It seems that, more and more, some Op-Ed page editors are dispensing with fact-checking when columns convey a negative opinion about Israel – especially when the author is deemed to be an “expert” in the field. The most recent examples are Rashid Khalidi‘s error-filled column in the New York Times and International Herald Tribune on January 8 and an outrageously inaccurate opinion column by Washington Post reporter Jonathan Finer published in the January 14, 2009 edition of the Los Angeles Times.
In “Israel’s losing media strategy,” Finer complains about Israel’s limiting journalists from entering the Gaza Strip to report on the current war. He opens by contrasting the alleged freedom granted to reporters in southern Lebanon with the restrictions supposedly imposed by Israel:
Reporters had the run of southern Lebanon? It is difficult to believe that Finer, who was reporting from northern Israel at the time, is unaware of fellow journalists’ testimony from southern Lebanon. They reported that Hezbollah tightly restricted access to areas under its control, strictly managing interview and photographic opportunities and following correspondents with assigned minders. In fact, Finer’s colleague at the Washington Post, media critic Howard Kurtz, addressed this issue more than once.
On his July 23, 2006 CNN media show, Reliable Sources, Kurtz dealt with “the question of how Hezbollah and the bombardment of Lebanon is being covered.” He showed a videotape of journalists discussing a tour conducted by Hezbollah for the foreign press. One journalist explains:
Kurtz then asked the question, “Is there a danger that journalists can be used by Hezbollah when they get these bomb damage assessment tours, when there’s very little ability to get any independent reporting to find out, you know, how much Hezbollah activity there may be in this or that residential area?” The answer was, “Absolutely.”
Kurtz next questioned CNN correspondent Nic Robertson:
Robertson replied:
On July 24, 2006, Kurtz followed up with a column for the Washington Post in which he repeated:
Other journalists similarly documented Hezbollah control of journalists’ access to subjects in southern Lebanon as well as the staging of scenes for the international press to record. For example, in an exposé aired on July 24, CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported:
All this was about journalists’ access to civilians in southern Lebanon. No one even bothered to comment on the lack of access to Hezbollah fighters and operatives engaged in battle with Israeli soldiers. By contrast, Israel granted journalists unfettered access to civiliians threatened by rockets, and military censors operated under the principle of allowing publication of anything, “unless there is near certainty that publication will harm state security.”
But factual accuracy is apparently of no concern to Finer. He turns truth on its head, exonerating Hezbollah’s manipulation of the press while focusing on “restrictions” imposed by Israel’s military censorship on the battleground. While he acknowledges that “Israeli officials allowed full access to civilians living under Hezbollah rocket fire,” he whines that
It is remarkable that Finer, a foreign journalist, is unaware that armies in battlefield situations all have rules and restrictions governing journalists who report on the action. The U.S. Department of Defense, for example, requires that:
While journalists are generally given access to major U.S. military units, “special operations restrictions may limit access in some cases.” And while the U.S. Defense Department is committed to providing reporters with full access to information, it is with the following proviso:
Like the U.S. Department of Defense, Israel’s Defense Department constantly attempts to balance security concerns with its democratic value of providing freedom to the press. Far from imposing “draconian restrictions” on journalists, as Finer claims, the IDF came under criticism by the Winograd Commission of inquiry into the events of military engagement in Lebanon 2006 for being too open to journalists. The commission’s final report states:
The commission noted that the IDF’s military censorship was unable to cope with the problem of live broadcasts which, in some cases, presented security risks (for example, disclosing where Katyusha rockets were landing, the movement of forces, etc.) and recommended ending the army’s open policy to journalists. The report proposed increasing military censorship to ban publication of material not only if there is “near certainty” that it will harm state security but also if there is “reasonable concern.”
Finer not only worked for the Washington Post (he is now pursuing a law degree at Yale) but gave a seminar on the practice of journalistic foreign correspondence at Yale University, with emphasis on reporting from conflict zones. But it is clear that neither experience as a journalist nor academic affiliation necessarily confers expertise or accuracy. Newspaper editors would be well advised to remember that before publishing unvetted opinion columns.
