An important part of Honest Reporting’s mission is giving people the skills to evaluate news content about Israel. They do that by monitoring the media and responding to problematic media coverage. They also host “missions”––week-long events where people come to Israel to learn media evaluation skills and see what’s really going on “on the ground.” […]
Why I spent the start of Hanukkah in Israel and what I learned, Part One of Three
A Facebook post caught my eye. Honest Reporting–a group I didn’t know much about–was planning an 8-day “mission” in Israel starting three days before Hanukkah. When it became apparent that neither of my offspring nor my grandchildren would be around for Hanukkah this year, I took a deeper look. The program looked very interesting and […]
Burying the Holocaust: The New York Times Policy of Downplaying the Plight of Europe’s Jews
Laurel Leff, Buried by the Times (Cambridge, 2005) One of the unfortunate casualties of the media’s war on Donald Trump and his ‘fake news’ response is a clear-eyed assessment of the extent to which outside factors influence what newspapers choose to print or not print. As a case in point, consider Laurel Leff’s thorough analysis […]
Fitting the News: A Review of Jerold Auerbach’s “Print to Fit. The New York Times, Zionism and Israel, 1896-2016
Jerold S. Auerbach, Print to Fit, The New York Times, Zionism and Israel, 1896-2016, Academic Studies Press, 2019 When Adolph Ochs purchased the New York Times in 1896, he added a motto that demonstrated his marketing genius. “All the News That’s Fit to Print” became the industry standard and before long the Times became the […]
Catcher in the Rye: A 75-Year Look Back
J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (1943) is one of the 20th century’s most controversial books along with Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The controversy stemmed not only from the language which was raw, but also from Salinger’s depiction of an alientated 16-year-old’s point of view—both were unheard of […]