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The ‘Fake News’ Cop-Out

F

ake News!”
overwhelming force used to subdue a
It has become the rallying cry to
violent actor seems to be questioned
counter news coverage critical of only in coverage of Israel.
anything you like. Forget about coun-
However, this coverage is not “fake
tering a bias or providing evidence to
news.” Applying the term to cover-
show that context is missing from a
age indicates that it is acceptable to
news story. Today, all you need
reject the coverage and even
to do is label negative cover-
the publication completely,
age as “fake” and then happily
rather than engage in debate
ignore it.
over that coverage.
It’s a dangerous trend. Social
The facts of these articles
media has made it possible to
were usually not in dispute.
pick and choose from among
It’s one thing to fail to put
thousands of news sources.
an Israeli military operation
Rather than trying to under-
that results in the deaths of
stand news events and develop- Yarden Frankl
Palestinians into context. It
ments from the best available
is quite another to pretend
information, people just click
that the operation never hap-
on the articles from the news
pened.
organizations that will serve
Yet today, advocates of
them up material that will reinforce
Israel are more and more likely to go
their preconceived ideas.
along with the trend that any coverage
Times of Israel too left-wing for you?
that does not accept the Israeli per-
Skip it. Fox and Friends too right-
spective is not just biased, it’s “fake.”
wing? Ignore.
There are calls to boycott the New
Because it’s easier not to have your
York Times and Washington Post, the
beliefs challenged. It is more comfort-
Associated Press, Reuters and other
able to nod your head while reading an mainstream media outlets that have
article and say, “I knew it!” rather than
correspondents in Israel and have been
let your outlook be challenged. Just
reporting on the region for decades.
accept that news you don’t like is fake,
But that is a “stick-your-head-in-the-
and you don’t have to worry about the
sand” approach that means no one will
possibility that you may be wrong.
hold the journalists accountable. Much
But when you do this, you are leav-
better is to engage with reporters and
ing the playing field open. Rather than
point out how more context can make
engaging to show problematic cover-
a real difference in the accuracy of
age, you let that coverage stand.
their articles. But you cannot do this
Take news coverage of Israel.
without reading the work of these jour-
During the wars against Hamas in
nalists.
Gaza, media from around the world
The last few months have been rela-
reported from the intellectually poor
tively quiet as far as Israel in the world
perspective that since the Israeli
news. There are much bigger issues
military was more powerful than the
demanding the world’s attention right
Hamas terrorists, somehow Israel was
now.
“guilty” of responding with dispropor-
But anything can happen at any
tionate force.
time. Things can change overnight.
I cannot think of anywhere else in
When an incident happens, there will
the world where a country defending
be biased coverage in much of the
itself from rocket attacks and suicide
world’s press. That bias needs to be
terrorism was chided for responding to answered.
defend its citizens too forcefully. While
Like it or not, we need the media.
— as in any military conflict — civil-
We cannot insulate ourselves against
ians were killed, reporters who took
coverage that rubs our sensibilities
that fact to conclude something nefari- the wrong way. We must separate the
ous in Israeli strategy were failing in
facts from the opinions and read main-
their mission to report to the public
stream press articles with a critical eye
the facts of the conflict.
to gain a real understanding of how to
On a similar yet smaller scale, the
interpret newsworthy events.
numerous terrorists’ attacks, which
Do you want to know what is really
thankfully resulted in the deaths of
happening in Israel or Russia or the
the terrorists instead of their intended
White House?
victims, were often reported with an
Sorry, but the mainstream media is
emphasis on who died, despite the cir- required reading. •
cumstances.
Yarden Frankl is the executive director of the
Again, this is not usually how news
Center for Analyzing Media Coverage of Israel
is reported whether the incidents are
(CAMCI). This essay was first published in Times
in London, Syria or Las Vegas. The

of Israel.

