The Jerusalem Post today reports:

The Government Press Office held a meeting with heads of foreign news agencies earlier this month to protest the doctoring of photographs of the recent Lebanon war and the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians … .

and

Seaman spoke of staged photos from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, such as people standing in front of destroyed homes and falsely claiming ownership and instances in which photographers asked people to “recreate” reported incidents. He also said Palestinian photographers would sometimes tell children to throw rocks or have adults carry children pretending to be injured.

He also referred to photos making damage in Lebanon appear worse than it actually was.

Read the whole thing here.

After stubbornly refusing to correct earlier false reports that Highway 443 (from Modi’in to Jerusalem through the West Bank) is “Jewish-only,” Ha’aretz today reports that the road “has been serving Israelis only,” that is Arabs and Jews.

Though writer Akiva Eldar gives a history of Palestinian efforts to gain access to the highway, he ignores the history of Palestinian attacks on the highway since 2000–including the murder of eight motorists–which prompted the IDF to prohibit most Palestinian traffic.

(Hat tip: Nathan W.)

Readers of this blog and CAMERA’s Web site will occasionally come across references to “journalistic standards” or “ethical guidelines” (or “journalistic ethics” or “ethical standards”).

These standards, encapsulated in codes of ethics drawn up by news organizations (see here for some examples), are meant to ensure that the news media remain credible.

And since there are no real penalties when a news organization strays from its obligations to accuracy and objectivity, CAMERA pushes those organizations to uphold their self-imposed standards, and lets the public know when those standards are ignored. When a news outlet consistently ignores journalistic ethics (see for example here), readers can then conclude that outlet isn’t trustworthy.

The relationship between ethical media and credible media was summed up well In a column last Saturday by the Atlanta Journal Constitution‘s public editor, Angela Tuck: “Ethical guidelines are what separate credible news organizations from the tabloid press,” she wrote. “Pictures, like stories, must accurately reflect the news.”

Ironically, Tuck herself wasn’t very accurately reflecting the news when she stated: “British-based Reuters news service discovered that at least two photographs taken of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict by a Lebanese freelancer had been altered.”

Reuters deserves no credit for “discovering” the manipulated photos. In fact, its photo editors had dropped the ball, leaving it to the blogging community to expose the photo fraud.

As CNN’s Mary Snow noted on Sept. 22, “Reuters admits fault because its photo editors didn’t catch the altered images. It was a blog site that blew that whistle.”

Is Al Jazeera part of the fight against America? The head of one terrorist group thinks so.

From the Associated Press:

A major insurgent group in Iraq praised Al-Jazeera television in an audio message posted on the Internet on Sunday, saying the Arab satellite station served the fight against the Americans.

UPDATE: The Columbia Spectator is reporting that “the President of Iran will not speak on campus Friday due to logistical reasons, according to University officials.”

In yet another outrageous move, Columbia University has invited Iranian President Ahmadinejad to address its students. The New York Sun reports:

The invitation comes a day after Mr. Ahmadinejad told the General Assembly that Israel’s creation was “a great tragedy with hardly a precedent in history” and that the Jewish nation “has been a constant source of threat and insecurity in the Middle East region, waging war and spilling blood and impeding the progress of regional countries, and has also been used by some powers as an instrument of division, coercion, and pressure on the people of the region.”

Yesterday, the foreign minister of Israel, Tzipi Livni, called on the international community to “stand against” the threat of Iran, whose suspect nuclear program has become a top security concern for President Bush and Israel.

This is not the first time Columbia has been at the center of controversy regarding its anti-Israel actions. Professors in Columbia’s Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) Department were accused of anti-Israel bias and intimidation of students who voiced contrary opinions. And at the beginning of 2005, a university panel advocating a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict served as a forum for vicious propaganda and hate speech against Israel.

On Wednesday, September 20, 2006, over 30,000 Israel supporters rallied across from UN headquarters in the heart of New York City to protest Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s presence there and to call for the unconditional release of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Speakers voiced support for the war against terrorism and called upon the United Nations to confront Ahmadinejad for trying to incite genocide against the Jews.

But this protest was largely ignored by the media. The New York Sun covered the rally, as did Agence France Presse and the JTA, but the New York Times carried no mention of it. Its New York desk apparently found other stories more newsworthy; its lead story was about a model subway train company planning to use sounds recorded in the New York City transit system.

