Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Math of Media Bias

As noted here, newly-appointed NYTimes Jerusalem Bureau Chief Jodi Rudoren is embroiled in a flap even before she gets here.

In her defense. she spoke with Politico's Dylan Byers and one of her answers (k/t=Challah) got me thinking:

What is your response to the suggestion that you’re showing anti-Zionist bias?

It’s wildly premature to assess my biases. I have written nothing, other than a few tweets. It is certainly possible, as some have suggested, that I was not careful enough in what I wrote in some tweets, and what exactly I tweeted. But I hardly think that the half-a-dozen or dozen tweets that I’ve sent out in the last 24 hours add up to anything. This is a fleeting medium, in which you react to what you see. So some of the retweets that I’ve done happened to be what I was reading at that moment. It was not a comprehensive review.

Her math is fundamentally wrong. Everything always adds up. It depends to how much, or how little. But there's always a sum of things.

Of course, a media spokeperson deals with whomever is sent his or her way. But one of these days, I will have a good feeling in doing so rather than the feeling that no matter what you say and prove, the story just doesn't appear the way you thought you explained things.


P.S. The Goldblog take. (k/t=AH)


UPDATE

Kiss of death?

Peter Beinart @PeterBeinart
This is the Jodi Rudoren (Wilgoren then) I've known since college: tough, smart, honest. Just what NYT needs in Israel. http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/02/an-interview-with-nyts-jodi-rudoren-114603.html#.Tzwb0ZH33FM.twitter

^

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This line was what was disturbing:

". I will not apologize for reaching out to Ali Abuminah; he seems to be an important person to me."


Why exactly is Abunimah important? He leads a fringe movement and expresses extremist opinions that consist of promoting hate speech. He has no connections w/i Israel or even in the PA; he calls them collaborators. He props up Hamas and Hezbollah, but he doesn't really interact w/any of these organizations. I don't know of any Palestinians he actually works with -- his "solidarity" connections mainly involve internationals. He's actually Jordanian. He lives in Chicago. And is a non-player in anything going on here.


Far from being anti-Zionist, she just sounds like she's an idiot.