A Neglected Anniversary

With all the media attention paid to the recent 40th anniversary of the Munich Olympic massacre, another anniversary – this one related to something far more consequential in terms of Israel’s history – slipped by relatively unnoticed.

Israel Acts – The Media Howl (Part III)

The Monitor is still trying to catch up with some of the more striking examples of media bias in the coverage of Israel's recent anti-terrorist operations in the Palestinian areas. Topping this week's list is the insufferable Ted Koppel and his separate interviews with Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat, both of which aired on the May 1 edition of ABC's "Nightline."

A Couple Of Fan Letters

It's been some time since the Monitor shared a few of the more, shall we say, interesting letters and e-mails that come this way. Maybe it's the onset of a presidential campaign, or maybe we've been added to a Michael Moore mailing list - whatever the reason, there's been a definite uptick in the number of angry, off-the-wall screeds hurtling through cyberspace or trudging through the postal system, all seem ingly designed with the singular goal of disturbing the peace and interrupting the contemplation of this humble scribe.

How To Judge Bush’s Speech

For the best indication that President Bush's June 24 White House speech indeed amounted to what several Israeli officials described as the most pro-Israel statement ever made by a sitting U.S. president, one need look no further than the reactions it stirred in the American punditocracy.

The Left Gears Up For Battle (Part IV)

Onward with the best (or worst, if you will) of what those on the left are saying in the aftermath of Sept. 11. We'll start off the week with Studs Terkel, whose popular oral histories (Working, etc.) lead many to mistakenly label him a writer when in fact he's nothing more than an energetic tape recordist, to use the memorable term coined for him by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Neal.

Reform Gellman Puts Orthodox Colleagues To Shame

As reported in last week's Monitor, a number of prominent politically conservative religious leaders - including several Orthodox rabbis - opposed to legislation promoting gay marriage have aligned themselves with an organization that, according to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, is distinguished by "its ideological support of Islamic terror groups."

Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Kerry

On the campaign trail last week, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry accused President Bush of breaking his promise to put together an international coalition to wage war against Saddam Hussein.

Vindication, Late But Sweet

Forgive the Monitor a little self-indulgence this week. In its May 14 issue, Newsweek magazine published a chapter from historian Michael Beschloss’s new book, Presidential Courage (Simon & Schuster). The excerpt centered on Harry Truman’s role in the establishment of Israel, and Beschloss had no compunction about highlighting Truman’s nasty anti-Semitic streak or that after leaving office Truman admitted to the late television impresario David Susskind that his wife, Bess, had never allowed a Jew into their Independence, Missouri home.

Sulzberger’s ‘Shrinkage’ Problem

"The incredibly shrinking" New York Times is how George Will describes the one-time paper of record, a formerly respectable journalistic enterprise that, in Will's words, is "reinventing itself along the lines of a factional broadsheet..."

The Best And The Brightest

Every year at this time the conservative Media Research Center compiles the most outrageously biased and stupefyingly dumb remarks made by media people during the previous 12 months. Even the quickest perusal of these gems should forever still any doubts about the media's inherent liberal bias and stupefying shallowness.

Bush, Jews And Democrats (Part XIII)

Before concluding our series on Jewish voting habits in next week's Monitor, we devote this week's installment to some of the more colorful responses we've received from die-hard Democrats. Wear your helmets.

Puffed Rice

The Monitor never quite understood the good feelings Condoleezza Rice managed to inspire among so many conservatives for what seemed like the longest time. The woman never uttered a single word on foreign policy – her alleged area of expertise – that could even remotely be described as original, inspiring, or just plain memorable.

Liberal Rage

Since 1994, Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby has devoted a column every December to highlighting the year's most egregious examples of liberal hate speech. Jacoby describes 2004 as "another year in which liberals engaged in, and mostly got away with, grotesque slanders and slurs about conservatives - the kind of poisonous rhetoric that should be beyond the pale in a decent society."

Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out, Dan

Dan Rather signed off permanently this week as CBS Evening News anchor and the Monitor thought it only appropriate to review some of the more outlandishly biased statements he tried to pass off over the years as objective news. Media watchdog websites such as MediaResearchCenter.com and RatherBiased.com are repositories for dozens of Rather's most revealing quotes. These are the Monitor's personal favorites:

Scaring Ourselves To Death?

