Demonization Before Verification at Time Magazine?
“In the end,” write journalists Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, “the discipline of verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, or art.”
They make the assertion in their book The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect.
But apparently, not all newspeople do know of this difference between journalism and other disciplines.
A crowd of reporters, most prominent among them Time Magazine‘s Tim McGirk, has in recent weeks reported on the death of two Palestinian sisters during the Gaza fighting. The common theme of the news stories is that Israeli troops reportedly shot the Palestinians as they were surrendering.
Had the journalists paid enough attention to their obligation to verify, though, they would have found that not everything the family has claimed is true. In fact, it can’t all be true — different journalists asking the same questions have been given different answers. And different answers to the same question is certainly cause to doubt what is being said.
Did the excitement about an opportunity demonize Israel trump the journalistic obligation to verify?
Read all about it here, while recalling the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Walter Lippmann in 1920: “There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the information by which to detect lies.”
More from SNAPSHOTS
Why Does a NY Times Journalist Want to Suppress an Anti-Hamas Article?
May 29, 2018
A New York Times journalist thinks the Wall Street Journal shouldn't have published an opinion piece criticizing Hamas's anti-Israel propaganda campaign. The reporter, Declan Walsh, is one of the Times reporters who has covered the [...]
Iran is Funding Hamas’s Violent ‘Protests’ at the Border, Media M.I.A.
May 22, 2018
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini The Islamic Republic of Iran is behind the recent Hamas-orchestrated violent demonstrations—dubbed the “March of Return”—at the Israel-Gaza border, according to Israeli authorities. Yet many major U.S. news outlets [...]
Are Gaza Gunmen “Protesters”? NY Times Refuses to Say
May 21, 2018
After repeatedly insisting that "Israeli soldiers killed 60 protesters" during clashes last Monday, May 14, the New York Times is refusing to clarify whether its count of supposed protesters includes the eight armed Hamas fighters [...]
Bahrain Says Israel Has a Right to Self-Defense, and the Media Shrugs
May 15, 2018
Bahrain's Foreign Minister and then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry The foreign minister of the Arab nation of Bahrain, Sheikh Khalid al-Khaalifa declared on May 10, 2018 that Israel has a right to defend itself. [...]
AFP Captions Call Jerusalem Parade Participants Settlers
May 15, 2018
Numerous Agence France-Presse photo captions generalized all participants in Sunday's Jerusalem Flag Parade as "settlers," despite the fact that the crowd hailed from across Israel, within the Green Line, as well as outside. A sampling [...]
Journalist: Hezbollah Shows ‘More Maturity’ Than Israel
May 9, 2018
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah A Los Angeles Times special correspondent, Nabih Bulos, declared on Twitter on May 7, 2018, that Hezbollah (“Party of God”) shows “more maturity” than Israel. Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based, Iranian-backed, [...]