Dishonest Reporter Award 2007

What a motley crew of anti Israel bigots
Honest Reporting has done an excellent job in exposing this bias and hatred, and it is sobering to reflect back on some of the worst examples
Sadly despite many protests and attempts to present facts to the media and to demand an element of context, nothing seems to change and those of us engaged in Media Response seem to be constantly banging our heads against a wall.
But that should not stop us from continuing to do it, however much of a headache it is!!!
Joy Wolfe.Manchester Zionist Central council Media Response co-ordinator and StandWithUs representative in the UK

Posted by: Joy Wolfe at Dec 19, 2007 3:00:24 PM

Well done HonestReporting. You are spot on with your awards.

I applaud you on your work and hope it won't be necessary in the future.

Posted by: Shalom at Dec 19, 2007 3:47:39 PM

Very well done -- and very disturbing, indeed.

Posted by: Somers Mom at Dec 19, 2007 4:45:55 PM

Bravo for a well-informed report. And I particularly agree with your choice of Christiane Amanpour as the Dishonest Reporter of the Year. I watched the entire 3 CNN shows on God's Warriors and was outraged at how biased they were. I used to really respect her, but no more.

Posted by: Jennifer Schneider at Dec 19, 2007 5:20:36 PM

Not much this year, isn't it?
A third rate TV station, and a campus dummy are very little compare to past years. But it hasn’t been a very eventful year in the first place; has it? I guess when things heat up in Gaza there will be more on the media front.
As for the Al – Dura comeback, is that really a 2007 case?
It seems to me that Charles Enderlin reaction has to do more with disrespecting the courts then with media. Jeremy Bowen and Bari Atwan will always find a place of dishonor here, but what took you so long to place Ed O'Loughlin there?
As for Christiane Amanpour, while her ‘God’s Warriors’ was riddled with problems; I do not think it deserved a dishonest reporting awards.

Posted by: Dvar Dea at Dec 19, 2007 5:56:33 PM

Yes, you are right- Gods Warriors would get Amanpour the award- it had so much publicity and CNN is widely viewed. I was hoping Scott Wilson of the WAPO would have gotten a dishonorable mention, though.

Posted by: Andrea at Dec 19, 2007 8:04:31 PM

We are lucky to have you remind us all that you did in the past year.
Quiet a job!
Many thanks for keeping us informed.
Wishing you well for next year with the hope that common sense will prevail.
Bravo
JACQUES HADIDA

Posted by: JACQUES HADIDA at Dec 19, 2007 8:23:14 PM

One would think that with Christiane Amanpour's education and life there would be someone in her circle that would have had the inclination to suggest that she not revise history and draw comparisons that cannot be equated. I recorded all three episodes and watched them one after the other for the continuity, and I was very upset at the end of it all. One of my thoughts was " Does she really think this way? " I think she should stick to FACTUAL reporting and leave all the rest of it to those who will not rewrite history.

Posted by: Lynne Marton at Dec 19, 2007 10:43:59 PM

Well done. I definitely agree with your selection of Christiane Amanpour. One thing that you probably wrote about but that didn't have any award winners was the danish muslim cartoon incident. All of the newspapers that didn't print the offending cartoon in reporting the story let the public down. I know the Washington Post and the New York Times didn't show it. All of those chicken newspapers don't hesitate to print cartoons of jews and especially israelis in their stories. When it comes to muslims they run scared and stay way to the left in a politically correct safe zone.

Posted by: Dan Klein at Dec 20, 2007 2:55:47 AM

Your articles tell the truth and keep me informed. Keep up the good work.