It is interesting that American anti-Israel protests—even outside NYC, and drawing only “thousands of protesters”—have warranted more coverage in the Times recently. (For example, “Rally Near White House Protests Violence in Mideast” Aug. 13, “Marchers Oppose Israeli Bombing” [in Dearborn, MI] July 19).

Does the Times see news of this large pro-Israel rally unfit to print?

Bush and Abbas meeting yesterday

Meeting yesterday with President Bush, Palestinian President Abbas stated:

And I mentioned to the President that more than 70 percent of the Palestinian population, they believe in the two-state solution, a state of Palestine and a state of Israel, living in peace and security next to each other. That means that the Palestinian people desire peace, and there is no power on Earth that can prevent the Palestinian people from moving toward the peaceful solution, and living and coexisting in peace.

Here are some other statistics to keep in mind about the Palestinian people’s views about peace. According to the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah University:

* 61.3 percent of Palestinians “strongly support” or “support” “armed Palestinian operations inside Israel.” This compares to 32.8 percent who “reject” or “strongly reject.”

* 52.5 percent of Palestinians “support” or “strongly support” the “launching of rockets by Palestinian factions against Israel from the Gaza Strip.” In comparison, 42.5 percent “reject” or “strongly reject” rocket launchings.

The claim makes one’s jaw drop. Reviewing Spike Lee’s HBO television documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” Baltimore Sun television critic David Zurawik wrote (“A Filmaker’s Fury,” Aug. 21, 2006):

“With violin and cello sounding a somber elegiac tone, the camera catalogs body after body — many bloated, discolored, or distorted — floating in the sewer-sickened water that covered parts of New Orleands after the storm [Hurricane Katrina]. Lee is visually comparing New Orleans to the Holocaust; sadly, a comparison can be made.”

No it can’t. The Holocaust encompassed a continent, not a just city or even a region. The Holocaust was history’s most egregious act of mass murder; Hurricane Katrina was an act of nature, perhaps made worse unintentionally by human decisions. The Holocaust was part — a seminal part — of World War II; Hurricane Katrina was a storm — a large one, but still a storm. The Holocaust was followed by, among other things, 40-plus years of political upheaval in Europe and creation of the United Nations. Hurricane Katrina was followed by a change in leadership of a government bureaucracy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and BY the re-election of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

It’s been nearly two generations since Federal Communications Commissioner Newton Minow described television as a “vast wasteland” and he was talking about a medium with only a handful of networks. It’s been observed since that the multiplication of networks and channels has fueled a virtually insatiable demand for “product,” for something, anything, to fill the ever-expanding airwaves. Perhaps Zurawik’s time in front of the tube has dulled his critical faculty. In any case, in the presence of what he describes as Lee’s ambitious work — “like a symphony … structured in grand movements” — he’s plainly lost his sense of proportion.

Hamas Spokesman Ghazi Hamad: Just because he says so doesn’t make it so

Taking Palestinian spokesman Ghazi Hamad on his word is not a wise move. The New York Times learned this lesson the hard way. On Sept. 12, the paper reported:

But Mr. Hamad points out that the charter of Israel’s conservative Likud Party calls for an Israel on both banks of the Jordan River, even as Likud governments have recognized the Oslo peace agreements of more than a decade.

The version the same day in the International Herald Tribune was:

But Hamad pointed out that the charter of Israel’s Likud party calls for an Israel on both banks of the Jordan River, even as Likud governments have recognized the Oslo agreements and a two-state solution.

The NYT and IHT ran corrections yesterday and today, respectively. The IHT correction reads:

A front-page article Sept. 12 about an announcement by the Palestinian president of an agreement to form a unity government misstated a provision of the charter of the Likud party in Israel regarding Israel’s borders. The charter defines the Jordan River as the eastern border of Israel and does not call for an Israel on both banks of the Jordan, though some early participants and leaders in the party took that position.

It wouldn’t be the first time Palestinian spokespeople provided misinformation. (See also here, here, and here.)

WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, reports today:

Unknown masked gunmen attacked WAFA’a office in the southern Gaza Strip of Khan Younis, WAFA reporters and witnesses said.

Witnesses affirmed that the armed men severely beat up WAFA reporter in Khan Yousin, Amr al-Farra, who was at the office. Al-Farra was admitted to hospital after the gunmen destroyed the office and left.

Witnesses also said that the assailants threatened to attack the Agency and its employees claiming that “it is not partial” in dealing with specific issues.

According to the Jerusalem Post:

Fatah officials accused Hamas of standing behind the attack, noting that Hamas leaders have been inciting against Fatah-affiliated media outlets over the past few months.