Latest news with #mediaBias
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
JD Vance slams Wall Street Journal's Epstein report — despite calling for more coverage on the financier in 2021
When he was a best-selling author with designs on running in Ohio's Senate race four years ago, JD Vance was one of the multitudes of Republican figures who assailed the mainstream press for not giving enough attention to multimillionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Now, as Donald Trump's vice president, Vance would prefer Epstein stay out of the headlines. Vance took to X on Thursday to grouse about the Wall Street Journal's reporting on an alleged letter from Trump to the infamous pedophile that was reportedly part of a birthday album for Epstein's 50th birthday. The greeting is alleged to have included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to 'secrets' both men shared. In response, the vice president called the Journal's story 'complete and utter bull***t' and suggested the newspaper should be 'ashamed' for having published it. Trump has praised both Vance and Rubio but has not officially named his ideal successor. (Getty Images) Vance's admonishment represents a head-spinning reversal from the attitude he expressed in December 2021, when he wrote on the same platform (then known as Twitter) to ask what interest the U.S. government would have in 'keeping Epstein's clients secret.' He also shared a post by conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec alleging that the government had made a deal with Epstein co-conspirator and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, purportedly to keep a 'little black book' of her and Epstein's contacts from being made public. Continuing, he said: 'If you're a journalist and you're not asking questions about this case you should be ashamed of yourself.' The vice president's about-face on how journalists should approach reporting on the infamous sex trafficker comes as the president has sought to quell an ongoing furor over Attorney General Pam Bondi's decision to release a memorandum stating that there had not been any 'client list' in the department's files on Epstein. Epstein, a math teacher turned financial adviser, who federal agents arrested on sex trafficking charges in July 2019, was found to have hanged himself roughly a month later in a Manhattan detention facility where he was awaiting trial. Though it was officially ruled that he died by suicide, many dispute that conclusion, and questions have been raised regarding the circumstances surrounding his death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. For years, the president's supporters have pushed for release of what they believe was a list of powerful people to whom Epstein is alleged to have trafficked young girls, as well as other information they believe would reflect negatively on members of the Democratic Party, various Hollywood celebrities, and other purported elites who they believe to be part of a sinister cabal controlling world events. Trump had long winked and nodded at such beliefs and had indicated during his 2024 campaign that his administration would release the documents in question if he were victorious in last year's presidential election. But after Bondi dropped the memo in which she and FBI Director Kash Patel wrote that no 'further disclosure' of case files 'would be appropriate or warranted' because much was sealed by a court to protect Epstein's victims, and 'only a fraction of it 'would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial,' many of the president's fervent supporters cried foul. In response, the president has claimed the whole matter is a 'hoax' made up by Democrats in multiple social media posts and public statements over the last few days.
Telegraph
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Muslim media watchdog ‘wrongly labelled terror attack coverage as Islamophobic'
A Muslim media watchdog wrongly labelled coverage of Islamist terror attacks as ' Islamophobic ', a report has claimed. Policy Exchange, a think tank, said that factual news reports of such incidents had been assessed by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) as examples of 'Islamophobic, negative' journalism. Those criticised by the centre, which was originally a Muslim Council of Britain project but is now an independent entity, include the Associated Press, a leading news agency, after it reported on a terror attack in Manchester on New Year's Eve in December 2018. The CfMM said the coverage was an example of negative reporting about Muslims because it included the phrase 'knife-wielding man yelling Islamic slogans.' However, Policy Exchange said this had been an accurate account of what happened. The watchdog also complained that describing Mohammed Emwazi, the British Islamic State executioner known as 'Jihadi John', as a terrorist was misleading because he had never been convicted. It further said that the decision by BBC News to call Khalid Masood, who killed five people in a terror attack near the Houses of Parliament in 2017, an 'Islamic extremist' was 'anti-Muslim language'. It said that 'it can be argued that linking the word 'Islamic' with extremism is an oxymoron as the word 'Islam' comes from the Arabic root word 'Salam', meaning 'peace'.' Policy Exchange claimed the centre's critique was part of a campaign to 'give legal and official force' to the concept of Islamophobia, ahead of moves by the Government to introduce a new legal definition of it. The think tank's report, which is due to be published on Tuesday, said: 'The aim of this campaign, in the words of its own supporters, is to control and prevent conduct 'far beyond' anti-Muslim hatred or discrimination (which all can agree are wrong, but which are already illegal),' said the think tank's report. 'It is to impose 'appropriate limits to free speech' when talking about Muslims, and special protections for Muslims. An official Islamophobia definition would give CfMM and its like a significant new weapon.' According to the report, CfMM said it had monitored at least 55,000 articles about Muslims and complained about those it deemed to be unfair or untrue. It alleged that 'almost one in 10' of the articles it had monitored had either misrepresented Muslims, misused terminology or misinterpreted Islamic beliefs and practices. The CfMM also claimed that almost 60 per cent of news stories about Muslims were negative, saying this proved the media's 'widespread… Islamophobia.' It said Reuters, AP and AFP, the respected international news agencies, were the 'top three offenders'. This included criticism of AFP for using the term 'Ramadan violence' during coverage of three killings during the holy period. By its own account, CfMM said it aimed to 'take control of the narrative,' telling journalists they should never use the terms 'Islamism,' 'Islamic extremism' or 'Muslim extremism.' It has also attacked news outlets for describing terror groups, including Hamas and Islamic State, as Islamist. In a foreword to Policy Exchange's report, journalist Andrew Neil, a former editor of The Sunday Times and BBC broadcaster, said the research showed that the CfMM, as well as its 'evidence' and conclusions, were 'badly flawed.' 'It shows how CfMM is part of a wider campaign for legal restrictions on what you can say about Islam, with fundamental implications for free speech,' he said. A spokesman for the CfMM said the claims by Policy Exchange were 'factually untrue' and fabricated. He said the criticism it made of articles about terrorism-related only to cases where unverified information was used by journalists. The spokesman added: 'This report is nothing but a politically motivated hitjob, riddled with inaccuracies, distortions and smears. It comes from an organisation that has long sought to influence our media into negatively framing British Muslims.'
