CAMERA's Request for Review of Two Stories on NPR
Ken A. Bode
January 24, 2007
CAMERA: Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is a group that monitors the US press for anti-Israel bias. Recently it delivered a broadside of criticism toward former president Jimmy Carter's new book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. For many years, CAMERA has criticized National Public Radio's coverage of the Middle East for a pattern of anti-Israel bias. In December, a complaint from Eric Rozenman, director of CAMERA's Washington, D.C. office, was forwarded from CPB to the attention of the ombudsman. The request for review involves two stories reported by NPR from Beirut, one on All Things Considered and one on Morning Edition, both of which were broadcast in September.
Peter Kenyon reported on All Things Considered about a former Israeli prison in the town of Khiam in south Lebanon. The prison was turned into a museum when Israel withdrew in 2000, then demolished by Israeli missiles during the 34-day war in 2006. In the report, Kenyon interviews Abu Ali, a former prisoner held at Khiam, hired either by the town or by Hezbollah, to give tours of the rubble. The former museum, says Abu Ali, will not be bulldozed but turned into a commemorative site "furnished with signs and banners detailing Hezbollah's version of the Israeli abuses that occurred here."
Among Mr. Rozenman's complaints is that Mr. Kenyon uses an unidentified translator whose affiliation also is not provided, suggesting that the translator may be a Hezbollah supporter. Another objection is that the main source, the tour guide Abu Ali, may be in the pay of Hezbollah. Indeed, Rozenman suggests that Abu Ali may be using an alias to conceal his real identity, that, perhaps he is actually "an American citizen indicted for conspiring to provide material assistance to Al Qaeda." Continuing, Rozenman suggests that the prison/museum was only "reportedly" bombed by Israel, and may indeed that been in some manner used by Hezbollah for weapons storage or in some other manner to support combatants. No Israeli, whether official or informed non-governmental source is interviewed by Mr. Kenyon, nor is any Lebanese critical of Hezbollah. For his reporting, Kenyon is criticized for being unprofessionally one-sided and lacking in journalistic curiosity. The story itself, says Mr. Rozenman, "could have come from Hezbollah's English-language public relations department," if such a thing there is.
Reviewing the report, I was struck by Mr. Kenyon's ability to take the listener to the site in Lebanon and deliver a word-picture of what was happening today and what had gone on before. Mr. Abu Ali is clearly identified as a Hezbollah supporter in the piece, and as a former inmate at the Khiam prison when it was under Israeli control. He hardly seems to be "a dubious source," as suggested by Mr. Rozenman. Further, Rozenman offers no support whatsoever for his insinuation that the prison/museum at Khiam was used by Hezbollah to support the military in the recent conflict. Had there been evidence of weapons storage amid the ruins, I believe Peter Kenyon would have had an even better story and would surely have reported it.
It is certainly not unusual for nations to create commemorative sites for wars, conflicts, occupations and atrocities committed by enemies. The former Nazi concentration camps and the Holocaust Museum itself are striking examples, perhaps emulated by the Lebanese prison/museum at Khiam. What is unusual is for such sites to be destroyed as targets in war or by acts of terrorism. Mr. Kenyon's report did not address that anomaly, but its unstated presence left a strong and lingering impression.
Reviewing the complaint, I find that Mr. Rozenman's technique is to throw everything in the air, hoping something will stick. Who, really, is the source? Did Kenyon check his real identity? How do you know he was ever a prisoner at Khiam? Who is paying him? Who is paying the translator and what is his or her political affiliation? It is only reported that Israel bombed the museum, not substantiated. I had the feeling that if Rozenman actually had any evidence that was being used to support Hezbollah military operations, surely he would have provided it. To suggest that every report from location in Lebanon is inherently unbalanced because it does not include some counterveiling, first-hand statement from an Israeli source is a bizarre notion of "balance." Turned on its head, every NPR report from Israel involving any aspect of the Middle East conflict would require a similar rejoinder from a source from Lebanon, Syria, Iran, etc.
