This Week

(N)PR Plan

National Public Radio reaches out to Jews and Arabs
to soothe critics of its Mideast coverage.

SHARON SAM B ER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington, D. C.
he U.S. public radio network NPR is
trying to prevent its call letters from
becoming known as National Protest
Radio.
At the same moment June 7 that the president of
National Public Radio was addressing Jewish news-
paper editors in Chicago about coverage of the
Middle East, the ombudsman for NPR
was talking about the same thing to
an Arab group in Washington.
The speeches were part of an
outreach effort by the nonprofit
radio network to convince its lis-
teners that its reporting of the
Israeli-Palestinian crisis is both
fair and unbiased.
NPR, along with other major
media outlets, has been accused
by both Jewish and Arab audiences
of unfair accounts of the violence in
Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The outreach comes after some Jews
boycotted major newspapers such as the New
York Times and Washington Post because of a
perceived anti-Israel bias.
Arabs have complained bitterly as well,
citing what they see as a pro-Israel slant to
many stories in the Times and the Post,
amonc, other media.

Responding To Critics

Kevin Klose, president and CEO of
NPR, acknowledged the complaints
against his network. "We're not
immune to that," he said. "We pay a
great deal of attention to criticism."
Klose is looking for more dialogue with both
communities and he believes NPR is trying to be as
careful as possible about its reportage.
"But we're not indifferent to errors," he said. "We
change; we correct the record."
Part of the problem is the nature of the story,
Klose told the annual meeting of the American
Jewish Press Association.
"This has been nothing, but a terrible story for
20 months," said Klose, a former reporter and edi-
tor at the Post.
And people with close ties to the issues, he said,
"listen with an extraordinary intensity."
NPR has hired a public relations firm that does
work for Arab and Jewish groups, including

6/14
2002

24

Birthright Israel, to help with its outreach to both
communities.
NPR serves an audience of more than 15 million
Americans each week via 620 public radio stations
and the Internet, and in Europe, Asia, Australia and
Africa through NPR Worldwide.
Jeffrey Dvorkin, the NPR ombudsman, says the
outreach effort is to help the station understand the
communities better and to encourage people to
help NPR do its job better.
"If there's a boycott, then it's too late," he said.
NPR's outreach to the Jewish commu-
nity includes visiting various commu-
nities around the country and
speaking to the national conven-
tion of Hadassah this summer.
Dvorkin told JTA he spoke
recently in a synagogue in
Maryland where he heard from
"a lot of angry people." But in a
visit to the Miami Jewish federa-
tion he said people seemed to
understand NPR's efforts to be fair.
Last month, the NPR Web site
started posting full transcripts of its
reports from the Middle East so people
could see the full text, officials said.

Checkbook Protest

While most of the critics respond with let-
ters, e-mail and voice mail complaints,
there have been some financial repercus-
sions as well.
Some major donors to a public radio
station in the Boston area stopped their
funding because of what they saw as an
anti-Israel bias at NPR.
At least six underwriters have with-
drawn their support to WBUR,
according to Mary Stohn, spokes-
woman for the Boston station. She said some small-
er donors had also not renewed their support and
the station anticipated further action from donors.
She said WBUR has already lost $1 million in
funding because of protests about NPR's coverage
of Israel.
NPR officials said they were not aware of any
other stations that have lost funding as a result of
their Middle East coverage. And NPR's president,
Klose, said that in general, financial support for
public radio was up.
Two of those who withdrew their support in
Boston were members of the Committee for
Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
(CAMERA), a group that has long criticized NPR

,

reporting. CAMERA has called for people to end
their support of their local stations because of
NPR's "anti-Israel distortions."
According to a CAMERA study of NPR coverage
of the Israel-Palestinian crisis during two months in
late 2000, less air time was afforded to Israeli speak-
ers, and many programs excluded Israeli voices
entirely.
In an updated survey from March and April
2002, CAMERA evaluated 57 segments and found
16 Israeli speakers, 43 Arab speakers, 21 neutral
commentators and six pro-Arab speakers.
CAMERA also charged that NPR did not do
human interest stories on Jewish victims of terrorism.
Aside from a story on Jewish victims last month,
CAMERA doesn't see any recent alterations to
NPR's coverage and believes NPR continues to
skew its stories.
"People are more concerned about the Middle
East and NPR is subject to heightened scrutiny,"
said Alex Safian, CAMERA's associate director.
"The Jewish community is not as willing to over-
look this sort of thing," he said.
NPR's Dvorkin questions the group's findings
and says his evaluations of coverage have shown dif-
ferent results.

Ongoing Input

Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation
League, the American Jewish Committee and the
Jewish Council for Public Affairs have been meeting
with NPR for several years to discuss concerns
about Middle East coverage.
A recent study by the ADL said NPR is not fun-
damentally biased against Israel, but that it had
"significant imbalances in coverage," particularly
when Israel responded militarily after Palestinian
suicide bombings.
"NPR has demonstrated that it can be objective
and fair-minded in its presentation in terms of giv-
ing Israel's perspective as well as that of the
Palestinians, in terms of personalizing the suffering
on the Israeli side as well as the Palestinian side,
and in terms of interviewing as many mainstream
Israelis as Palestinians," said the report, which ADL
decided not to release.
"However, this must happen on an ongoing basis,
not only when Israelis are victimized and showing
restraint, but also when Israel decides it has an obli-
gation to protect its people militarily."
Some Arab Americans also take issue with NPR's
coverage of the conflict. Hussein Ibish, communica-
tions director for the American-Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee, said NPR does not
have an anti-Arab bias, but its reporting can be
problematic and there is a "radical imbalance" in its
commentary.
He said his group makes practical suggestions to
NPR and encourages it to do better.
Meanwhile, NPR has Jewish fans as well. Edith
Everett, a major contributor to NPR, says counting
the minutes given to each side doesn't necessarily
tell the whole story.
In general, Everett, a philanthropist who lives in
New York, said she finds NPR coverage outstanding
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