Last week the Monitor invited readers to send in the names of journalists who exhibit an unmistakable anti-Israel bias in their writing or on-air reporting. The results will appear in an upcoming Media Enemies List along the lines of something the Monitor did several years ago.
This week the Monitor is reviving another old favorite, the Media Friends List. Readers can e-mail the names of their favorite pro-Israel media types along with or separate from their nominations for the Media Enemies List. Back in 2002 the Media Friends List was limited to full-time journalists, which precluded the inclusion of academics, retired military personnel and think-tank staffers who write extensively on the Middle East from a pro-Israel perspective (Fouad Ajami, Frank Gaffney, Victor Davis Hanson, Daniel Pipes, Ralph Peters, etc.). That rule won’t apply this time around.
On successive weeks in late August and early September 2002, the Monitor listed first the top 25 vote getters, in alphabetical order, and then the top 10 in terms of votes received.
Some of the more prominent media types who just missed the top 25 were columnist Don Feder; columnist Fred Barnes; radio host Michael Medved; Brent Bozell of the Media Research Institute; Rich Lowry and Jay Nordlinger of National Review; R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. of The American Spectator; Martin Peretz of The New Republic; and David Horowitz of FrontPageMag.com.
The top 25 vote getters, in alphabetical order, were:
Zev Chafets – columnist Mona Charen – columnist Linda Chavez – columnist Joseph Farah – editor and CEO, WorldNetDaily.com Eric Fettmann – columnist Jonah Goldberg – columnist, editor Bob Grant – radio host Sean Hannity – radio host, co-host “Hannity and Colmes” (Fox News) Jeff Jacoby – columnist, Boston Globe Michael Kelly [deceased] – columnist, editor Alan Keyes – commentator, perennial political candidate Charles Krauthammer – columnist G. Gordon Liddy – radio host Rush Limbaugh – radio host Bill Maher – comedian Steve Malzberg – radio host John Podhoretz – columnist, editor Dennis Prager – radio host A.M. Rosenthal [deceased] – columnist, editor William Safire – columnist Michael Savage – radio host Curtis Sliwa – radio host Cal Thomas – columnist Jonathan Tobin – columnist, editor George Will – columnist
The top 10 vote getters:
1. George Will
2. Rush Limbaugh
3. Cal Thomas
4. William Safire
5. Sean Hannity
6. Joseph Farah
7. John Podhoretz
8. A.M. Rosenthal
9. Michael Kelly
10. Charles Krauthammer
An observation: The near-total absence of liberals from the list serves as one more indication that vigorous defense of Israel resides, in the media at least, almost exclusively in the precincts of the right.