By Larry Domnitch, AMERICAN THINKER
It does not take sixty minutes, but a mere few moments to level a smear against an entire nation. The recent CBS 60 Minutes program on Israel and its falsely alleged mistreatment of Christians was nothing less than a version of a modern-day blood libel against the Jewish State.
The program ignored the real facts and the realities, as well as the many testimonies of Muslim persecution against Christians in the PA territories.
A letter by CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) director Andrea Levin to Jeffrey B. Fager, chairman of CBS News, quoted one such testimony by Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the guardian of the Roman Catholic Church’s property in the Holy Land, which appeared in the New York Sun in 2005. To wit, “[a]lmost every day — I repeat, almost every day — our communities are harassed by the Islamic extremists in these regions. And if it’s not the members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, there are clashes with … the Palestinian Authority.”
Program host Bob Simon described Israel’s security fence as “completely surrounding” Bethlehem, which is simply false.
It is truly unfortunate, in light of the tragic persecution of Christians in so many Islamic nations, that 60 Minutes conjured up a spurious account in order to malign Israel, while disregarding those whose stories that truly need to be told.
On May 24, at a CBS shareholders meeting, board members of CAMERA were in attendance to respond to the charges leveled in the program. A letter by Andrea Levin which was distributed just prior to the meeting expressed the organization’s goals: “Although we have attempted through Mr. Radcliffe to elicit corrections for a number of material errors and omissions, our efforts have been unsuccessful. These factual shortcomings do need to be rectified and we are writing once more to urge that CBS adhere to the fundamental tenets of journalism that require news reporting to be accurate and fair and that instances of false reporting be fully and forthrightly corrected — on the air.”
When CBS called for a vote on the new directors, CAMERA board member Carol Greenwald arose and asked if CBS has a policy in line with standards of professional journalists which requires prompt corrections of factual issues. Another CAMERA board member, Richard Allen, then asked if CBS had taken into account the impact on earnings if CBS News lost the confidence of the public as an institution devoted to accurate and balanced reporting.
CBS responded by attempting to whitewash the entire matter. The network’s general counsel replied that they had received 476 comments on that 60 Minutes program and that half of them were positive. However, information supplied by CAMERA which monitors complaints by viewers told a very different story, stating that the number of complaints was significantly higher. The organization Christians United for Israel (CUFI) had sent 29,602 e-mails within the first 24 hours of its “action alert,” and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs had sent 3,000, not even counting those of CAMERA and other individuals not affiliated with any of the aforementioned organizations.
During the meeting, Greenwald read a statement reiterating the requests of CAMERA — namely, that CBS “go on the air and correct the calumny that Israel mistreats Christians” — and stated that CBS “needs to broadcast a correction that distinguishes between the violence towards Christians in the Palestinian Authority controlled territories and the security enjoyed by Christians in Israel.” Greenwald then continued, “We have provided an attachment which gives a brief litany of the horrors being visited upon Christians by Muslims in Muslim countries which puts the ridiculous accusations against Israel in perspective.”
Many shareholders responded to statements by CAMERA members with applause. One individual thanked the CAMERA representatives and stated that she had been very upset by all the letters about the distorted 60 Minutes segment that were published in the newspaper, The Jewish Week. When the general counsel said Greenwald had to stop speaking because of time, several people called, out, “Let her talk, we want to hear what she has to say.”
When Richard Allen said it was “too bad that CBS had decided to throw the Jews down the well[,]” Les Moonves, the president of CBS, responded that he was offended by that remark, which he denied was true. Allen countered that he was “sure that Moonves was offended and he should be because it was true.” The chairman of CAMERA’s board, Robert Weisberg, then spoke and told Moonves that he should not be “so defensive” about criticism of 60 Minutes because the problems were eminently “solvable by the Board of CBS.”
Will CBS admit that its reporting was biased and offer a public correction? Not only have they not retracted the story, but the head of CBS news, Jeffrey Fager, wrote to CAMERA stating that CBS stands behind the story as fair reporting.
