Peter's Pro-Palestinian Spin; And His Palestinian Friend; Gumbel Prodded Arabs to Attack Israel; Moyers Rant; FNC's Liberal Bias?
1) ABC News on Thursday night adopted the spin preferred
by Palestinian terrorists as Peter Jennings portrayed Israel's
anti-terrorist military operation as an "assault against the
Palestinians," as if all Palestinians were targeted, and moments
later Dean Reynolds relayed the hope that Colin Powell's visit will
allow the "liberation" of Yasser Arafat.
2) Media Reality Check. "Deploring Terror-Fighters,
Not Terrorists: Criticism for Bush Administration and Israeli Anti-Terror
Effort, Sympathy for Palestinians & Arafat." Bryant Gumbel pushed
for a wider war to punish Israel: "Why have Arab states done so
little in response to Israeli military operations in Palestinian
territories," Gumbel demanded of the Secretary General of the Arab
League, complaining: "You talk of unified action and you talk of all
the rage and yet we see no action from the Arab states. Why not?"
3) Peter Jennings has a long record of hostility toward
Israel and favorable treatment of the injustices claimed by Palestinians
to rationalize terrorist attacks. Back in the 1970s Jennings had a
relationship with a woman long-affiliated with the PLO, Hanan Ashrawi, now
an official of the Palestinian Authority.
4) Despite evidence that environmental groups were
consulted by the Bush administration, last Friday night Bill Moyers served
as a mouthpiece for the agenda of left-wing environmentalists. Moyers
showcased "the efforts...to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the
administration's energy task force," which "seemed to be paying
extra attention to the interests of industry."
5) Liberal bias on the Fox News Channel? On Tuesday night,
Fox Report anchor Shephard Smith labeled only one side, referring to
"a brawl breaking out between right-wing pro-Israeli activists and
pro-Palestinian protesters."
Correction: The April 4 CyberAlert
incorrectly listed the CNN show on which Paul Begala asserted: "When
the right-wing FBI spy, Robert Hanssen came up, the Clinton administration
prosecuted him successfully by guaranteeing his rights. Walker Lindh was
not allowed to see his attorney." Begala made his remark Tuesday
night on Crossfire, which he now co-hosts, not on Inside Politics.
Clarification: An April 4 CyberAlert item,
about how MSNBC's Ashleigh Banfield is eager to give terrorist murder
mastermind Osama bin Laden a forum from which to pontificate
("Personally, absolutely I would like to interview Osama bin
Laden....I'd be fascinated by anything Osama bin Laden would have to
say"), concluded that her attitude suggests she's a
"journalist first, an American second." As some e-mailers
reminded me, Banfield is Canadian.
Indeed, on the February 19 Late Show, referring to CBS Orchestra leader
Paul Shaffer of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Banfield revealed how she uses her
Canadian citizenship to her advantage in separating herself from the
United States: "People right away assume that all of us are American
because we work for an American TV crew, but I am Canadian, just like
Paul, and so I'm very quick to point that out and I tend to get a warmer
reception by some." For more: http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020220.asp#4
1
ABC News
on Thursday night adopted the spin preferred by Palestinian terrorists as
Peter Jennings portrayed Israel's military operation aimed at rooting
out the terrorist infrastructure as an "assault against the
Palestinians," as if all Palestinians were targeted, and moments
later Dean Reynolds relayed the hope that Colin Powell's visit will
allow the "liberation" of Yasser Arafat.
Jennings teased at the top of his April 4
broadcast: "On World News Tonight: Under pressure. President Bush
steps into the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. The Secretary of State will
go there. In the region, the Israelis continue their assault against the
Palestinians."
Imagine Jennings referring to U.S. operations
in Afghanistan as the American "assault against the Afghans."
From Israel, Dean Reynolds concluded a
subsequent story by espousing the loaded "liberation" term:
"Many Palestinians are hoping the Powell visit will mark the
liberation of Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority. As one of them
put it, 'there's a big difference between meeting Powell in your
office and meeting him in your prison cell.'"
Next, Jennings emphasized over video of
protesters: "Just to make the point, by the way, there's no one
single opinion on either side. In Tel Aviv today, police fought with
demonstrators outside the U.S. embassy. Several hundred Israelis, both
Jews and Palestinian Arabs, or Israeli Arabs rather, were protesting U.S.
support for Israel's military campaign in the occupied
territories."
At least in Israel more than one single
viewpoint is allowed since protesting is permitted. Jennings'
Palestinian friends don't countenance any dissent in land they control.
