Hamas War

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Israel, Facts Not Fiction

Shouldn't news be objective?  It's much too easy to slant news turning what's supposed to be a simple factual article into an insidious biased piece of fiction.  When I was growing up, the only newspaper we ever saw at home was the New York Times, and as I've reminisced before, for me the "Sunday funnies" were the political cartoons in its "News of the Week in Review."  And in elementary school when we learned about newspapers, we only used the NYT.  So it's rather ironic that as an Israeli I've discovered that that's the newspaper once should be most suspicious of.  Journalists and bloggers from all over are kept busy writing expose`s about the inaccuracies and intentional slanting of their "news" articles and biased op-eds.
Among the many Israeli sources of irritation for The New York Times, none is more persistently aggravating than Jewish settlements. August has been an especially difficult month for the Times. In rapid succession, its Jerusalem reporter Jodi Rudoren, Pulitzer-prize winning columnist Thomas Friedman, and editorial board contributed factual errors about settlements that not only  revealed  falsehoods but blatant bias. Algemeiner

So I have my own way of finding the news.  I'm a long time fan (and friend) of Ruthie Blum, who's very upfront about the fact that she writes op-eds from the Right point of view.  Here's her latest:
The Palestinians' two-faced solution
Last week, while the first batch of Palestinian terrorists was being released from Israeli jails, the Palestinian Authority was too busy condemning Israel to express satisfaction. This is because the Israeli government had approved the construction of hundreds of new houses in east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
The plans to build these new units were made public well before the start of the current pre-negotiation discussions, brokered by the United States. Furthermore, the additional housing is slated for areas that the Palestinian Authority ostensibly agreed would remain in Israel after a "two-state solution" was reached.
Nevertheless, the Palestinian Authority and its apologists, both in Israel and abroad, did what they always do when faced with "settlement expansion" -- they raised a stink, accusing Israel of provocation, at best, and violation of international law, at worst...  Israel Hayom 
It's also a good idea to subscribe to the IDF's youtube page.



Seeing is believing.  I must admit that sometimes it works too ahrd to be PC-politically almost Leftist correct, but they do show some valuable videos.

The Jewish Press's site also gives real news and isn't afraid to tell the truth.  This isn't the same Jewish Press I first read when visiting my then future in-laws forty-five years ago.

There's also Arutz 7 which was a pioneer site telling the truth.

In terms of today's political cartoonists, there's Dry Bones.

Dry Bones, cartoon, Egypt, Egyptians, Israel, Moslem, Muslims, moslem brotherhood, islamists, islamism,jihad, Islam, Islamism, democracy, morsi, president morsi, coop, jihad,
Egypt's Turn
The current drama of the Middle East is that every Arab state seems to be under attack by one bunch of Islamists or another ...and the countries are crumbling.
Years ago, I encouraged his creator to blog them.

And now there's a new guy on the block, i24, hat tip Tablet Magazine.  I don't know how accurate and objective they will end up being, but we'll see.

As a blogger, my aim is more editorial than hard news. That's my choice, and I don't hide it.

Where do you find your most objective news? Please answer in the comments, thanks.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

batya, may the house of israel be inscribed for a good year.

http://my.news.yahoo.com/japan-raise-severity-rating-fukushima-leaks-level-3-023217301.html

http://lemonlimemoon.blogspot.com/2013/

the above blogger gives reliable info. and if you search for fukushima under the month of august, it leaves one stunned.
salmon in US are tainted now with eyes bleeding etc.
oceans and seas are becoming very polluted and harming humans, marine life.

Talmud Sanhedrin 98a "Mashiach ben Dovid will not arrive until someone seeks a fish for a sick person and cannot find one."
This you tube was sent by R Glazerson in Oct 2011 during the doctors strike. fast foward today and see where our nations stand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8tER3Dffc8

what i am saying is the non jewish nations have gone into a self destruct mode. and only sincere teshuvah can save us. as in egypt when He sent the cloud, so will HE at all times protect His people.
at the moment, floods in pakistan russia and china, fires in 11 states in US, and floods also one side, our banks are falling, and our sins are reaching Heaven.

be well always.

Shira said...

I only rely on pro-Israel Jewish news sources. All others are funded by the Arab lobby and Leftists.

Batya said...

10, thanks, G-d willing

Shira, so which do you pay attention to?

Anonymous said...

bayta, when I was on social media I subscribed to all the enemies of Israel, it's a great way to learn quite a bit, very helpful. Annoying surveillance & even harrassment has caused me to take a break fr that & sadly I cancelled my accounts, partly to protect others, but also b/c of misunderstanding of others who confuse watching with participation. For now I just use a couple thousand blogs and maybe a thousand news sites that I have sorted into bookmark folders of groups of nine or so. From quick glance it looks like about 500 or so are exclusively Israel/Jewish related, the others indirectly related. I like different ones for different reasons, but for objectivity I like Elder of Ziyon b/c though totally pro-Israel he documents stuff and doesn't get all emotional, much less hateful. - ER

Batya said...

ER interesting
In recent years it's hard to find real newspapers or news sites that have investigative reporters. Most just copy/paste from other sites.

Anonymous said...

batya , my rabbi reads
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/today.php

i read ywn, vin, arutz and the above. then the shiratdevorah.blogspot, an australian j, is having some reliable bloggers, on her site. debka seems reliable. atleast we know the enemies plan before it happens or when it happens.
you can just forget about non jewish media. blessings.

Shy Guy said...

10raindow, Debka is a hit or miss conspiracy site. Take everything they say and claim with a 25kg sack of salt.

Shy Guy said...

And regarding Yisrael Hayom/Israel Today, it is run by Sheldon Adelson. Adelson is a well-meaning Jew but he's in love with Netanyahu. And that effects the paper's reporting slant.

Batya said...

At least Israel Hayom posts Ruthie Blum.

Shy, 10, just like with nutrition advice, we shouldn't follow anyone blindly.

Anonymous said...

yes, batya, and in addition to the copy/paste problem is the bad analyst problem, where the same few "experts" are used by the news sites, and I find I can read Jpost or Reuters and know from the expressions which same few out-of-touch "experts" have given them their story (and bad analysis) just by the language used to (mis)describe what happened & who was involved. - ER

Batya said...

ER, A number of years ago, when we were the "must have" family to be interviewed, an editor told me that he didn't hire journalism majors.
"They have no factual knowledge. I prefer history, economy, science majors who know things. Any intelligent college graduate can be taught how to write an article, but who's going to teach journalism majors history, science etc?"

Yael said...

Israel Matzav
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/

Elder of Ziyon
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/

Batya said...

yes, but they are both more commentary than news

Shy Guy said...

Actually, there's plenty of news on both Israel Matzav's and Elder's blogs and most of that news only gets reported later - sometimes never - by the mass media, and then with details missing and hidden in some corner.