New York Times' 'Journalists' Listed As Israeli Propagandists

Notice that even when the New York Times has a headline on the death of over 200 Palestinians, it still includes an image of an Israeli family in order to humanize them and make you feel more sorry for them staying in their 'bomb shelter' than for the dead Palestinians who had no shelter. And the living who have no shelter.

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I have long criticized the overt and fanatical bias in favor of Israel at the New York Times - a bias that inflicts every part of that lousy paper including the theater review and sports section. This Zionist devotion is most seen in the form of the New York Times' bureau chief and correspondent in West Jerusalem reporting on Palestine/'Israel': Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner.

The bureau chief Ethan Bronner in Israeli occupied Jerusalem has a son in the Israeli terrorist army - the Israeli “Defense” Forces.

The great pro-Palestinian website, Electronic Intifada, broke the story:

The New York Times has all but confirmed to The Electronic Intifada (EI) that the son of its Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner was recently inducted into the Israeli army.

Over the weekend, EI received a tip suggesting this had been the case and wrote to Bronner to ask him to confirm or deny the information and to seek his opinion on whether, if true, he thought it would be a conflict of interest.

Susan Chira, the foreign editor of The New York Times wrote in an email to The Electronic Intifada this morning:

“Ethan Bronner referred your query to me, the foreign editor. Here is my comment: Mr. Bronner’s son is a young adult who makes his own decisions. At The Times, we have found Mr. Bronner’s coverage to be scrupulously fair and we are confident that will continue to be the case.”

The Electronic Intifada also wrote to Clark Hoyt, the public editor of The New York Times, to confirm the information and ask for an opinion on whether this constituted a conflict of interest, but had yet to receive a response.

Bronner, as bureau chief, has primary responsibility for his paper’s reporting on all aspects of the Palestine/Israel conflict, and on the Israeli army, whose official name is the “Israel Defense Forces.”

On 23 January, Bronner published a lengthy article on Israel’s efforts to refute allegations contained in the UN-commissioned Goldstone report of war crimes and crimes against humanity during its attack on Gaza last winter (”Israel Poised to Challenge a UN Report on Gaza”).

As’ad AbuKhalil, a frequent critic of Bronner’s coverage, blogged in response that “The New York Times devoted more space to Israeli and Zionist criticisms of the Goldstone report than to the [content of the] report itself” (The Angry Arab News Service, “Ethan Bronner’s propaganda services, 25 January 2010)

Bronner’s pro-Israeli bias reporting on Israel’s attack on Gaza last year was also criticized by the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) (See “NYT and the Perils of Mideast ‘Balance’,” 4 February 2009).

The New York Times’ own “Company policy on Ethics in Journalism” acknowledges that the activities of a journalist’s family member may constitute a conflict of interest. It includes as an example, “A brother or a daughter in a high-profile job on Wall Street might produce the appearance of conflict for a business reporter or editor.” Such conflicts may on occasion require the staff member “to withdraw from certain coverage.”

After Israel’s invasion of Gaza last winter, Israeli military censors banned local media from printing the names of individual officers who participated in the attack for fear that this could assist international efforts to bring war crimes suspects to justice. This followed the publication of a number of soldiers’ personal testimonies in the Israeli press describing atrocities they had seen committed by the Israeli army in Gaza.

The Times’ treatment of Bronner sets an interesting precedent. Would the newspaper’s policy be the same if a reporter in its Jerusalem bureau had an immediate family member who faced Bronner’s son across the battlefield, as a member of a Palestinian or Lebanese resistance organization?

It would appear that despite the highly sensitive nature of Palestine/Israel coverage, and the very high personal stakes for Bronner and his son that could result from full and open coverage of the Israeli army’s abuses of Palestinians, The New York Times does not consider this situation to be a problematic case. It had not even disclosed the situation to its readers — until now.

So to them it is not even an issue worth addressing unless independent investigators bring it up to them and then they are compelled to. Bias is one thing. But what is evident here is such a strong partiality favoring Israel that normal and professional conduct in the newsroom is neglected and dismissed.

The New York Times will take no action because the bias in favor of Israel is what they live for. And he is not the only guy. His fellow and only other correspondent in “Israel” (i.e. Occupied Palestine) Isabel Kershner is another fanatical Zionist whose bias always shows. Like Bronner, she is married to an Israeli and this is what the Jewish-weekly The Forward wrote about her recently:

Isabel Kershner, immigrated to Israel from her native England as a young woman and spent a couple of decades in Israeli journalism and Jewish education before joining the Times a few years ago. By now she’s thoroughly Israeli (and, for full disclosure, a friend).

‘Thoroughly Israeli’. If your even one-sixteenth Arab who would get nowhere near the Times.

And now we find out these two Zionist writers, who live to propagate on Israel's behalf, have been officially listed as part of an Israeli public relations effort to improve the nation's image:

Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner, the two Jerusalem correspondents for the New York Times, are named on a long list of authors for the "Israel Hasbara Committee." David Frum, Krauthammer, Caroline Glick, David Horovitz, David Horowitz and Bob Dylan are also on the list. Mostly rightwingers. Dennis Prager, Efraim Karsh. Ed Lasky. The hits go on and on.

The committee says it’s a voluntary organization, established in 2001, and that it’s dedicated to "disseminating truth about Israel and the Jewish people." Its credo:

THE ISRAEL HASBARA COMMITTEE is an entirely independent media voice that brings you new and highly relevant news, opinions, issues and information every day, five days a week, which relates in some way to the defense of Israel and her image. The Israel Hasbara Committee continues to be the source of many original insights, comments and ideas. www.infoisrael.net is the leading website of its kind in the world.

The Times will still defend them as credible journalists because in American journalist there is no higher qualification, nay honor, than to be listed as a defender and propagandist for Israel.