Honest Reporting: In-Depth Analysis: The New York Times, Washington Post & LA Times

In-Depth Analysis: The New York Times, Washington Post & LA Times

March 26, 2014 15:58 by Yarden Frankl

We have documented how the vast majority of articles and editorials in the NY Times depict Israel in an unfavorable and often erroneous way. Yet the NY Times might argue that its coverage is negative because Israel’s actions and policies warrant such coverage. In other words, it would claim to be simply reporting the news rather than presenting a biased viewpoint.

So we decided to compare the NY Times’ coverage to that of the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. If coverage of Israel by all three papers was close, then perhaps the NY Times’ argument would have merit.

On the other hand, if the NY Times presented a different picture of Israel than the other papers, it would add to the evidence that it reports from a biased, anti-Israel perspective. How else could one explain that the NY Times covers Israel differently to other sources reporting on the same events?

So what did we find?

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Honest Reporting: Fighting BDS – The Power of Pro-Israel Images

Fighting BDS – The Power of Pro-Israel Images

March 25, 2014 14:43 by Alex Margolin

Anyone who spends time online, and especially on mega-sites such as Facebook or Twitter, can’t help but notice the centrality of images in the fight over Israel’s legitimacy. Shareable images or memes – usually photos or graphics that contain pithy  slogans -  may well be the most effective form of communiciation in a world of media overload.

In a recent article, Grant McCracken called photos “the secret ingredient of the Internet Economy”:

The reason they really matter is that they are the single, smallest, richest, cheapest, easiest token of value and meaning online.  We mint them.  We trade them.  We accumulate them.  We treasure them.

In short, photos and images get a message across quicker and with more depth than other media, including video. And when you’re fighting for hearts and minds against supporters of the BDS movement, that makes all the difference.

Uri Silberman who, along with Adrian Cojocaru, runs The Israel Network, which has produced some of the most striking images in the pro-Israel community, said pictures get better results on Facebook than text links or videos:

A picture or meme is something that quickly captures your attention, doesn’t require any extra mouse clicks, and isn’t time consuming. Most people run through their News Feed and only stop at something which captures the eye. What we are trying to do is to capture their attention within the span of a few seconds.

Most recently, The Israel Network has been capturing a lot of attention with a poster series featuring Israel supporters from all different religions and ethnicities, including some who are not associated with Zionism, such as Israeli Arabs, stating why they support Zionism. It’s the perfect antidote to the BDS lie that Zionism is racism.

“We want to make as many of these as possible in order to show the world that Israel supporters are diverse and come from very different backgrounds,” Silberman said, adding that he has been getting requests daily from people who want to be part of the series.

After all, if photos are the currency of the Internet economy, you can never have too many.