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Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America

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Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
File:Cameralogo.jpg
Type of siteInformation site
Available inEnglish
OwnerAndrea Levin
Created byWinifred Meiselman
URLhttp://www.camera.org/
CommercialNo

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) is an American, nonprofit, tax-exempt organization based in Boston which describes itself as a "media-monitoring, research and membership organization". The organization was founded in 1982 by Winifred Meiselman in Washington, DC to respond to perceived anti-Israel bias in The Washington Post.

News media cite CAMERA as an advocate of Israel and discuss the organization's mobilisation for the support of Israel in the form of full-page ads in newspapers , organizing demonstrations, and encouraging sponsor boycotts.

History

CAMERA created chapters in major cities, including New York, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and in 1988 a Boston chapter and office, founded and led by Andrea Levin; Charles Jacobs became deputy director of the Boston chapter.

In 1991, Levin succeeded Meiselman as executive director of CAMERA. According to the organization's website, since that time CAMERA’s membership has grown from 1000 to a current membership of 55,000, with offices in Washington, DC, New York, Chicago, and Israel in addition to the Boston headquarters" The director of the Washington office of CAMERA is Eric Rozenman.

Structure, staff, and activities

On its official website, CAMERA is described as "a media-monitoring, research and membership organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East" which "fosters rigorous reporting, while educating news consumers about Middle East issues and the role of the media." CAMERA further describes itself as a "non-partisan organization" which "takes no position with regard to American or Israeli political issues or with regard to ultimate solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict."

CAMERA staff members monitor media coverage of the Middle East coverage, and directly contact media organizations and reporters to refute information the organization perceives as "distorted or inaccurate." The organization also has backed "a call to suspend financial support" from National Public Radio, and in one instance demanded the firing of that organization's foreign editor.

The organization also publishes monographs about topics relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

CAMERA is a member of the Israel Campus Roundtable, which includes the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Anti-Defamation League, The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership, and other pro-Israel organizations. As a member of this Campus Roundtable, CAMERA operates on college campuses to combat what it perceives as "propagandistic assaults on Israel . . . creating harmful misperceptions of Israel" and "publishes a student-focused magazine, CAMERA on Campus, containing specialized information useful in countering misinformation."

Accusations of anti-Israel bias made by CAMERA

Main articles: National Public Radio § Criticism, Encarta, Munich (film) § Controversies, and The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy § Criticism

Among the organizations and works that have been criticized by CAMERA are:

  • ABC News anchor Peter Jennings: "We've long considered him anti-Israel", CAMERA's founder Andrea Levin has commented, pointing to an incident in which CAMERA, and eventually also the Columbia Journalism Review, criticized the anchor and his network for balking at correcting their misquote of an Israeli politician..
  • National Public Radio: "A Record of Bias: National Public Radio's Coverage of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: September 26 – November 26, 2000" (2001) asserts that National Public Radio's "coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict has long been marred by a striking anti-Israel tilt, with severe bias, error and lack of balance commonplace." This report led to a response by then NPR Ombudsman, Jeffrey A. Dvorkin.
  • Encarta: In an article originally published in the Jerusalem Post and posted on the official website of CAMERA, Andrea Levin, the Executive Director of CAMERA, describes Microsoft's digital multimedia encyclopedia Encarta as "a troubling mix of solid information, bias and error." In particular, Levin points to the articles written by Shaul Cohen (of the University of Oregon), which she claims "blurs Arab aggression against the Jews from the Mandate period to the present, repeatedly equating the violence by the parties."
  • Steven Spielberg's film Munich: In her film review of Munich (2005), posted on the official website of CAMERA, Andrea Levin claims that the film (a collaboration of director Steven Spielberg and playwright/screenwriter Tony Kushner) promotes "its thesis of Israeli culpability" and that "Israel's action battling its adversaries is cast as aberrant, bloody and counterproductive." Levin continues: "indeed, it is stunning to watch Munich and realize that its director brought Schindler's List to the world. Where that was artistry drawn from truth, Munich is cinematic manipulation rooted in lies."
  • Mearsheimer and Walt's "The Israel Lobby" Paper: CAMERA published a detailed critique by Alex Safian of the paper "Israel Lobby," arguing that it is "riddled with errors of fact, logic and omission, has inaccurate citations, displays extremely poor judgement [sic] regarding sources, and, contrary to basic scholarly standards, ignores previous serious work on the subject. The bottom line: virtually every word and argument is, or ought to be, in 'serious dispute.' In other words, a student who submitted such a paper would flunk."
  • Christiane Amanpour's "God's Warriors": CAMERA published a critique of the CNN documentary series, calling it "one of the most grossly distorted programs to appear on mainstream American television", "false in its basic premise", and "a perfect illustration of classical propaganda techniques" .

