Hartcher's replies:
Antony Loewenstein, thanks for putting the questions to me and for giving me a chance to respond.
I don’t intend to debate the minutiae of how I do my job. Please allow me to make five points:
1. I have accepted paid travel to a number of countries over the years. I have always disclosed the fact when I have written anything as a result. It is routine for journalists to take paid travel. The question is not so much whether journalists take paid trips; it’s whether they disclose the fact. This allows readers to take this into account in forming a view. *
2. I am not a partisan in any war. Indeed, a Crikey survey of the Australian political “punditocracy” found that there was no more balanced commentator in Australia.
3. Every paid trip always has an inbuilt viewpoint. The journalist’s job is to take information from a trip, assess it in the usual way, and to draw on it as one input among many, as we do with every subject, every day.
4. My column, on the Opinion page, does not purport to be an encyclopaedic treatment of the history of the conflict between Israelis and the Palestinians. It presents, as it says in its opening, a view from within Israel, with an explanation of the Australian Government’s position, and a comment from the Palestinian delegation. I should have thought that to be self-evident. There is no hidden agenda.
5. You, by contrast, are a declared partisan in the conflict. You are not in any position to act as a neutral analyst or objective commentator. If you critique my piece, you should disclose your interest, as I have mine.
* and this is how he made it clear:
Addendum: A number of comments attach great significance to the fact that, as I pointed out at the end of the column, I travelled to Israel as a guest of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies. Some impute a hidden agenda. Earlier this year I wrote about the United Arab Emirates after travelling there as a guest of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. This attracted no comment. It is routine for journalists to accept paid travel. The question is not whether journalists take trips; it is whether they disclose them. Disclosure means that readers can take this into account in forming their views. This is the exact opposite of a hidden agenda.
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1 comment:
I read your article. Unlike the everyday Aussie I have a good idea of Israel's origin, outlook and culture.Starting with an outlook that being 'sponsored' by the Australian zionists didn't necessarily make you a stooge I quickly realised that you are. Your reporting on Palestine and Israel is inaccurate, incomplete, bigoted and assiduously ignorant. Your writing presents you as a poor excuse for a journalist and have now made the 'Australian 5th columnist' level in supporting the Deputies and Lowy as well as the great anti-goy movement initiated in 1934 by the Reich...which founded Israel thus their similarities.I don't know what Lowenstein wrote,I preferred to make my own judgement and that is that along with several other journalists and "Regev" the aboriginie as usual for these pseudo-hebrews like Netenyahu functioning under an asumed name.Lies come from active deception and from failing to tell the truth, you do both.You epitomise the ignorant Australian obsessed with that historically-ignorant vilification 'anti semitism'in trying to justify the abomination, atrocity and outrage known as zionism, Mossad,Israel and Zionsm. against all decent. goy humanity. Lowebstein was possibly less critical...I will never know but I do now know that your article deserves loathing for its lies and disgust that you ARE a zionist stooge...and don't give us your claptrap about "good journalists" and how they function because you'll never know.....I am anonymous because I choose to be so with conniving types like you.Voila
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