Letter to the Public Editor of the NYTimes

When I was a teenager, I convinced my parents to get a daily subscription to the New York Times.  For the last fifteen years, I have been a daily reader and subscriber.  (I also do not know many other thirty-somethings who read a physical daily newspaper.)  As the paper of record, the New York Times has an obligation to fair-minded, honest and carefully accurate, yet timely coverage of local and world events.  Locally, I was impressed at you expose of the Pine Bush School System, which sparked change state-wide and got our local rag to finally focus on the anti-Semitism there.

Recently, I have been dismayed at your coverage of the Gaza conflict.  I was disappointed to see, day after day, photographs of carnage in Gaza, yet virtually no photographs of the terrorists, Hamas, who instigated the conflict with thousands upon thousands of rockets for the last dozen years.  When I heard the explanation that in the thousands of photographs the paper received from its photographers, it had only a couple blurry photos, I was disappointed in the Pulitzer-winning photographers who kowtowed to Hamas.  

I understand journalists and photographers need to protect their own lives, but they should not distort the truth in the process.  I was also very disappointed that there were so few photographs of the destruction from the rockets, exposes on the psychological horror of having to leave your home or needing a safe room to protect from a rain of rockets.  I was pleased to see your analysis of the casualty counts, recognizing that the numbers were horrifically inaccurate initially, but wish that that expose had been on the cover, rather than so far inside.

Even if I were to set aside the biased coverage from the last few weeks, today took the cake.  Online the article was quickly re-titled to, "In Israel’s South, Families Worry About the Future of Life Near Gaza", but in the paper, it read "In Israel's South, Families Worry About the Future of Settlements Near Gaza."  Maybe I am a little sensitive, but when the New York Times says "settlements", I hear illegal/unauthorized outposts in Judea/Samaria/the Occupied Territories.  While it may be technically correct, the shade one hears is that ANY land in Israel, is now contested.  

Does the New York Times subscribe to the theory of Hamas?  Is all of Israel occupied territory?  Will the editorial board now support a Juden-rein Middle East?  

I appreciate that the article was re-titled online, but I think a correction would be helpful--as would a clarification on civilian casualties.  Exactly how many Israeli deaths would be necessary for a military fight NOT to be disproportionate?  How many Jewish children need to die?  50? 100? 400?  How about in Iraq?  As the American military protects the Yazidi and bombs ISIS, how many American soldiers need to die for that bombing to be disproportionate?  Why the double standard on Israel and Jews?

Wishing you luck in your continued quest for "balanced coverage".  I do hope you will try to stick to the facts in the future.  Just because Hamas says 1+1=5, does not make it so.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/world/middleeast/in-israels-south-families-worry-about-the-future-of-life-near-gaza.html?referrer