Author:
Publication: HonestReporting Communique
Date: February 3, 2004
Dear HonestReporting Subscriber,
For the past three years, no matter
how monstrous the Palestinian attack on Israeli civilians, the Minneapolis
Star Tribune has consistently refused to apply the word 'terrorism.' One
of the paper's editors explained their 'evenhanded' position in February,
2002:
"In the case of the term 'terrorist,'
other words -- 'gunman,' 'separatist' and 'rebel,' for example -- may be
more precise and less likely to be viewed as judgmental.
We also take extra care to avoid
the term 'terrorist' in articles about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
because of the emotional and heated nature of that dispute." (http://www.startribune.com/stories/782/1402096.html)
Now, suddenly, the largest paper
in Minnesota has discovered 'terrorism' in the Mideast.
No, it wasn't the horrific murder
of 11 men, women and children on a Jerusalem bus on Jan. 29. That was described
yet again in Star Tribune wire reports as the work of a 'militant group'.
(http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4346299.html)
Here were the rule-breakers:
1) On Jan. 31, the Star Tribune
ran a profile of a local priest, Michael Ovikian, who grew up in Jerusalem.
The reporter describes Ovikian surviving the 1946 Irgun bombing of the
King David Hotel:
"It was midday July 22, 1946. Ovikian
was eating in the basement of the King David Hotel when Zionist terrorists
struck... The Brits had fortified the hotel's eight-story southern wing
with barbed wire and tanks. But the terrorists sneaked in the northern
end dressed as delivery people, their milk cans filled with TNT." (http://www.startribune.com/stories/614/4346899.html)
So the Star Tribune, which has maintained
a 'non-judgmental' refusal to call Palestinian terror by name, determined
that the King David bombing was, in fact, 'Zionist terror'. This,
despite the fact that (unlike any Palestinian terror) the Irgun issued
specific warnings of the impending strike against the British command at
the hotel, and that civilians were not intentionally targeted. (http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/King_David.html)
2) The Jan. 21 edition of
the Star Tribune carried an AP article on IDF anti-Hezbollah actions, accompanied
by a photo of the IDF dismantling a West Bank outpost and synagogue. The
photo caption was careful to point out that the "synagogue was dedicated
to the memory and teachings of American-Israeli Meir Kahane, whose anti-Arab
Kach movement is on the U.S. State Department list of terror organizations,"
but the article describes Hezbollah (which is on that same State Department
list) as mere "guerrillas." Moreover, the Star Tribune edited out the following
passage from the original AP article, which described American support
for the Israeli reprisal:
"The United States blamed Hezbollah
guerrillas for the escalation and cautioned Syria against giving support
to the Lebanese militant group." (http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4330162.html
http://www.honestreporting.com/a/r/720.asp)
It seems that all the talk by the
Star Tribune of sophisticated editorial policy was just a lot of hot air
-- masking what is genuinely an anti-Israel double-standard.
A further indication of the double
standard: The Star Tribune has a special section of its online edition
devoted to world terrorism, which includes archived articles on terror
threats and attacks in the US, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan - even Nigeria.
But blowing up a Jerusalem commuter bus didn't qualify. (http://www.startribune.com/terror/)
These latest blunders extend the
Star Tribune's history of distorting the conflict. In 2002, after being
caught red-handed, Star Tribune editors publicly admitted that the newspaper
re-wrote wire service stories in a manner which radically distorted the
meaning of a Human Rights Watch report on casualties in the Jenin refugee
camp. The Star Tribune's own ombudsman called this an "embarrassing wart."
(http://www.minnesotansagainstterrorism.org/releasemay29.htm)
In response to the latest events,
Minnesotans Against Terrorism clarified to HonestReporting that the issue
is not whether Kach or the Irgun committed terrorist acts:
"Minnesotans Against Terrorism does
not defend or condone the activities of the Kach movement or Irgun. MAT's
primary concern is that when innocent civilians are specifically targeted
for death and terror, that conduct and its perpetrators be accurately and
objectively referred to as 'terrorism' regardless of the cause, and regardless
of the nationality of the victims. The Star Tribune should be honest with
its readers and call all attacks specifically targeted against innocent
men, women and children by its proper name, 'terrorism', and not play favorites
with specific groups or causes."
HonestReporting encourages subscribers
to send comments to Star Tribune through their online form, by clicking
here: http://www.startribune.com/feedback/form.php?opinion=1
More information on this important
topic is online at one of HonestReporting's ongoing projects: http://www.TerrorPetition.com.
Thank you for your ongoing involvement
in the battle against media bias.
HonestReporting.com
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