Praise and Criticism

In a 2003 profile of the organization in the Boston Globe, Mark Jurkowitz observes: "To its supporters, CAMERA is figuratively - and perhaps literally - doing God's work, battling insidious anti-Israeli bias in the media. But its detractors see CAMERA as a myopic and vindictive special interest group trying to muscle its views into media coverage."

Praise

Testimonials on CAMERA's website include late congressman Tom Lantos (D-California) commenting that "CAMERA has the courage to effectively challenge the media to step up to its responsibility to report fairly and accurately"; Professor Alan M. Dershowitz, of the Harvard University Law School, remarking at a 1989 CAMERA conference that "The only people who should and do fear CAMERA are those who should and do fear the truth"; and Israeli politician and former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky asserting that "We all know that CAMERA's mission is important not only for the Jewish community, but also for the integrity and vitality of American democracy."

Former Mayor of New York City Ed Koch describes CAMERA as "one source you can rely on when it comes to keeping track of news stories on the Middle East. . . ."

Criticism

Mitchell Kaidy, writing in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs criticizes CAMERA's efforts to pressure university libraries to remove books that the organization finds offensive.

New York University professor and historian Tony Judt has described CAMERA director Levin's charge that he is "pandering to genocide" as one of a series of reaction to his writings that "verged on hysteria."

Writing about attempts by CAMERA to get a local Pasadena, California church to cancel an appearance by Palestinian activist Reverend Naim Ateek, Rob Eshman, Editor-in-Chief of The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, writes "I'm always leery when Jewish groups ride in from out of town to try to save us from the bad guys. We have plenty of sharp-eyed Jewish defense groups locally who can tussle on our behalf. It's just a bit condescending to think we rubes, out in America's second-largest Jewish city, don't know how and when to fight. Or whom."

Writing about criticisms from CAMERA he and his colleagues have received, Jerusalem-based journalist Gershom Gorenberg wrote " It is not the press's job to provide PR for any government. Until CAMERA gets this straight, self-respecting journalists will regard an occasional snarl from the watchdog as proof that they're doing their job."

Notes

  1. Cheryl A. Rubenberg: Israel and the American National Interest: A Critical Examination, University of Illinois Press, 1986. ISBN 0-252-06074-1> Rubenberg, p.339
  2. CAMERA: About CAMERA
  3. "A brief history of CAMERA" on CAMERA's official web site. Accessed 14 August 2007.
  4. Murdoch, Son Differ Sharply Over Israel
  5. Lando, Michal (November 4, 2007). "Israel critique on campus". Jerusalem: Jerusalem Post.
  6. Rob Eshman (January 25, 2008). "Butt out". Los Angeles: Jewish Journal.
  7. U.S. newspapers catching flak for Mideast war coverage: Media caught in the cross fire as both sides complain of bias
  8. Guardian Unlimited: The readers' editor on ... a ruling in favour of freedom of expression
  9. "A brief history of CAMERA" on CAMERA's official web site. Accessed 23 October 2006.
  10. CAMERA at Jewish Information and Referral Service.
  11. See "About CAMERA" and "Our Mission" as featured on the official website.
  12. See "About CAMERA"
  13. Press Release. CAMERA Calls on NPR to Fire Foreign Editor Loren Jenkins. May 3, 2002.
  14. Pro-Israel Lobbyists Seek to Influence Coverage of Mideast. Agence France-Presse, May 25, 2002
  15. Andrea Levin. Just Say No to NPR. The Jerusalem Post, September 27, 2002.
  16. CAMERA website, CAMERA Publications: Monographs
  17. See "CAMERA on College Campuses":