So much for accuracy and accountability at CBS.
Larry Domnitch is an educator and author.
Page Printed from: at June 23, 2012 – 01:35:03 AM CDT
For all you folks who feel trapped with American news media and sources.
I am sure you will find this refreshing.
I shall not say anything about it but rather let you form your own opinions. Do give it a try.
sunnewsnetwork.ca
Mickey
Jerry Said:
It’s more like Crescent Bull Shit.
They are continuing the lies perpetrated by Walter Cronkite of the Tet Offensive infamy and the kapo Mike Wallace who always had something to bash Israel with. Bob Simon is another JINO pig who bashes Israel but lives there.
That’s a better idea to go after the advertisers.
@ stanley:
To allow those lies to go unchallenged and uncorrected is not a remedy.
It is aiding and abetting the enemy.
If you are an Israeli or a Jew it is tantamount to committing suicide.
@ Laura:
Perhaps there is a powerful Arab lobby supporting CBS. Many of our renown universities are gobbing billions of petro$ and recycling them to demonize Jews and Israel. Why would CBS be different? Then we have a lot of powerful and rich Jew-haters.
I was one of those viewers outraged by Bob Simon’s abhorrent fairy tale presenting Israel as the ogre responsible for the misfortunes of those unlucky enough to live under “Palestinian” rule. I don’t know if I am included in the ridiculous number CBS acknowledges having received, but I do know I’m one of the tens of thousands who wrote. As they say in Yiddish, “Sgornisht helfen.” CBS is amongst those determined to destroy the State of Israel.
CBS= Communist Bull Shit. Instead of writing letters and emails to CBS which will be completely ignored a better tactic would be to write to their advertisers and boycott the advertisers. Someone should circulate the names of their advertisers with appropriate email addresses.
The whole world has a very short memory. Now we have the same Nazi only now all joined with Islam. Anyone who doesn’t hear and see how the Islamic want to rule the world with their sharia law is just not getting it straight. either the US is just as insane or afraid. Now we have so many claiming ownership of Israel..what a joke. G-d says HE is up there laughing , but very soon when these nations attack there will be a worse war. All the naions mentioned in psalms 83 is going to be a sorry bunch. Israel will stand forever and like Genesis 12 ,those who do not bless HER IS CURSED. G-d doesn’t lie, no shadow of turning. It is not to far in the future that all the nations will attack HER, but Israel’s Messiah will roar thru Zion when they hit HIS HOLY HILL, and wipe them all away, chase some home , kill them on the way and follow them into their own nations and kill the men, women and children and the ox. How sick that so many evil gov want to run the same ole Hilter game..G-d bless Israel and the Jewish precious people who have blessed the whole world…shalom
CBS hatchet jobs on 60 Minutes, filled with lies and half-truths as well as the deliberate omission of material facts and material used out of context to create a false and misleading impression, have been so notorious over the years on so many topics that I no longer watch that network at all.
Laura Said:
The producer of that programme isright
@ stanley:
I don’t watch it.
@ Arnold Harris:
LOL
CBS can’t be expected to correct their lies–they meant to promote lies about Israel and about the murdering Arab Muslim squatters!
@ Laura:
Right you are. And you can easily remedy the situation by not tuning in. There are no shortage of other networks such as NBC or Al-Jazeera.
“Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the guardian of the Roman Catholic Church’s property in the Holy Land”
Is that really his name, or is this all some sort of extended anti-Italian joke?
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
CBS’s refusal to correct this story further exposes the enemedia to be a dangerous, evil and subversive force in our society. They refuse to correct these mistakes precisely because they were not mistakes, but a deliberate intention to mislead and lie in order to demonize Israel and turn Americans against it. Why media outlets in free societies work to further the agenda of the world’s most evil forces against freedom and everything else that is good and decent, is something I have no answer to.