January 05, 2006
National Palestine Radio
From time to time one hears Israel's right-wing supporters refer to National Public Radio as "National Palestinian Radio" or "National Palestine Radio," in protest of NPR's alleged pro-Palestinian bias. For The New Republic editor-in-chief Martin Peretz, Ariel Sharon's recent stroke provides the latest opportunity to trot out the slur:
Here's how the Associated Press reported Middle East coverage of the grave stroke affecting Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon: "A politician and general widely despised among Arabs, Sharon received straightforward news coverage in most Arab papers and television services." And, from what I could gather, that's exactly the way it was. But straightforward is not how National Public Radio (NPR), sometimes called National Palestine Radio, covered the latest news from Israel. Ken Tomlinson was not wrong on this point at least. (He wasn't wrong on others either.) NPR's Jerusalem correspondent, the relentless Linda Gradstein--relentless in her animus to Israel, that is--had two guests speaking about Sharon. One was Hanan Ashrawi, the shrill and very marginal Christian Arab English professor from Ramallah, who spoke as if Sharon and his successor, Ehud Olmert, had not radically shifted Israeli policies about the territories. And, instead of what one might think would have been from the "other side," at least in elementary fairness, NPR presented the misanthropic left-wing Israeli novelist David Grossman sputtering the bile that only a very few still feel for Sharon in Israel. Grossman is a very isolated man in his own country. The great Israeli center--from the Labor left to the Likud center--had no representation on Gradstein's program. But it rarely does. Of course, haughty NPR doesn't deign to respond to its critics. But you can read what its critics say: www.camera.org. Often quite devastating.
To be fair, I can see how some might be outraged by such one-sided reporting. At the very least, Linda Gradstein had an obligation to present competing points of view if she intended to include opinion in her story. This interview, with two guests critical of Sharon, is hardly the kind of balanced coverage NPR listeners deserve. And I would be outraged, too, if it weren't for one important detail: Gradstein's biased story does not exist.
Peretz's attack on NPR combines fiction with omission. Here is my posted comment (minus the extraneous apostrophes):
Mr. Peretz,
You don't cite the NPR program that featured the Linda Gradstein piece. Last evening's (1-4-06) All Things Considered contains one Linda Gradstein piece [1], with no Ashrawi or Grossman interview, as well as a Steve Inskeep interview with Jersalem Post editor-in-chief David Horovitz. [2]
This morning's (1-5-06) Morning Edition features five items on Sharon: a short (41 second) news item [3]; a Steve Inskeep interview with David Grossman [4]; a Linda Gradstein piece with quotes from deputy prime minsiter Ehud Olmert, justice minister Tzipi Livni, deputy Palestinian prime minister Nabil Shath (quoted indirectly), and Palestinian legistlator Hanan Ashrawi [5]; a Steve Inskeep interview with "Shibley Telhami, professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland, and Hirsh Goodman, political columnist for The Jerusalem Report" [6]; and a Steve Inskeep interview with "Gerald Steinberg, professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University" [7].
-David Eisner
[1] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5126775
[2] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5127745
[3] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5127929
[4] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5127935
[5] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5127953
[6] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5127956
[7] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5128109
Will Mr. Peretz deign to respond? I doubt it.
Posted by cradle at January 5, 2006 08:01 PM