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NPR
Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin promises fairness and accuracy but
does not deliver -- NPR still talks about "relative calm"
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PMWATCH -- February 6, 2002
NPR's Ombudsman,
Jeffrey Dvorkin, is once again, it seems, giving his listeners
the run around and acting NOT as a watchdog for NPR's listeners
-- as his job requires him to do -- but as a buffer, a protective
belt, a protector of NPR from its troublesome and noisy listenership.
Below is
an Activism Update from FAIR pointing out that NPR, despire
complaints that go back at least to early January (see http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/cast/racistcalm.asp
), continues to talk about "a period of relative
calm", even though Palestinians continue to be killed,
day in and day out (as 5 Palestinians were assassinated today).
Instead of taking seriously the constant stream of complaints
(PMWatchers have been sending in complaints on this issue on
a regular basis since Jaunary 3, 2002), and acting on them,
Mr. Dvorkin seems to be happy telling us that, yes, we are right,
that yes, we have a point, and that please, make sure we write
him again and tell him how we feel about their coverage.
What good
are Mr. Dvorkin's promises if he is not going to take them seriously,
and how genuine is his statement that he agrees that Palestinian
deaths are as tragic as Israeli deaths?
Please remind
Jeffrey Dvorkin, once again, and again, that NPR cannot go around
equating "peace" with peace for Israelis only.
You can
contact Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR's Ombudsman, at ombudsman@npr.org
and/pr: 202.513.2000 -- you can also reach him by filling the
form below and pressing "send".
Fill your personal
information, add your comments, and then click send. Your letter
will be sent to all the interested parties at NPR Your email will
be sent to:
ombudsman@npr.org , kduncan@npr.org , jconnelly@npr.org
, morning@npr.org , onthemedia@wnyc.org , totn@npr.org ,
watc@npr.org, worldwide@npr.org , atc@npr.org
Palestine Media Watch http://www.pmwatch.org
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Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
ACTIVISM UPDATE:
NPR Continues Distortion on Mideast "Calm"
February 5, 2002
On January 10, FAIR put out an Action Alert asking people to write to National Public
Radio about an apparent blind spot in its Middle East reporting. NPR had been referring
to the situation in Israel and Palestine around the New Year as a time of "relative calm"
or "comparative quiet," explaining at one point that "only one Israeli has been killed
in those three weeks." What NPR didn't explain was that during this "quiet" period, an
average of one Palestinian per day was being killed by Israeli occupation forces. (See
http://www.fair.org/activism/npr-israel-quiet.html .)
In answer to our alert, at least several hundred people wrote to NPR, calling for Middle
East reporting that paid attention to the victims of violence on all sides. Yet even as
these letters were pouring in, NPR continued to present the same distorted view of the
conflict. All Things Considered anchor Noah Adams opened a January 14 report on the
assassination of a Palestinian militia leader, and the militia's revenge murder of an
Israeli civilian, by declaring that "deadly violence returned to the Middle East today"--as
if deadly violence hadn't been happening to Palestinians on an almost daily basis all
along. On the January 17 All Things Considered, anchor Melissa Block prefaced a question
by asserting, "Until early this week there'd been almost a month of relatively reduced
violence there"-- a premise that was not corrected by correspondent Linda Gradstein. And on
January 18, correspondent Peter Kenyon referred on Morning Edition to "the recent lull in
violence."
NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin, to whom the activists' letters were addressed, does seem to
recognize the problem. Appearing on January 17 with media critic Ali Abunimah on WJHU, a
Baltimore NPR affiliate, Dvorkin agreed with the criticism and said that NPR's foreign desk
had told hosts and correspondents to reflect the reality of the situation. But this
intervention does not seem to have resulted in changed coverage-- in fact, two of the
repetitions of the distortion noted above occurred within the next 24 hours. Even as late
as January 30, Linda Gradstein was referring to the "period of relative calm," as if no one
had ever pointed out to NPR that this characterization ignored the deaths of dozens of
Palestinians.
Despite the hundreds of individual letters he has received, Dvorkin has yet to issue a
formal comment on the issue. But in a brief January 25 response to a FAIR activist, Dvorkin
wrote, "After FAIR pointed out the phrase 'relative calm,' NPR corrected that inaccuracy in
future reports." In fact, the inaccuracy was repeated, and keeps being repeated. Something
seems to be amiss in the way NPR handles legitimate complaints from the public.
ACTION: Please write to NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin and ask him to respond substantively
to the hundreds of letters he has received about NPR's Mideast coverage, including an
explanation of how NPR can repeat the same distortion after it has been "corrected."
CONTACT:
Jeffrey Dvorkin
NPR Ombudsman
202.513.2000
ombudsman@npr.org
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