The lengthy cover story in a weekly news magazine deftly sums up the profound unease afflicting U.S. Jewry. Titled “American Jews and Israel,” the piece paints a picture of a community enjoying unprecedented affluence and influence and at the same time worrying about the future of U.S.-Israel relations and the possible emergence of widespread anti-Semitism in America.

Democrat Echo Chamber

One of the websites listed here last week as a Monitor favorite did a sterling job Sunday exposing The New York Times as a journalistic copy machine of Democratic Party talking points.

The Lingering Intoxication

No doubt there were some well-meaning consumers of news who labored under the naïve illusion that the mainstream media would become just a wee bit more objective in its coverage of Barack Obama once their anointed one won the White House.

Joseph Farah, Mythbuster

Joseph Farah the founder and editor of WorldNetDaily, is so solidly and unashamedly pro-Israel that he’s developed something approaching a cult following among pro-Israel Jews. (Yes, “pro-Israel Jews” – it has, unfortunately, become necessary to make that distinction.)

Poll-Vaulting At The Times

For several weeks now the Monitor has put off writing a review of Bias, the blockbuster book by former CBS newsman Bernard Goldberg. As the number one non-fiction best-seller in the country, Bias has been praised and panned, in print and on the air, so many times over that there seemed to be nothing new the monitor could add.

Scratch A Leftist…

Jay Bennish, the Colorado teacher who told his class that the U.S. “is probably the single most violent nation on planet earth” and that President Bush’s State of the Union speech “sound[ed] a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say,” was given a relatively free ride by the national news media.

The Ever Reliable Jewish Voter

Roughly 30 percent of those Jews who had voted for Reagan in 1980 went for Mondale in 1984.

The View From Henry Siegman’s Knees

In this week’s Jewish Press front-page essay, Gilead Ini methodically shreds even the slightest pretense of objectivity maintained by Henry Siegman, formerly of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Jewish Congress and a prolific writer on the Middle East.

Clintonian Déjà Vu

The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign is getting louder and uglier by the minute as racial and gender politics threaten to fracture the Democratic base, and even those media outlets that in the past had defended or at the very least tolerated the Clintons give every indication of having finally lost patience with the shopworn act.

Bad Old Times

Several readers took issue with the Monitor's statement last week that coverage of Israel by The New York Times, while still problematic on occasion, has improved markedly since Deborah Sontag left the paper's Jerusalem bureau nearly a decade ago.

The Left Gears Up For Battle (Part III)

Ordinary Americans are more or less united in the war on terrorism, but one enters an altogether different universe when paying mind to the torrent of recent commentary from left-wing journalists, academics and entertainers.

Talking Back To The Times

Sam Ehrenhalt, whose op-ed articles and letters to the editor always enhance The Jewish Press, has shared with the Monitor a thoughtful note he recently dispatched to New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller.

In Case You Missed It…

Kerry Would Follow Powell: Once again the John Kerry presidential campaign has provided a disquieting glimpse into the kind of thinking that to Democrats equals strong support for Israel. Appearing over the weekend on CNN's "Capital Gang," senior Kerry campaign adviser Tad Devine stated that "the difference" between Kerry and President Bush regarding the Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio "is understood very clearly. When Bush became president of the United States, he turned his back on the Middle East peace process....Until we have a president who is capable of exercising presiden tial leadership...the United States will not be a player in the peace process."

Caveat Emptor

There's a new book out that, due to its subject matter, is certain to attract the interest of many a Monitor reader. Be warned, however, that the book in question - "Irreconcilable Differences" The Waning of the American Jewish Love Affair with Israel? - is a truly awful piece of work, hardly worth the time and effort of anyone who doesn't get paid to review such a wretched endeavor.

Random Thoughts

A few items of interest as the Monitor catches up after a break from the regular routine: Reporting on the defeat of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in an Aug. 20 Democratic primary, the Prince of Palestine, aka Peter Jennings, once again exhibited his bias and unreliability on all matters pertaining to Israel.

The Schwarzschild Award

The winner of the Monitor’s third annual Henry Schwarzschild Award for most offensive comments by a Jew in the public spotlight goes to Michael Lerner, publisher of the far-left Tikkun magazine.

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