The Truth About Cronkite
A new biography of the late Walter Cronkite has forced even admirers of the iconic CBS anchorman to reassess the man long held up as a paragon of journalistic ethics and objectivity.
Jennings Again
If you thought the Monitor was finished with ABC World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings last week, you don't know the Monitor or Peter Jennings. Throughout his career, starting with his years as a Beirut-based correspondent in the late 1960's and early 70's, Jennings has evinced a sharp pro-Palestinian bias - one that goes well beyond the ritualistic bromides mouthed by garden variety journalists who strive with all their might to attain the proper level of political correctness.
The Goldmann Paradox
Shakespeare had it right. The evil that men do indeed lives after them. Case in point: Nahum Goldmann, who served in a variety of Jewish and Zionist organizational leadership posts from the 1920s through the 1970s.
What’s Good About Amy Goodman?
Award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, as she never tires telling audiences all over the country, is "a Jewish American, the granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi and the great-granddaughter of a chassidic rabbi." She also happens to be a promoter of anti-Semites and anti-Zionists of nearly every stripe.
Steven Erlanger’s Unhidden Bias
New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Steven Erlanger is so openly pro-Palestinian in his reporting that he’s beginning to call to mind perhaps his most biased predecessor in that post – the truly execrable Deborah Sontag, whose transparently one-sided dispatches would invariably read as though she wrote them with a PLO flag draped over her word processor.
Tracking Down Those So-Called Quotes
Did Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vow to burn Palestinian children and rape Arabic girls? Did former Israeli leader Menachem Begin refer to Palestinians as "two-legged beasts," and did another Israeli leader declare that all Arabs must be killed unless they are willing to live as slaves?
Goldmann’s Questionable Quote
Shakespeare had it right: the evil that men do indeed lives after them. Case in point: Nahum Goldmann, who served in a variety of Jewish and Zionist organizational leadership posts from the 1920’s through the 1970’s (he died in 1982).
U.S. Presidents And Israel
Several years ago the Monitor ranked the U.S. presidents (from Truman through Clinton) in terms of their relationship with Israel. Since then, readers occasionally have asked whether time and added perspective have had any effect on the list and where Barack Obama would place on it.
Daniel Schorr’s Big Lie
The passing last month of veteran journalist Daniel Schorr brought forth all the expected media testimonials, but to the Monitor Schorr essentially was a liberal pamphleteer who attempted to hide his biases under an unconvincing fa?ade of "objective journalist."
The Lies Of Camelot
With 2013 marking half a century since Kennedy’s fateful limousine ride in Dallas, the current revels are exceeding the revisionist frenzies of years past, with a seemingly endless parade of books, articles and television specials designed to assure us that, despite everything that has come to light about him since his death, JFK was a great president, or at least a very good president who would have been great had his life not been so cruelly cut short.
That Infamous Photo
Ten years ago on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, which fell on Friday, Sept. 29, something occurred in Jerusalem that would reverberate far beyond the Middle East and the usual hours-long news cycle.
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.)
The Curious Case Of Scott McConnell
After a brief hiatus as a print publication - since the August 2010 issue it had existed only as a website - The American Conservative is back with a December print edition. Founded in 2002 by, among others, inveterate Israel-bashers Pat Buchanan and Taki Theodoracopolous, TAC from its inception raised high the banner of paleoconservatism and isolationism, taking particular relish in attacking both neoconservativism and various Israeli government officials and policies.
A Curious Attraction
What really makes one wonder about the affinity felt by certain Jews for Grant was the welcome mat he put out for some of the country’s most pernicious anti-Semites.
Cracker Barrel – Or Crackpot?
Why have the media for the most part been so reluctant to expose the long documented fringe positions – including a clear and deep animus toward Israel – articulated by Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul?
The Last Original Jewish Knick
Oscar “Ossie” Schectman, who scored the first basket in the history of the league that evolved into the National Basketball Association, died last week at age 94.
John Roy Carlson’s Unvarnished Truth
"John Roy Carlson" was one of several pen names used by the Armenian-American journalist Avedis Boghos Derounian, whose 1943 book Under Cover was a tremendously popular expose of Nazi sympathizers in America in the years leading up to World War II.
An Anti-McCarthyite’s McCarthyism
Lawrence Hoffman is a politically liberal Reform rabbi who writes about his favorite Jewish books in his own recently released book, titled, not altogether unexpectedly, One Hundred Great Jewish Books.
When Barak Made Rabin Spin In His Grave
Ehud Barak may or may not be out of Israeli politics for good, but his recent resignation announcement reminded the Monitor of just how much the man had been willing to give up to Yasir Arafat at the tail end of Bill Clinton’s presidency.
Novak’s Nun
The syndicated columnist Robert Novak, compared with whom Pat Buchanan comes off looking like an honorary member of Hadassah, was in his element this week, essentially accusing Israel of crimes against humanity and relying on a dubious source for his latest bit of anti-Israel invective.
The Mystery Of Charley Reese
Submitted for your amusement, a tale of two columnists, as different as it is humanly possible to be in their view of the Middle East.
Former Colleague Drops Bomb On ‘Palestine Pete’ Jennings
Cybercast News Service (CNSNews.com) reported this week that Peter Jennings actively shaped news coverage in the 1980's so that a communist dictatorship could be portrayed in a more flattering light.
Commentary And Outreach At Jewish World Review
It's been two years since we last checked in with Binyamin L. Jolkovsky, editor-in-chief of JewishWorldReview.com - two years during which he's added new columnists, broken important stories, and seen JWR finish first in two "favorite website" polls of Monitor readers.
Au Revoir, Harry Danning
Harry Danning died last week, and all The New York Times could muster was a dry, unbylined, six-paragraph obituary that somehow managed to overlook Danning's Jewishness - not a small thing when one considers that Danning played for the old New York Giants from 1933 to 1942, was selected four times to the National League All Star team, and until his death at age 93 had been the oldest living Jewish major leaguer.
Remembering Milton Himmelfarb
Milton Himmelfarb died earlier this month at age 87, and chances are you never heard of him if, like most Americans, you tend not to be a devotee of intellectual and political journals. But Milton Himmelfarb — Mendy, as he was known to his family — was, by virtue of temperament, history and family, a seminal figure in the development of neoconservatism as one of the country’s most influential political forces.
Walt’s Paper Trail
Judging from the shocked reaction among right-wing bloggers to a paper on U.S.-Israel relations written by professors Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and issued this month by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, one would think the paper’s authors were a couple of unknowns with no discernible paper trail.
PA Resurrects ‘Palestinian Authority Descending from Jesus’ Gospel
How far the PA will go to present the lie as the truth and the truth as a lie? Its claim that Jesus was a Palestinian is old hat. But now the “resurrection” also refers to “the Palestinian state.”
Kill This Myth
It's been raining rumor and myth since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. And though most of the so-called urban legends that now abound on the Internet and even make an appearance or two in mainstream news outlets are easily dispelled by their very outlandishness, there are some that just won't go away.
The Media Myth of Gene McCarthy
Eugene McCarthy died last week at age 89, and should anyone have been surprised by the highly selective memory demonstrated by many in the media who eulogized the former Minnesota senator best remembered for his 1968 antiwar presidential candidacy?
Jews In The Woodpile
When we left off last week, columnist Joe Sobran was suggesting that perhaps "black-mail" could explain the evident tilt toward Israel on the part of the Bush administration.