Soccer Dad

Spitting in the face of freedom

Clark Hoyt, public editor of the NY Times:

The most recent column was by Ahmed Yousef, a spokesman for Hamas, the party elected to lead the Palestinian government and a group dedicated to the destruction of Israel. He wrote Wednesday about “What Hamas Wants.”

Many readers were outraged, complaining that The Times had provided a platform for a terrorist. One, Jon Pensak of Sherborn, Mass., said that allowing Yousef space in The Times “isn’t balanced journalism, it is more the dissemination of propaganda in the spirit of advocacy journalism.”

Well, yes. The point of the op-ed page is advocacy. And, Rosenthal said, “we do not feel the obligation to provide the kind of balance you find in news coverage, because it is opinion.”

David Shipley, one of Rosenthal’s deputies and the man in charge of the op-ed page, said: “The news of the Hamas takeover of Gaza was one of the most important stories of the week. ... This was our opportunity to hear what Hamas had to say.”

Deborah Howell, ombusdman for the Washington Post:

Though it may sound holier than thou, journalists feel they have a high calling to challenge the status quo through reporting and opinion; it is an important part of shaping debates and the social agenda, as well as defining popular culture. Commentaries are not meant to tell readers what to believe, though readers often take them that way -- and many readers don't appreciate commentary unless they agree with it.

Hamas, the beneficiary of American's press freedom:

Hamas said on Monday it planned to enforce a 12-year-old Palestinian press law designed to silence dissident journalists, amid a crackdown that has raised fierce protests from the local media.

Howell and Hoyt and all the other members of the MSM can use all the elevated rhetoric they wish, but what they can't get around is that by publishing material by Hamas they have given a benefit to an organization that holds the very freedom they champion in contempt.

Related posts here and here.

hamas, press freedom, clark hoyt, deborah howell.

Posted by SoccerDad at August 28, 2007 06:14 AM | TrackBack