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Tel Aviv University graduate student Daniel Frank writes about The damage of a Haaretz libel:
Within Israel, Haaretz is a considered a small and minor newspaper that has a readership of less than 6% of the public. Internationally, Haaretz’s readership is still not at the level of publications such as the Jerusalem Post and Ynet, but it fares much better than it does domestically. However, Haaretz (English edition) manages to be one of the most influential voices of Israel.
The key to Haaetz's "success is the nature of its international audience -- and the way Haaretz caters to it:
Haaretz’s audience includes many journalists and opinion makers from different parts of the world. As a result of this, when Haaretz reports a controversial story, the tone/message/thesis of the original article (by Haaretz) has a huge influence on the type of opinion journalists from abroad will take on that issue. Unfortunately, many stories on Haaretz are over-sensationalized and highly misleading. When these types of articles are displayed, journalists from all over the world are quick to spread the “controversial news” to their local region.
Three recent cases of Haaretz jumping the gun to publich negative -- and incorrect -- stories about Israel:
- Haaretz blindly reported that Israel was forcing contraception on Ethiopian Jews. The article was proved to be completely incorrect and Haaretz issued a partial retraction.
- Gideon Levy erroneously reported that Israelis overwhelmingly supported an apartheid style state, a story that was then reprinted in prominent newspapers such as Canada’s The Globe and Mail, Britain’s The Guardian and The Independent and Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald -- before being proven to be incorrect.
- Akiva Eldar reported that according to the Israeli Ministry of Finance, Israel is a self-declared apartheid state -- again proven to be incorrect.
As Frank notes:
Haaretz has published a number of articles that were incorrect, highly misleading, inciting and in simple terms, should not have been approved by the editors.
For further examples of Haaretz bias, you can check out CAMERA, which has a special page dedicated to the errors and bias of Haaretz. During 2013 alone, CAMERA has 14 posts:
- MARCH 10, 2013 Ha'aretz Headline Errs on Australian Report About Zygier
- MARCH 7, 2013 CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Ethiopian Birth Control Story
- MARCH 3, 2013 Weekend Roundup of Ha'aretz, Lost in Translation
- FEBRUARY 27, 2013 Updated: CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Palestinian Prisoners
- FEBRUARY 21, 2013 Collective Punishment of Ha'aretz Readers
- FEBRUARY 19, 2013 Updated: Neglected Facts About Hunger-Striking Samer Issawi
- FEBRUARY 7, 2013 Ha'aretz Corrects E-1, Gaza Errors
- FEBRUARY 3, 2013 Israeli Outlets Foment Demonization With Sloppy Journalism
- FEBRUARY 3, 2013 Whose Land? Ha'aretz Distorts Eli Land's Status
- JANUARY 27, 2013 Ha'aretz Corrects: Gazan's Death Was Disputed
- JANUARY 20, 2013 Guardian Corrects: Israel Didn't Violate Injunction. Why won't Ha'aretz?
- JANUARY 16, 2013 Updated: Killed (by Israel) in Translation: Ha'aretz's 'Tailor-Made' English Content
- JANUARY 15, 2013 Ha'aretz's 'Tailor-Made' English Content Wrong Again
- JANUARY 9, 2013 In Exclusive Interview, Former Ha'aretz Editor Traces Paper's Decline
The harm of Haaretz mis-reporting is not ameliorated by its belated corrections and admissions of error.
By jumping to present the most controversial and anti-Israel stories, the harm Haaretz does to Israel is immeasurable.