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Sunday, May 23 2004PA vs. James BennetNY Times reporter James Bennet makes his living presenting Israeli vs. Palestinian claims on the truth. Now everyone will have to weigh Bennet's vs. the Palestinians' account of what happened to him outside a Gaza hospital on Thursday: Palestinian Authority officials and journalists denied over the weekend that Palestinians in Rafah had tried to kidnap New York Times correspondent James Bennet. As you always insisted, Mr. Bennet, there are two sides to every story. 'One man's kidnapper is another man's ID-checker'? This episode should serve as an object lesson to foreign correspondents, who routinely quote dubious Palestinian sources to 'balance out' their reports. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Bennet, in future stories, grants legitimacy to the very PA figures who are now telling him his own harrowing ordeal was 'baseless.'
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» PA Denies Attempted Kidnapping of NY Times Reporter from Josh Harvey's Middle East
» A Lesson on the Credibility of the Palestinian Authority from Patterico's Pontifications
» A Lesson on the Credibility of the Palestinian Authority from Patterico's Pontifications
» Well, according to the press release it didn't happen from Low Earth Orbit
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» The Council Has Spoken! from Watcher of Weasels
» The Council Has Spoken! from Watcher of Weasels CommentsThis is a great example of media bias turned sideways. Can a formerly biased reporter correct himself after experiencing a lie first hand and almost being killed as well. Will it matter? Well, reporters who hate the jews will also really be intimidated by the pa, in my opinion. Therefore, I would guess that this mans desire to undermine jews outways his own dignity and sense of justice. Perhaps this is why he has made no attempt so far to make a point of their lie. Both your origianal post & the comments prior to mine are bizarre and completely beside the point. First & in response to an earlier comment, Bennet himself reported the incident in his own story on the subject in the NYT. Second, partly because the ISraeli army's almost daily incursions make it almost impossible for a credible Palestinian police presence, crimes including kidnapping are endemic in Palestinian areas. He has told me that he believes this was a random opportunistic attempt to kidnap him for financial gain, not for ideological, political or terrorist motives. He was there after all & I'd tend to believe him more than folks like yourselves who read dastardly motives into almost all Palestinian actions. If Bennet's right, then how does the kidnapping have anything to do with the PA or Bennet's supposedly imbalanced reporting? I personally believe that he is one of the finest reporters writing from Israel/Palestine & I've said so in this post Is James Bennet World's Best Mideast Correspondent?. While my post will disturb your anti-Palestinian prejudices & probably will not have any impact on yr. thinking about the conflict, I offer it to you anyway as another perspective on this incident. Post a comment[Comments are held for approval before appearing.]
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