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Admission Of Bias
Carries Implications
BERL FALBAUM
Special to The Jewish News
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12/19
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hile a significant per-
centage of Jews believe
the liberal media distort
the news in favor of the
Arabs in the Middle East, it is unlikely
that we will ever hear a confession or
see a headline along the lines, "New
York Times admits anti-Israel bias in
news coverage."
The charges that the media, at least
the so-called liberal media like the
Times, Washington Post and others,
abide by a double-standard when
Israel is involved are generally heatedly
denied.
Now, almost unbelievably, comes
just such a confession in the form of a
letter written by New York Times news
editor, William Borders, He was
responding to a complaint from
Sherman Miller, of Longwood, Fla.,
who charged the paper with an anti-
Israel bias. Miller had written to
Joseph Lelyveld, the executive editor,
but Borders replied.
Miller complained about two arti-
cles on torture by the Palestinians as
well as Israel, stating the coverage was
pro-Palestinian, and was "uneven and
lacked professional integrity." Miller,
who said he had only written a letter
to an editor perhaps one other time in
30 years, added he was surprised by
the distortion from a. paper which is
"supposedly the bastion of actual
reporting."
In a one-paragraph reply to Miller
in which he confirms a double-stan-
dard, Borders states: "The whole point
is torture by Israel, a democratic ally
of the United States, which gets huge
support from (the U.S.) is news.
Torture by Palestinians seems less sur-
prising. Surely you don't consider the
two authorities morally equivalent."
Probably never in the history of
journalism has any mainstream publi-
cation ever confessed to such bias and
it is nothing short of astounding com-
ing from an executive who has policy
responsibilities at this prestigious news
institution.
The Times' admission has enormous
implications not only because the
paper is, arguably, the most prominent
newspaper in the country, but it has a
wire service which means its stories —
now confessed to be slanted — are
used by hundreds of news institutions
in the country and world.
In an interview, Borders said "the
letter was ill-advised. If I had known `-
it would be widely circulated, I would
have worded it more carefully. I'm
sorry and I repudiate it."
When told his boss Lelyveld, how-
ever, supported his position on what is
news in the Middle East, Borders
compared the decision-making process
in Middle East reporting to the fact
that the Times does not report every
murder in Manhattan. He several
times emphasized that his correspon-
dence was intended to be a private let-
ter.
But Borders can hardly claim that a
letter to one of millions of readers
whom he does not know should be
considered confidential. Further,
Borders' discomfort about the letter
becoming public addresses the PR
implications and not the substance 4'11
the letter, the startling revelation is
that the Times uses a dual standard of
morality in its coverage of the Middle
East.
Borders' and Lelyveld's letters
explain why many Jewish readers com-
plain that the Times seems to highlight
human rights abuses by Israel and play
down or sometimes ignore those of
the Palestinian Authority. It also
explains why in its editorials, the
Times generally demands more
accommodations from Israel while
ignoring violations of standing agree-
ments by the Palestinians.
It explains several other questions
about the Times' news coverage and its
editorial policy but it also raises a very
troubling one: Are there two moral ,
codes defined exclusively by the
amount of money the recipients
receive from the U.S.? If foreign aid is
the measure, where is Egypt, for
example, which receives substantial
aid, on the morality scale? One might
point out, that we don't abide by two
codes of morality in the rest of society.
Suffice it to say, in one paragraph
Borders makes an admission which, fr,
it penetrates the journalistic and
political communities, should
resound like the proverbial shot
around the world.
The Times' admission gives a new
— and one might add — an ugly
meaning to its motto, "All the news
that's fit to print." CI