Palestine Media Watch -- Spread the Palestinian point of view

Palestine Media Watch

Why has FoxNews quietly removed from its website its Israeli spy ring story?

PMWATCH - August 8, 2002 -- Back on March 5, 2002, we issued an action call complaining about FoxNews's surreptitious removal of a story by Carl Cameron, published on FoxNews's web site on December, 21, 2001, alleging that an extensive Israeli spy ring was in operation in the United States. The alert was prompted by an article in Le Monde that indicated that FoxNews was succumbing to pressure from the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, and from AIPAC. Three days after our complaint, FoxNews, just as quietly, put the story back up.

The story stayed up until recently, when PMWatch tried again to access it last week and discovered that the link to it was dead: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,47491,00.html. Worse, a search of FoxNews's web site for the expression "spy ring" has turned up nothing whatsoever on the story. A search on stories that contain the words "Israeli" and "Spy" turned up no link to the story, but did turn up one page, dated March 8, referring to reader reactions to the story: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,40706,00.html . Needless to say that there was no link to the orginal story in that page as well!

After a call by PMWATCH, on August 6, 2002, to the Internet Department at FoxNews, we were told by a junior staffer that the story had been taken down -- see: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,40679,00.html . The page now says, "THIS STORY NO LONGER AVAILABLE". The staffer could not explain why the story was removed.

Since then, we have repeatdely tried to get in touch with the FoxNews website Executive Editor, Refet Kaplan, and have left numerous voice messages requesting a return call on the matter, but to date, he has not returned our calls. We have also left messages with the FoxNews newsdesk, but again, to no avail.

The questions we would like to be addressed are as follows:

(1) Why was a compelling and explosive story about an extensive Israeli spy ring operating here in the United States -- a story devastating in its implications, a huge scandal if it turns out to be true -- quietly removed from the FoxNews web site?

(2) Was the decision by FoxNews to remove the story in any way related to the latest moves by the Israeli cable companies to replace CNN with FoxNews? (See full story).

(3) Was the decision by FoxNews to remove the story influenced in any way by pressures from the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, and by AIPAC? (See: March 5, 2002 ction call)

(4) Is FoxNews sticking by its original story?

(5) Why hasn't FoxNews followed up on their original story -- whether to refute it or reinforce it?

Please consider giving a call to FoxNews. Call: (212) 301 - 3000 and ask for Refet Kaplan in the Internet Department.

You can also send your email :by entering your info, and clicking "send". Your message will be sent to the following: Speakout@foxnews.com Viewerservices@foxnews.com comments@foxnews.com foxnewsonline@foxnews.com Cavuto@foxnews.com Warstories@foxnews.com Oreilly@foxnews.com Theinsiders@foxnews.com Bigstory@foxnews.com Beltway@foxnews.com Special@foxnews.com Ontherecord@foxnews.com Onlyonfox@foxnews.com Regan@foxnews.com Colmes@foxnews.com Hannity@foxnews.com Foxwire@foxnews.com Foxreport@foxnews.com Beyondthenews@foxnews.com Weekendmagazine@foxnews.com FNS@foxnews.com Newswatch@foxnews.com

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A March 5, 2002, article in the French paper, Le Monde (see full article below), states that on "December 11 to 14, 2001, the Fox TV network broadcast a four-part investigation on Israeli espionage in the US, in the program 'Carl Cameron Investigates.' The Israeli Embassy in Washington immediately stated that it contained 'nothing that was true.' American Jewish organizations-JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs), AIPAC (America-Israel Political Action Committee) and others-denounced it as a 'plot.' Fox removed from its internet site, a day and a half after posting, all the reports related to the investigation. Le Monde asked Fox News, three times, to send it the cassette of the broadcast. This was never done. Fox told our correspondent in New York that sending it would pose aa problem,' without any explanation . . .Le Monde nevertheless learned what was in the transcript of the [Fox] investigation . . . [which] focussed on two points. One: could the Israelis have had knowledge beforehand of the September 11 attacks and not informed the Americans? According to Carl Cameron, his sources told him that 'the main question is how could they not have known it.' On the TV, the chief editor of the report then says to [Cameron]: 'Certain reports confirm that the Mossad sent representatives to the US to warn it, before September 11, about the imminence of a major terrorist attack. This isn't what you'd call an absence of a warning.' Cameron's answer: 'The problem isn't an absence of a warning, but an absence of useful details.'" [See full March 5, 2002 call >>> ]