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NPR's Mideast Coverage
Latest Assessment of NPR Middle East Coverage
To All Concerned:
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a story that has generated impassioned debate among NPR listeners and people around the world. Here at NPR, our journalism on this issue gets close scrutiny from our audience.
In order to ensure that the public can throughly review our coverage, we've made several long-term commitments, including these:
-- Every three months, we conduct a thorough analysis of our coverage, which we post on our public website.
-- We also post on our website every story related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict aired on NPR. (The archive does not include brief items which air on our newscasts).
-- NPR's ombudsman, Jeffrey Dvorkin, who serves as an independent advocate for listeners, often reviews Mideast coverage questions and concerns. The ombudsman section of our website explains how to bring issues to his attention.
NPR is committed to accurate, thorough and balanced coverage of the Middle East. We have made that commitment because we believe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a subject of world importance – an issue that requires in-depth, ongoing coverage by NPR.
-- Bill Marimow,
Vice President for News
NPR Middle East Coverage, October - December 2005
Domestic politics on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide replaced violence as the major theme during the last three months of the year. In Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon abandoned Likud, the political party he had helped form three decades earlier, in favor of a new centrist party based almost entirely upon his leadership. In the Palestinian territories, the militant group Hamas swept to victory in many local elections and was headed toward a strong showing in parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2006. While NPR covered these and related stories, the requirements of other news events, including Iraq and domestic developments in the United States, limited the amount of airtime available. Additionally, NPR had only one reporter in the region, Linda Gradstein, during this period.
Overall, during the quarter, NPR aired 59 pieces and interviews on matters related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Fairness and Balance
Using the same standard as previous reports, the "dominant focus" of each piece or interview was assessed. The dominant focus of a piece is merely an indication of its primary subject matter. Of the 59 total reports:
15 had a dominant focus on Israel and 17 had a dominant focus on the Palestinians
16 focused roughly equally on the two sides (falling into the "neither" category)
6 focused primarily on U.S. policy or concerns
The remaining 5 items focused on other matters
Combining the results of this quarter with those of the rest of the year, there have been 356 items related to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Specifically:
120 items with a dominant focus on Israel and 86 with a dominant focus on the Palestinians
86 items falling into the "neither" category
The remainder focused on other matters
This is a slightly higher proportion of items focused on Israel than was the case in 2004. Of the 358 items assessed for the previous year, 100 had a dominant Israeli focus, 95 had a dominant Palestinian focus and 56 fell into the "neither" category (with the rest in other categories).
Voices
We counted the number of times Israelis and Arabs (including Palestinians) appeared on NPR during the three-month period, both on tape and in quotes. Altogether, 34 Israelis and 61 Arabs (including Palestinians) were heard on tape; some of these were individuals who appeared more than once. It should be noted that the number of Arab voices was heavily skewed by just one item: a Day to Day program segment on November 3 that featured the voices of 14 Arab students traveling in the United States. Also, 31 pieces or interviews included quotes from Israelis (not on tape), and 25 items included quotes from Arabs (including Palestinians).
For the entire year, the voices of 265 Israelis and 232 Arabs (including Palestinians) have been heard in NPR reports related to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Over the same period, 283 reports used quotes from Israelis and 184 items used quotes from Arabs (including Palestinians).
We also counted the appearances on tape, or in quotes, of individual Israeli and Palestinian officials and opinion leaders. In contrast to most previous quarters, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came in second; he was heard twice on tape and five times in quotes, behind Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was heard twice on tape and six times in quotes.
Following is a summary of those with multiple appearances:
Israelis:
Prime Minister Sharon: On tape in two items; quoted in four items
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz: Quoted in three items
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev: On tape in one item; quoted in one item
Labor Party leader Amir Peretz: On tape in two items; quoted in three items
Palestinians:
President Mahmoud Abbas: On tape in two items; quoted in six items
Senior diplomat Saeb Erekat: On tape in one item; quoted in one item
Filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad: On tape in two items
Range of Voices
Because of the limited number of reports during this period, the range of voices from the region was somewhat narrower than in recent periods. NPR listeners, however, did have opportunities to hear a group of Arab students traveling in the United States, a Palestinian militant who reportedly has decided to opt for politics, the new leader of the Israeli Labor Party and a Palestinian businessman working to gain a foothold in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Israeli Prime Minister who challenged Sharon for the Likud party leadership, was referred to in several items but did not appear on air and was not directly quoted.
Accuracy
During this period NPR aired no corrections of its Mideast coverage.
As part of our examination of the accuracy of all the NPR reports, we selected 21 pieces and interviews for a more detailed evaluation, which included comparing the facts and statements in them against coverage by other news organizations and, where possible, against original sources (such as statements and reports by the Israeli government and army, the Palestinian Authority and other sources). We found no clear factual errors, but a few small discrepancies that can be attributed to the interpretation of the news analyst or the normal challenges of deadline news gathering. As an example, in a Weekend Edition Sunday news analysis, Daniel Schorr said, "President Abbas has renounced violence in the quest for a Palestinian state, but has so far not managed to win over the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad." While Abbas did not "win over" either of these groups to his exact approach to Israel, both of them did agree to a cease-fire in February, and for the rest of the year Hamas honored it.
Completeness
As noted above, NPR did not have as many reporters in Jerusalem during this period as it did the rest of the year. As a result, several major news stories from the region were covered less extensively than they might have been otherwise. For example, relatively few elements of the situation in Gaza after the Israeli withdrawal were reported in the last quarter. Nonetheless, NPR did air an Ivan Watson piece on October 20 on Morning Edition dealing with the upsurge of violence in Gaza, two All Things Considered features in November profiling a businessman in Gaza, reports in mid-November on the Rafah border-crossing agreement, an All Things Considered interview on November 15 with another Palestinian businessman on the effects of the Rafah agreement, and reports from Linda Gradstein and Eric Westervelt in mid-November on the reopening of the Rafah crossing.
 Read the previous statement.
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