those] concerns will be borne out."

Unfortunately, judging by Rudoren's recent story about Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike, published online on May 3 and in print the following day, those concerns are certainly being borne out.

You can read some criticism of the story here, here and here. Below we take a look at the piece by the numbers:

• Number of quoted words by Palestinian supporters of Palestinian prisoners: 269

• Number of quoted words by Israelis explaining the rationale behind administrative detention (or anything else): 0

• Number of words by Rudoren (or anyone else) discussing Israeli rationale behind administrative detention: 0

• Number of paragraphs before Rudoren gets around to letting readers know that the stars of her article are members of Islamic Jihad: 14

• Countries and groups that list Islamic Jihad as a terrorist organization include: The United States, Canada, The European Union, The United Kingdom and Australia.

• Rudoren's description of Islamic Jihad: "a radical and militant Palestinian faction."

• Number of other articles in May 4 edition of the New York Times that use the words "terrorist," "terrorist organization," terrorist network" or "terrorist attack" to describe non-Palestinian groups, individuals and attacks: 6

• Number of people murdered by Islamic Jihad: Hundreds

• Number of rockets fired at Israeli cities and towns by Islamic Jihad: Hundreds

• Number of references in the article to those attacks: 0

• Number of days after extremist activist Ali Abunimah complained to Rudoren on Twitter about lack of coverage of the prisoners' hunger striker before Rudoren authored what Abunimah endorsed as her "must read" report: 4

Posted by at May 7, 2012 01:46 PM

Comments

The NY Times for years has been putting anti Zionist Jews as the reporters in Israel.
Jodi Rudoren is just the latest of many of these anti zionist Jews.
Barry Rubin destroyed Rudoren's argurments about the Pal prisoners, by talking in detail how they were mass murderers of Israeli civilians.

Posted by: Barry Rosen at May 7, 2012 11:20 PM

Very important piece.

Posted by: David Schoen at May 8, 2012 08:56 AM

Look at her story on the Netanyahu-Mofaz deal: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/world/middleeast/shaul-mofaz-agrees-to-join-benjamin-netanyahus-coalition.html

The whole article sounds like groping in the dark by someone who doesn't understand Israel's political culture.

If the NYT has any sense they would have hired Khaled Abu Toameh as Jerusalem bureau chief.

Posted by: Michael Segal at May 9, 2012 11:42 PM

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