"Collaborators" are murdered and hung up on the street for
display without any of the due process niceties guaranteed to Arabs who
are Israeli citizens.
2
The text
of a Media Reality Check put together by the MRC's Rich Noyes and
distributed by fax on Thursday afternoon titled, "Deploring
Terror-Fighters, Not Terrorists: Criticism for Bush Administration and
Israeli Anti-Terror Effort, Sympathy for Palestinians & Arafat."
To view it in the format seen by fax
recipients, access the Adobe Acrobat PDF posted by the MRC's Mez
Djouadi: http://archive.mrc.org/realitycheck/2002/pdf/fax0404.pdf
The text of the April 4 Media Reality Check:
Bryant Gumbel announced Thursday that he will quit as co-host of
CBS's ratings-challenged Early Show, but even as he began packing
up his stuff, Gumbel displayed, yet again, the agenda-driven questioning
style that's made him a poster boy for bias. This morning, he seemed to
push for a wider Middle East war to punish Israel for fighting terrorism.
"Why have Arab states done so little in response to Israeli military
operations in Palestinian territories," Gumbel asked the Secretary
General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa. "You talk of unified action
and you talk of all the rage and yet we see no action from the Arab
states. Why not?"
"What we need is not to go back to war-footing, what we need is to
go forward on peace-footing," Moussa replied, looking more moderate
than Gumbel, who did not ask whether the Arab League would ask terrorists
like Arafat's Al Aqsa brigades to stop sending suicide bombers into
Israeli civilian areas. And, the departing CBS host is hardly unique.
Since the Israeli military campaign began, the broadcast networks,
especially ABC, have shown increasing sympathy for the Palestinians and
Yasser Arafat, while castigating both Israel and an allegedly neglectful
Bush administration.
On Thursday, for example, Good Morning America's Charles
Gibson explained the procedures followed at border crossings through the
eyes of hassled Palestinians, not insecure Israelis: "Only foot
traffic can pass, Palestinians who work in Jerusalem, opening their coats,
raising their shirts, showing no explosives are strapped to their bodies.
They're made to wait in pens before being checked one at a time. It
takes at least an hour, they say, to pass through....Even at the
checkpoints where Palestinian residents of Jerusalem can pass back and
forth from their homes to their jobs, the waits are a humiliation, they
say." The pictures showed that the "pens," as Gibson called
them, weren't little cages, but rather muddy waiting areas surrounded by
low barricades. And he neglected to report that a terrorist bomb killed an
Israeli police officer at one of these "humiliating" checkpoints
on Tuesday.
Friday, the day Israeli tanks seized Arafat's compound after a Hamas
terrorist attacked a Passover dinner, killing more than two dozen
civilians, ABC World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings zeroed in
on the U.S. government: "Almost everywhere you turn this weekend,
inside the Middle East and out, you hear people criticizing the Bush
administration for not doing more to end the violence."
Two days later, ABC reporter Terry Moran editorialized on This Week:
"His administration's response to this latest upsurge in violence has
been hesitant, confused and contradictory. Mr. Bush himself has remained
mostly aloof from day-to-day management of the crisis, unwilling to risk
his personal political capital in such an uncertain endeavor." The
next morning, April 1, Gibson relayed how one Palestinian "felt it
was criminal -- criminal was the word used -- that the White House and
President Bush have not involved themselves more to try to defuse what is
such a high-tension situation here."
But that hasn't been the worst spin job. On March 27, ABC's
Jennings visited Beirut, and offered a positive portrait of an
anti-American terrorist group: "It is Hezbollah, which means the
party of God, that gets credit for liberating Lebanon from the long
Israeli occupation....Its 38-year-old leader, Hassan Nasrallah, [is] a
popular member of the political establishment. The Bush administration
says Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. 'Hezbollah was proud to
resist the Israeli occupation,' [Nasrallah] says. 'We gave our lives. We
are not terrorists,'" Jennings translated.
Later, at the site of America's former embassy, the ABC anchor
recounted its destruction: "In 1983 a man simply drove his truck to
the front door and blew himself up. Sixty-three people died. Later that
year, the Marine barracks here were destroyed in much the same way, 241
Marines died." Actually, Hezbollah terrorists committed those
murderous acts, not a random "man" with a truck, and Jennings
knows it. Who does he think he's helping when he spins the truth to make
the terrorists look like the good guys?