8

March 22 • 2018

jn

The third annual “A Shared Future
Lecture: Our Connection to the Holy
Land” at Congregation Beth Ahm on
March 7 featuring Professors Howard
Lupovitch and Saeed Khan was to
“shed light on how Muslims and Jews
view the city.”
The result was a Lupovitch gloss-
ing of the history with some personal
historical notes. Not one comment
exemplifying the glory of the Jewish
connection to the capital of the Jewish
people.
And not one mention of President
Trump’s magnificent, courageous
endorsement of Jerusalem being
Israel’s capital and expeditious move of
our embassy.
Khan’s outrageous “facts” that
Jerusalem belongs to the Muslims
and repeated inappropriate negative
comments toward President Trump
showed a total lack of class.
I am surprised the sponsors of the
event allowed that inappropriate
behavior.

Ed Kohl
West Bloomfield

Teen Mental
Health Thoughts

To clarify the teen mental health
(TMH) issue and who’s doing what in
the organized Jewish community, from
where I sit at Jewish Family Service,
here are a few thoughts/questions:
• First, thanks to the DJN for its cov-
erage this year, in the past and moving
forward, on the issue of TMH and its
related parts. One thing that is crucial
is that we all need to be talking about
this, reading about it and on an ongo-
ing basis destigmatizing it. We all go
through challenges and transitions,
and the more we can normalize all of
our struggles with the small and the
large, the better off we will all be at
understanding, accepting and helping.
• Next, even though TMH is getting
more attention in the Jewish commu-
nity than before, this is not an issue
that is new, nor is it the case that the
organized Jewish community has not
been dealing with it for a long time.
Kadima and Friendship Circle and JFS
and … have been assisting in a variety
of ways for decades. But, until every-
body gets the help they need, there is
more work that has to be done. And,
by the way, this is not a Jewish issue
per se, but like all issues, it impacts the
Jewish community and, therefore, we
must keep at it and get people the help
they need.
• Further, assistance in the TMH
space (i.e., counseling/behavioral
health/psychotherapy and psychiatric
treatment) for young people and their
loved ones exists in the so-called orga-
nized Jewish community, but is also,
as we know, available throughout the
marketplace. Help exists all over the

place, and it is JHelp’s aspiration to
understand all resources, “Jewish” and
“non-Jewish,” near and far, and help get
people to where they need to go.
• Last ( for now), there have been
many questions about what role
Federation is taking in the TMH space,
i.e., is it usurping the service provision
that JFS and others are in? Federation,
appropriately, is the convener and in
this role is helping to coordinate and
to resource the variety of activities
going on in the community, including
suicide prevention trainings emanating
from Kadima, Friendship Circle and
JFS. With Federation working hard on
this, the rest of us are in better shape
to do what we do best.
If you or a loved one needs help,
you are not alone. I implore you to
seek assistance. Within the organized
Jewish community, JHelp is the place
to contact at jhelpdetroit.org.

Perry Ohren, CEO
Jewish Family Service

‘Don’t Empower
The Word Stigma’

In “Here’s My Story” (March 8, page
18), it states “UMatter is a program
focused on empowering teens to shat-
ter the stigmas surrounding mental
health challenges.”
Why I did not enjoy your article:
One word, “stigma.”
I encountered that term in my youth
as a Jew — stigma. Never would I
empower it again.
I encountered that term in my
youth as rape — stigma. Never would I
empower it again.

Harold A. Maio
Ft Myers, Fla.

U.S. Holocaust Museum
Revokes Award Over
Rohingya Crisis

The U.S. Holocaust Museum is to be
applauded by revoking the honor given
previously to Myanmar’s civilian leader
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to
condemn and possibly stop the mass
killings and harsh persecution of the
Rohingya minority.
There is a Jewish saying that goes:
“He who kills one person, it is as if he
killed an entire world.” The Rohingya
people are fleeing for their lives by
the thousands to languish abroad in
the most horrendous conditions just
because of who they are. And for the
leader, who herself endured 15 years
in house arrest because of her deep
convictions of fairness and justice,
now to keep her silence in the face of
this untold tragedy in her country is
unseemly. The award was given to her
justifiably at the time it was awarded
— no more so. The museum is justified
in revoking it.

Rachel Kapen
West Bloomfield