Daily Beast’s List of Admonitions to Staff is Missing an Important Entry

By Published On: April 5, 2015

Avlon.DBeast.adminitions.jpg

The Daily Beast’s editor-in-chief, John Avlon, appeared as a guest on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal (April 2, 2015) from his New York office. Plainly in view on the wall behind Avlon is a list of admonitions (only two) to staff:

1. DON’T BE BORING.

2. DON’T BE STUPID.

The omission of an obvious third admonition for journalists, “DON’T BE INACCURATE” (and perhaps also a fourth, “DON’T BE BIASED BY OMISSION”) may reveal more than intended about the mind-set, even if subconscious, at a number of media outlets. The Web site has become a frequently-quoted source of news reporting and opinions. As CAMERA continually documents, many print, broadcast and Web sites frequently are short on both accuracy and providing even minimum context including, if not especially, about the Arab-Israel conflict.

The Daily Beast’s pair of warnings, however, raises a question about the performance of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal hosts: Given their chronic tolerance of, if not pandering to, mendacious anti-Israel and sometimes antisemitic callers – is this journalistic failure due to being “stupid,” too “boring” to challenge such callers, or willful acceptance of defamation of Israel and Jews?

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