Bias at NYT Arts/Cultural Desk
A NYT article by James Glanz and Rami Nazzal seemed straightforward at first glance, discussing plans for the opening of a new Palestinian museum in Birzeit on Wednesday. The article appeared online on May 16 under the headline “Palestinian Museum Prepares to Open, Minus Exhibitions” and a day later, on the first page of the Arts & Culture section of the print edition, headlined “Palestinian Museum Is Set to Open, Empty of Art.”
When they noted that the museum’s opening ceremony was slated for “a few days after the 68th anniversary of what Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe,” the reporters appropriately made it clear that this was the Palestinians’ terminology for “Israel’s founding and the conflict that followed.” But while they indicated that as a result, “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians were “displaced,” they did not explain the relevant circumstances, namely, that Arab leaders had invaded and declared war on the newly established State of Israel.
Worse, though, was that elsewhere, the authors themselves adopted the Palestinian narrative and presented it as fact in their own voices. They wrote:
In the West Bank, where Palestinians have for years struggled to build political and civic institutions while resisting Israel’s occupation of the territory, the fate of the exhibition may say as much about the realities of Palestinian society as any art collection could. [emphasis added]
Objective and knowledgeable readers may well recognize that “resisting Israel’s occupation” is the justification invoked by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups for carrying out murderous attacks on civilian targets in Israel, but others may be misled by what amounts to the reporters’ own stamp of approval on the biased language.
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