Sunday, August 25, 2024

The Middle East: A Story of Journalistic Failure

Christians were Palestinians, Jews were Palestinians.

On May 15, 1948, five Arabs armies started a war – and lost.

When Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, for instance, described the unilateral recognition of a state of Palestine as "an investment in the only solution that can bring lasting peace in the Middle East," he showed an abysmal grasp of reality.

On that May 15, forces from Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, and Iraq "swooped in... just hours after British forces withdrew from Palestine and Israel had declared its independence."

In other words: false.

The upshot of journalistic failure to root out the real story is that when the truth is at last displayed, "the entire country, including its most seasoned reporters, are as shocked as everyone" wrote Jill Abramson, previously of the New York Times.

To counter the prevailing "conventional wisdom" that often impedes the truth of a story, it is time, as James Bennet wrote, for journalistic "courage combined with a critical approach, objectivity, fairness, and integrity" to again take a rightful place in restoring public trust in the media.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20871/middle-east-journalistic-failure

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