END Reprint of Media Reality Check
For more on Jennings failing to link Hezbollah
to the terrorist killings of Americans:
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020329.asp#1
For more on the Moran and Gibson reporting:
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020402.asp#1
3
As
reflected in how item #2 above documented how ABC's Peter Jennings
refused to connect Hezbollah to the terrorist mass murder of Americans,
Jennings has a long record of hostility toward Israel and favorable
treatment of the injustices claimed by Palestinians to rationalize
terrorist attacks.
A few CyberAlert readers have e-mailed to
remind me that a possible explanation of Jennings' view lies in the fact
that he not only lived in Beirut for several years during the 1970s, but
also had a relationship with a woman long-affiliated with the PLO, Hanan
Ashrawi, now an official of the Palestinian Authority. Normally,
CyberAlert does not delve into the personal lives of journalists or assume
that personal connections influence reporting, but given Ashrawi's
high-profile role as a spokeswoman for a cause which Jennings regularly
covers, I think it's relevant. Shortly after September 11th, he even
interviewed her on the air.
Jennings' anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian skew
was fully displayed back in early December. The December 4 and 5
CyberAlerts featured these three articles:
-- Israel was the victim of an attack by a
terrorist group. But Peter Jennings wanted to know if the Bush
administration wished to "restrain the Israelis?" Jennings also
referred to Hamas simply as an "organization." http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20011204.asp#1
-- In reporting on President Bush's decision
Tuesday to freeze the assets of a Texas group, charging that it funnels
money to Hamas, CBS, CNN, FNC and NBC directly or indirectly described
Hamas as a "terrorist" operation. But not ABC's Peter
Jennings.
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20011205.asp#1
-- For the second night after terrorist
attacks which killed Israelis, ABC's Peter Jennings painted Israel as
the violent aggressors. He saw "an explosion of violence in the
Middle East" with "Palestinians dead and wounded" because
"Israelis have been on the attack again." But CBS's Dan Rather
cited "Israel's latest answer to a wave of Palestinian terror
attacks."
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20011205.asp#2
The MRC's Rich Noyes tracked down how in a
"Washington Whispers" item in the December 30, 1991/January 6,
1992 edition of U.S. News & World Report, Charles Fenyvesi informed
readers:
"In the
early 1970s, when he was single and head of the ABC bureau in Beirut,
Peter Jennings dated Hanan Ashrawi, who at the time was also single and a
graduate student in literature at the American University in the Lebanese
capital. Jennings was introduced to Ashrawi's parents and sisters and
became part of her circle of friends. Now, as anchorman for the ABC World
News, Jennings, who later married author Kati Marton, analyzes briefings
by Ashrawi on behalf of the Palestinian delegation to the Mideast peace
talks. Says Jennings: 'Anyone who has known Hanan as long as I have is
not surprised to see her emerge as a persuasive spokesperson for the
Palestinians.'"
In a September 18, 1994 Washington Post review
of a book by Barbara Victor, Hanan Ashrawi and Peace, Robin Wright
relayed:
"Victor,
a journalist and novelist, offers bits of color about the best-known woman
in the Middle East. Ashrawi was the youngest of five daughters of a
politically active physician. She still lives in the family's West Bank
house with her husband, a U.N. photographer, and two daughters. Her pink
shower curtain sports a map of Palestine. While an undergraduate at the
American University of Beirut, where she was a leader of the General Union
of Palestinian Students, she dated Peter Jennings, then a Mideast
correspondent. Her weakness is chocolates, her only exercise is putting
out the cigarettes she chain-smokes, and she's short-tempered."
4
Bill
Moyers put his liberal polemical points ahead of any digging for what
really occurred as he served as a mouthpiece last Friday night for the
agenda of left-wing environmentalists trying to discredit the Bush
administration's energy policy because Bush officials consulted with
industry representatives.
The MRC's Brian Boyd noticed that the tirade
on the March 29 edition of PBS's Now with Bill Moyers occurred after the
Washington Times had uncovered how environmental groups, specifically the
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) which Moyers allowed to rail
against "special favors for special interests," did have
meetings with Bush officials early on in the policy development process.
Washington Times reporter Patrice Hill
disclosed in a March 28 story: "The NRDC yesterday conceded that the
department obtained its recommendations and weighed them in drafting its
energy plan. And the NRDC revealed it had three more previously
undisclosed meetings with top energy task-force officials last year while
the energy plan was being drafted. Two of those meetings were early in the
drafting process, throwing into question the latest charge by
environmentalists that they were left out until the very end."