To suggest that Mr. Kenyon's reporting is dubiously sourced, unprofessional, unbalanced and biased is not convincingly supported by Mr. Rozenman's objections, and to suggest that it might have come from Hezbollah's English-language public relations department is hyperbolic nonsense.
The second NPR story deemed objectionable by CAMERA was a Morning Edition report about a Lebanese prisoner held by Israel for 27 years. Samir Kantar was convicted of killing an Israeli man and his four-year-old daughter during a cross-border raid nearly three decades ago. Kantar is considered a resistance fighter in Lebanon, said the NPR host Steve Inskeep, adding, "In Israel Kantar is described as a monster." The question examined in the report is whether Kantar will, or should, be part any prisoner exchange that would include the two Israeli soldiers taken prisoner by Hezbollah which kicked off last summer's war. The NPR correspondent, Jamie Tarabay reported from Beirut.
Examining the potential for prisoner exchange, Inskeep says in his introduction that Tarabay "has been speaking with people on both sides of the issue, including Kantar's brother." Bassam Kantar is a journalist who describes letters from his brother smuggled out of Israeli jails acknowledging that he took part in the raid but denying that he killed any civilians. The main subject of the report is how central Samir Kantar has become to the success of a prisoner exchange that might resolve the issue regarding the two Israeli soldiers. Tarabay describes previous efforts to secure his release and makes very clear the Lebanese position that Kantar and other prisoners held in Israeli prisons from the period of the Israeli occupation in the 1970's are considered resistance fighters in present day Lebanon.
Tarabay quotes Israeli Smadar Haran Kaiser, the widow of the man Kantar was convicted of killing, who called the killings of her husband and four-year-old daughter "murders of unimaginable cruelty." Mr. Rozenman considers this an inadequate description, offering (unsourced) a more vivid and detailed depiction of the murder of the father and daughter. To include Rozenman's description of the killings (already described by the widow as "murders of unimaginable cruelty") would have made the report unnecessarily grisly.
Included in the report is another Lebanese source, Mohammad Safa, described as an activist who works on behalf of prisoners held by Israel. Mr. Rozenman objects that Ms. Tarabay does not include in her report "who funds Safa," nor does she examine what Safa has done "regarding the countless Lebanese taken prisoner by Syrian military intelligence over the years." As near as I can tell, this report is exclusively about a potential Israeli-Lebanese prisoner exchange, and Syria has nothing to do with it. As for Mr. Rozenman's constant interest, and suspicion, about who is paying NPR's sources in the Arab world, one wonders if he would apply the same standard to every source in all reports (by all news organizations) coming out of Israel.
CAMERA's objections include the fact that the story is unbalanced because it is told largely from the Lebanese point of view. Featured are two Lebanese sources that speak a total of 173 words while one Israeli source is only paraphrased in 28 words and unidentified Israeli officials are paraphrased in 17 words. Mr. Inskeep advertised in his introduction that reporter Jamie Tarabay had been "speaking to people on both sides of the issue," leading one to expect that both sides might be directly quoted. That only Lebanese are quoted directly from location in Beirut is understandable as would be the use only of direct Israeli sources from Israel. From the Israeli side, the widow is quoted indirectly and Israeli officials are quoted as saying they are willing to consider Kantar's release as part of the exchange for the two captured Israeli soldiers. Technically, Mr. Inskeep made a mistake, but not one that distorted the facts.
Counting the number of words spoken by one side or the other in NPR's reports to support charges of "serious journalistic flaws" may be part of CAMERA's technique, but it is unconvincing. Would Mr. Rozenman require every direct quotation attributed to an Israeli source, in every report (by NPR or any other news organization) to be directly offset by a direct source from Lebanon or Syria or Jordan? We must consider that possibility because he rejects any notion except that "all news articles or broadcasts must include sufficient relevant detail and balance so readers, listeners or viewers can understand them in context."
I find no anti-Israeli bias in the reports examined above. CAMERA included a third objection, one involving a story that it says was ignored by NPR's national programmers. I will examine that complaint in a future posting.