Posted by: Harriet Brosbe at Dec 20, 2007 5:13:19 AM

Clever and entertaining (if the dishonesty were not so serious and did not frame public opinion and debate for so many). I agree with the choice or the award, although Ms. Amanpour (with help from her husband Jamie Rubin) could win the award each year. The moral equivalence and use of terminology were so offensive in her program (raved about by so many who just don't know the facts) that it probably had to win ths year. I must say, though, that while any number of New York Times writers, who seem to get worse each year, could win it every year, the current crop, erlanger and kerschner are as bad as any and they and the paper present "news analysis" as "news" virtually every day. Keep up the important monitoring and reporting and please find a way to make such findings make a difference in behavior,

Posted by: David Schoen at Dec 20, 2007 8:38:30 AM

All deserved the awards ! Especially Ms. Amanpour who should have been prestigiously awarded with honours for dishonesty many years ago. I personally never liked the woman ever and her distortion of history I find only typical of her obvious ignorance and extremely incompetent journalism. I shiver every time I hear or see the woman as it is to me blatantly obvious how she manipulates the listener through pretense.One would get the impression listening to her that she was a wise and truthful reporter, educated and sane. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Magnificent that O'loughlin was mentioned ..his pious-sounding anti-Israel reporting is always irritating!

Posted by: Anna at Dec 20, 2007 10:27:28 AM

Dear Honest Reporting
I think the kidnapping of Alan Johnston was a complete set-up, so that when he was "released" he could say that Hamas were good to him and certainly not terrorists in his opinion.
He will still stand by them come what may.
What a pity people don't look behind the headlines to see the truth.
Shirley Hiller

Posted by: Shirley Hiller at Dec 20, 2007 11:13:55 AM

Bravo for giving Ammanpour the award she so richly deserves. I'm actally sick of all her biased reporting.
She is married to an American Jewish man.
Too bad she doesn't know that her sons will pass their Jewish patrilineal DNA unbroken on to the next 17 generations of her descendents.

Posted by: Liberty Spinner at Dec 20, 2007 12:00:43 PM

Good point Shirley Hiller. You may be onto something there .We can't put anything past anti-Israel propagandists after all. Now you mention it, I did not trust the whole Johnston kidnapping at the time!
It stunk and still stinks in my view too.

Posted by: Anna at Dec 21, 2007 12:34:23 AM

Most of the recipients are truly deserving of their awards but I think Fairfax Reporter (Australia) Ed O'Loughlin would be upset that you didn't allocate a harsher category for his consistent ant-Israel bias over the year. To award such a person the worst moral equivalence gig isn't enough - it's akin to charging a child molester with jay walking.

It's also a pity that Ed is leaving Fairfax very soon and the chances are that he might never achiever higher honours in your excellent Dishonest Reporting Awards.

On behalf of all of us Aussies from down under, I leave you with our special Ed O'Loughlin chant -

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy Vey

Posted by: JackC at Dec 21, 2007 8:27:46 AM

Excellent work. I hope that one day you will have nothing to report, means that there will be no more anti semitism! Will that day arrive?

Viviane

Posted by: Viviane Paolini at Dec 21, 2007 9:26:07 AM

Thanks for the truth.

Posted by: Ray Hardy at Dec 23, 2007 2:50:06 AM

Why yes – why not for Amanpour.

Portraying Sayyid Kutab as the source of the Islamists anti Americanism goes against a key argument of leading Israel bashers, which blame Israel for that.
Telling the story of Israeli victims of terrorism is hardly anti Israel.
She did mention that Jewish terrorism is small in comparison with Islamic terrorism.
She did confront Carter by telling him that the settlements are not the obstacle to peace, suicide bombing is.
Giving equal time to all 3 religions may have created the appearance of equivalency, but there wasn’t any. Each of these 3 stories is too complex for a 2 hours program, and that lead to a few problems.
Creating the impression that the Israeli lobby forced the hand of an American president is anti Israel, especially since the exact opposite happened. But it is hardly enough for an AWARD on DISHUNESTY. That is for those who show no sympathy for human suffering on our side, skew history and the facts against us, and put the blame of all the worlds ills on us. And Jeremy Bowen, Bari Atwan, and Ed O'Loughlin answer to that category, not Christiane Amanpour.
Her biggest blunder is omitting Yitzhak Shamir from the story of the settlements. Regardless of what one may think on that issue Shamir was key in making them what they are now. Omitting him is the equivalent of describing the current American involvement in Iraq without mentioning GWB.

Posted by: Dvar Dea at Dec 26, 2007 12:19:51 PM

Articles quite true and to the point. Regarding ammanpour, you hit it right on the head with her nomination. Her in-laws must be thrilled with her. Something to be so NOT proud of.

Posted by: Fal at Jan 13, 2008 10:53:54 PM