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The New York Times not only focuses a disproportionate amount of attention on Israel, it promotes a disparaging image of the Jewish state.
By United with Israel Staff
In a recent expose, Israeli journalist journalist Lilac Sigan lays bare the New York Times‘ troubling narrative about the Jewish state in 2022.
Sigan concluded that the Times selectively reports on Israel, focuses on the Jewish state disproportionately in comparison to the terror groups that attack its citizens, and reports stories in a manner that lacks balance.
In her piece for Ma’ariv, the veteran Israeli journalist analyzed a variety of content from the Times, including front page articles, Opinion features, and pieces from the World section.
According to the Algemeiner‘s summary of Sigan’s piece on the Times’ “Israel fetish,” Israel got 832 mentions in Times reports during the first six months of 2022, in comparison to other countries and entities in the region, such as Turkey (619 mentions), Iran (518 mentions), and Syria (498 mentions), Hezbollah (37 mentions), and Hamas (22 mentions).
This statistics are troubling in light of the fact that Iran is the world’s top state-sponsor or terror, Syrians are fighting a bloody decade-long civil war, and Hezbollah and Hamas are dedicated to wiping the world’s only Jewish state off the map.
While it was not mentioned in Sigan’s piece, the Times also paid Kaveh Afrasiabi to write over a dozen opinion articles. He was arrested and charged with acting as an agent of the Iranian government.
“Not only does the New York Times seem to pay an inordinate amount of attention to Israel — but, from an examination of its Israel-related articles published in the first half of 2022, the publication seems to hold a predominantly negative view of the Jewish state,” concludes the Algemeiner, based on Sigan’s analysis.
Fifty-three percent of the 118 pieces in the Times about Israel portrayed Israel negatively, with neutral articles accounting for only 34% of coverage, and only 13% reflecting a positive tone.
Among the examples cited of the Times’ “fetish” was its coverage of the killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, which included an “investigation” that found Israel responsible for the killing. Both the U.S. and Israel determined there was no way to conclude with certainty who killed Abu Akleh.
“Sigan points out that it was unusual for the NYT to invest resources in such a report after CNN, the AP, and The Washington Post had all released similar findings,” said the Algemeiner.
Sigan also documented the Times‘ refusal to report negatively about the Palestinians, which includes failing to report 124 stories about “Palestinian terror, incitement, and violence against Israelis,” “64 that dealt with the Palestinian Authority and Hamas’ corruption and cruelty towards Palestinians (including journalists),” and “six that focused on Israel’s growing relations with neighboring Arab countries.”
Of the 122 mentions of “antisemitism” in the Times in 2022, none of them addressed Jew-hatred among Palestinians, which include virulently antisemitic content in their United Nations-sanctioned European Union-funded curriculum.
The Times also routinely refuses to call perpetrators of terror attacks “Palestinian terrorists,” describing them instead as “Arab assailants.”
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