What Are Ben White and Electronic Intifada Hiding From?

By Published On: December 22, 2011

EI's Spam Filter.jpg

A few days ago, there was a disturbance in both the Blogosphere and the Twitterverse. (It was pretty bad, Ben Kenobi was nearly doubled over in agony.)

The disturbance began when that pillar of the journalistic community, The Electronic Intifada, published an article by Ben White (another pillar of said community), assailing a piece written by CAMERA’s Alex Safian, who in turn was calling the New York Times to account for a factual error made by its stalwart, Ethan Bronner. Safian’s piece by the way, prompted a correction from the New York Times.

Safian has tried twice to post a response in the comments section underneath White’s article. The first (unsuccessful) attempt triggered Electronic Intifada‘s spam filter, prompting Safian to post again, this time using a verizon email account. That response has yet to appear on EI’s website.

Has Electronic Intifada included CAMERA’s domain in its spam filter? And is Electronic Intifada sitting on Safian’s response? The answer to the first question seems to be yes. Another CAMERA researcher attempted to post on EI’s website only to find his comment blocked by the spam filter. (See the image at the top of this entry.)

For the record, a slightly edited version of Safian’s response is posted below.

I’m the author of the article, Ben, and I must say it’s curious that you omit my main objection to Bronner’s report, which the Times corrected the following day. Don’t you think your readers ought to be informed that the Times admitted CAMERA was right?

Here are the details that you deceptively omitted. In his article Bronner wrote that:

Sarah Abu Sneineh came with her family to greet her grandson Izzedine Abu Sneineh, who was arrested three years ago at age 15 for throwing stones and hanging Palestinian flags from telephone poles.

“He was just a schoolkid when he was arrested,” she said as she waited for him outside the tomb of Yasir Arafat. “We want him to go back to school. Only education is the way forward.”

I pointed out that the teenager was actually convicted of attempted murder and possession of weapons and explosives, and that is why he got serious time — because he committed a serious crime.

Again, it is curious you kept all this from your readers.

As far as amending the article in response to your tweet, I must admit I don’t follow you. I was editing the article (at around 1 AM NY time) just after posting it, apparently as you were reading it. So yes, it was a coincidence.

And re B’Tselem, we don’t consider them a particularly credible source, but I’ll have to refer readers to the articles on our site about B’Tselem for the details.

Now will you correct your article to let your readers know that the Times was wrong and CAMERA was right? If not, then you are the one guilty of omitting material facts.

We expose the anti-Israel lies so you don't have to. But we can't do it without your help. Join the fight -- Donate now
CAMERA logo
Tell the World – Share Now!

More from SNAPSHOTS

  • Hamas Telegram Channel Celebrates Bin Laden on the Anniversary of His Death

    May 8, 2018

  • Revealed: Palestinian ‘Journalist’ Killed at Gaza Border was a Terrorist

    May 1, 2018

    PFLP operatives A Palestinian journalist who died from wounds received during the Hamas-led “Great Return March” has been identified as a terrorist. Ahmed Abu Hussein, a journalist who worked with Bisann News and Voice of [...]

  • NBC’s CAIR-Less Coverage

    April 26, 2018

    The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) portrays itself as a U.S. civil rights organization. However, as numerous terrorist analysts and the U.S. government itself has noted, CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2009 [...]

  • After Six Corrections, LA Times Again Errs on ‘Palestine’ Terminology

    April 24, 2018

    After half a dozen corrections in over a decade, The Los Angeles Times again uses the term “Palestine” to refer to Palestinian Authority areas. In an April 19 movie review about the first female sharia [...]

  • AFP Calls Eastern Jerusalem Palestinian Territory

    April 24, 2018

    The influential news agency Agence France Presse has taken it upon itself to redraw the map, placing eastern Jerusalem in the Palestinian territories. In the April 22 article (“No boycott fear, say organisers of ‘Giro’ [...]

  • Poll: Majority of Palestinians Fear Their Own Government

    April 23, 2018

    PA President Mahmoud Abbas and European Union Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini A majority of Palestinians living in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) fear the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to a poll by the Palestinian [...]

  • LA Times Replaces Solid AP Headline With Biased Headline

    April 23, 2018

    "Hamas vows revenge for key member killed in Malaysia," was the perfectly accurate and straightforward Associated Press headline (reproduced here in The Washington Post) about the killing Saturday of key Hamas member Fadi Batsh in [...]

  • Iran Has Sleeper Cells in the U.S.—And the Media is Fast Asleep

    April 20, 2018

    Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah The Islamic Republic of Iran has proxies serving as “sleeper cells” in the U.S., according to sworn congressional testimony. Yet, U.S. news outlets have largely neglected the story. Several “intelligence officials [...]

  • Where’s the Coverage? Iranian Drone Shot Down by Israel Was Armed

    April 19, 2018

    Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei Israeli officials have recently disclosed that an Iranian drone shot down by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) on Feb. 10, 2018 was armed. However, many major U.S. news outlets have [...]

  • The Presbyterian Church USA Is Obsessed With Israel

    April 18, 2018

    Here’s a good rule of thumb. If someone from the Presbyterian Church (USA) tries to tell you their peacemaking agenda is not about the Jews, you can be sure it’s about the Jews. The Presbyterian [...]