NYT’s Peter Baker: Word Choices and Attitudes

By Published On: September 8, 2016

peter_baker.jpg
NYT Jerusalem Bureau Chief Peter Baker

Following Peter Baker’s debut as the New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief, CAMERA noted that his first article was disappointing to readers looking for informative and balanced pieces from the region.

His article in today’s print edition of the Times is about Soviet documents that indicate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was once a KGB agent in Damascus, known as “Krotov,” meaning ‘the mole”. Informative and interesting, but Baker injects a note of unjournalistic snarkiness directed at Israel as he introduces the story:

The possibility [of Abbas’ role as a KGB agent], trumpeted by the Israeli media on Wednesday night and just as quickly dismissed by Palestinian officials, emerged from a document in a British archive listing Soviet agents from 1983.[emphasis added]

When does reporting a story become “trumpeting”? And what does this word choice imply, if anything, about Baker’s attitude toward his subject matter?

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