Despite that, as detailed in the March 27
CyberAlert, CBS Evening News Wyatt Andrews charged that "at least 36
times Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met representatives of the energy
industry to discuss the policy, compared to zero meetings with
environmental groups." Noting how many of the documents were
"censored," Andrews relayed that "environmentalists call
this a coverup" and then tried to suggest some kind of illegal
behavior as he asked an NRDC official: "Do you think the amount of
blackout breaks the law?" On CNN's NewsNight, after reporter Kelly
Wallace featured the NRDC's complaints about being shut out, Connie
Chung interviewed Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank. Her first
question: "Tell me, do these documents confirm the worse suspicions
of influence peddling?"
Neither show has yet clarified its skewed
reporting.
For on the CBS and CNN reporting and an
excerpt of the Washington Times story:
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020329.asp#2
On his March 29 show, Moyers ominously updated
his viewers:
"Now
something new on a story we first reported on a few weeks ago: The efforts
in Washington to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the administration's
energy task force, that group headed by Vice President Cheney, seemed to
be paying extra attention to the interests of industry. Here's our update:
It's been a week of extraordinary revelations about who wrote the Bush
administration's energy policy. Under a threat of court order, the Energy
Department has now released eleven thousand pages of secret documents
revealing how the energy industry used its influence to get what the big
corporations wanted. Lobbyists for the oil industry, for example, wrote a
presidential executive order that President Bush then issued practically
verbatim granting the oil companies' wishes. The secret documents also
reveal that over a five-month period last year, as the energy policy was
being drafted, officials from energy companies were granted unparalleled
access. Enron, American Coal, Texaco, ExxonMobil. In all, 109 industry
executives, trade association leaders and lobbyists, met privately with
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. Abraham
met with no environmental or consumer groups."
Sharon Buccino,
Senior Attorney for the NRDC: "The people who got in to see them are
directly, are one in the same the people who contributed to the campaign
and helped put the people in those decision making positions."
Moyers:
"Sharon Buccino is senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense
Council. It was a lawsuit by NRDC that forced the Energy Department to
release the secret documents."
Buccino:
"One reason why the Bush administration has resisted providing this
information that we've requested is, I think they have to be afraid that
it's going to expose the Bush Energy Plan for what it is and that's
special favors for special interest."
Moyers:
"The Bush Energy Plan would provide the oil and gas industries alone
with $21 Billion in tax subsidies and give the automotive industry a
seven-year holiday from new fuel efficiency standards. As a whole the
energy industry was among the biggest contributors to the Bush/Cheney
campaign and to many members of Congress during the last election
year."...
Another hour of PBS's Friday night liberal
rant-fest, Now with Bill Moyers, airs tonight on most PBS stations at 9pm
EST/PST, 8pm CST/MST.
5
Liberal
bias on the Fox News Channel? On Tuesday night, MRC analyst Patrick
Gregory noticed, Fox Report anchor Shephard Smith labeled one side
"right-wing," but failed to tag the other as
"left-wing."
On the April 2 edition of the 7pm EST
newscast, Smith relayed this short item: "France. The Mideast
conflict spilling over into Orley airport in Paris. A brawl breaking out
between right-wing pro-Israeli activists and pro-Palestinian
protesters."
CyberAlert is just being fair and balanced in
where we document liberal bias. --
Brent Baker
>>>
Support the MRC, an educational foundation dependent upon contributions
which make CyberAlert possible, by providing a tax-deductible
donation. Use the secure donations page set up for CyberAlert
readers and subscribers:
http://www.mrc.org/donate
>>>To subscribe to CyberAlert, send a
blank e-mail to:
mrccyberalert-subscribe
@topica.com. Or, you can go to:
http://www.mrc.org/newsletters.
Either way you will receive a confirmation message titled: "RESPONSE
REQUIRED: Confirm your subscription to mrccyberalert@topica.com."
After you reply, either by going to the listed Web page link or by simply
hitting reply, you will receive a message confirming that you have been
added to the MRC CyberAlert list. If you confirm by using the Web page
link you will be given a chance to "register" with Topica. You DO
NOT have to do this; at that point you are already subscribed to
CyberAlert.
To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail to:
cybercomment@mrc.org.
Send problems and comments to: cybercomment@mrc.org.
>>>You
can learn what has been posted each day on the MRC's Web site by
subscribing to the "MRC Web Site News" distributed every weekday
afternoon. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: cybercomment@mrc.org.
Or, go to: http://www.mrc.org/newsletters.<<<
Home | News Division
| Bozell Columns | CyberAlerts
Media Reality Check | Notable Quotables | Contact
the MRC | Subscribe
|