    Increasingly, campuses have been the scene of propagandistic assaults on Israel. Distorted literature, extreme speakers and false, inflammatory images are all too common, creating harmful misperceptions of Israel. This hostile environment can be intimidating to students seeking fair and objective information on Middle East issues.

    CAMERA publishes a student-focused magazine, CAMERA on Campus, containing specialized information useful in countering misinformation. CAMERA also provides one-on-one assistance to students who encounter Middle East distortions in campus publications, flyers, rallies and classroom teaching.

    The managing editors of CAMERA On Campus is Deborah Passner.
  18. History News Network
  19. CAMERA March 27, 2001, accessed July 21, 2006.
  20. Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, "NPR's Middle East 'Problem,'", NPR: Archive of Ombudsman Columns February 22, 2002, accessed July 21, 2006.
  21. "Microsoft's Encarta Muddles the Middle East," Jerusalem Post February 12, 2004, CAMERA May 26, 2006.
  22. "File Review of Munich: Spielberg and Kushner Smear Israel," CAMERA December 21, 2005, accessed May 18, 2006.
  23. Alex Safian, "Study Decrying 'Israel Lobby' Marred by Numerous Errors" ("Updated April 6: Rebutting charges of expulsion and massacre"), CAMERA March 20, 2006, accessed March 24, 2006. Cf. "Reply to the Mearsheimer-Walt 'Working Paper'" by Alan Dershowitz of the Harvard Law School, in his essay "Debunking the Newest–and Oldest–Jewish Conspiracy," April 5, 2006, online posting, FrontPage Magazine, n.d., accessed July 29, 2006 (pdf file); in posting an excerpt from Dershowitz's "reply" in "Dershowitz Responds to Walt and Mearsheimer Paper", CAMERA observes that Dershowitz cites "CAMERA's detailed refutation of Walt and Mearsheimer's claims" (hyperlinking to Safian). See also Glenn Frankel, "A Beautiful Friendship? In Search of the Truth about the Israel Lobby's Influence on Washington," The Washington Post July 16, 2006: W13.
  24. God's Jewish Warriors -- CNN's Abomination by CAMERA
  25. Mark Jurkowitz, "Blaming the Messenger: When the Pro-Israeli Group CAMERA Sees News from the Middle East That It Deems Unfair Or Wrong, It Targets the Media-And Doesn't Let Go," Boston Globe Magazine February 9, 2003: 10, History News Network (George Mason University) April 24, 2006.
  26. qtd. on CAMERA website, accessed March 4, 2008
  27. Ed Koch, letter to the editor, sent electronically to the Washington Post, National Review Online, August 17, 2006, accessed August 19, 2006.
  28. Mitchell Kaidy, "CAMERA and FLAME: Pressuring U.S. Media," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs July/Aug. 1993: 29, WRMEA Archive of Back Issues April 10, 2006; cf. CAMERA on Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, accessed August 13, 2006.
  29. An Alternative Future: An Exchange. New York Review of Books. Volume 50, Number 19, December 4, 2003.
  30. Rob Eshman. Butt Out. The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles January 25, 2008.
  31. Gershom Gorenberg. Uncandid CAMERA. Moment Magazine. Washington: Oct/Nov 2007. Vol. 32, Iss. 5; pg. 14

See also

External links

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