Al Jazeera
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Why we need to retire the term ‘pro-Palestinian'
A July 5 CNN article reported on three incidents in Melbourne, Australia: attempted arson at a synagogue, a confrontation at a restaurant and three cars set on fire near a business. The piece was scant on the details of the alleged crimes and the identities of the perpetrators, but it did clarify that the business 'has been targeted by pro-Palestine protesters in the past'. That the author chose to conflate activism in support of the Palestinian cause with violent acts that are low on facts and high on conjecture is indicative of how Western media have come to operate. Media reports are increasingly linking by default acts of aggression to activism they call 'pro-Palestinian'. Here are more examples: Before his name was released, we learned that a gunman shouted, 'Free, free Palestine,' in a shooting rampage that killed two Israeli embassy staff members outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on May 21. Reports linked the suspect to what news outlets described as 'pro-Palestinian' advocacy. When on June 1 an Egyptian national attacked demonstrators voicing support of Israel in Colorado, the media also linked the incident to 'pro-Palestinian protests'. Softly landing on the term 'pro-Palestinian' allows reporters to meet editorial standards for brevity. But brevity is not a fixed journalistic value. Accurately informing the public is. The word 'pro-Palestinian' has become political shorthand for a well-worn and misleading coupling: Palestinian advocacy and violence. Stripped of critical context, the term offers news consumers a reductive explanation – a violent act distilled and opaquely linked to 'Palestinian' entities as imagined and understood through a narrow and distorted lens. A failure to engage with contexts is not neutral omission. Rather, it is an affront to knowledge processes and a bow to power structures that govern mainstream journalistic storytelling. What historical, cultural and religious claims do Palestinians make? Most news consumers in the West are unprepared to answer this question. In a closed information ecology, they rarely encounter these claims in full – or at all. Like many who have followed the historical arc of all things Palestine or reported on it, I've used the term pro-Palestinian myself. It felt functional at the time: concise and seemingly understood. Now, however, that shorthand misleads. Any word that is prefaced by 'pro-' demands honest re-examination. When circumstances shift and new meanings emerge, the hyphenation clanks as anachronistic. We're in one of those moments – a circumstance that is the epicentre of global opprobrium, humanitarian collapse and spectacular moral failure. To describe activism and peaceful protests against the genocidal violence in Gaza as 'pro-Palestinian' is disparaging. Opposing the strategic starvation of a trapped population is hardly pro-Palestinian. It is pro-humanity. Is it 'pro-Palestinian' to call for the end of violence that has claimed the lives of more than 18,000 children? Is it 'pro-Palestinian' to call for the end of starvation that has killed dozens of children and elderly? Is it 'pro-Palestinian' to express outrage at Gaza parents forced to carry body parts of their children in plastic bags? The term 'pro-Palestinian' operates within a false linguistic economy. It flattens a grossly unequal reality into a story of competing sides as if an occupied, bombarded and displaced people were an equal side to one of the most advanced armies in the world. Gaza is not a side. Gaza is, as one UNICEF official put it, a 'graveyard for children'. It is a place where journalists are killed for bearing witness, where hospitals are obliterated and universities reduced to rubble, where the international community is failing to uphold minimal standards of human rights. In an era of impatience with rigour, 'pro-Palestinian' is the rhetorical crutch that satisfies the manufactured need for immediate alignment (fandom) without critical thought. It permits bad-faith actors to stigmatise dissent, dismiss moral clarity and delegitimise outrage. To call Elias Rodriguez, who carried out the shooting in Washington, DC, a 'pro-Palestinian' shooter is a framing device that invites readers to interpret words of Palestinian solidarity as potential precursors to violence. It encourages institutions, including universities, to conflate advocacy with extremism and put a chill on free expression on campus. Obfuscations in the conventions of reportage, euphemism or rhetorical hedging are the last things we need in this catastrophic moment. What's needed is clarity and precision. Let us try something radical: Let us say what we mean. When people protest the destruction of lineage and tillage in Gaza, they are not 'taking a side' in some abstract pro-and-con debate. They are affirming the value of life. They are rejecting the idea that one people's suffering must remain invisible for another's comfort. If people are advocating for human rights, then say so. If they believe that Palestinian life is worthy of dignity, safety and memory, say so. And if they are calling for the 'liberation' of Palestine and use phrases like 'free Palestine' – phrases charged with decades of political, historical and emotional weight – that too deserves clarity and context. Liberation and freedom in most of these calls do not imply violence but a demand for freedom from occupation, siege, starvation, statelessness, and killing and imprisonment with impunity. Collapsing these diverse expressions into a vague label like 'pro-Palestinian' blurs reality and deepens public misunderstanding. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Inside enemy territory: A former IDF soldier's journey from Tehran to a Beirut jail cell
MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS: American-Israeli Dan Brotman has travelled across the Middle East as a citizen journalist in order to "understand the world" unseen by mainstream media. Dan Brotman is deeply concerned about the issue of due process, particularly with how mainstream media and society selectively focus on certain cases, such as that of Mahmoud Khalil. Why, for example, was Brotman's detainment and abuse in Lebanon for six days in December 2024 not something that outraged the masses? 'There's been so much support for Mahmoud Khalil, for example, in terms of him not being afforded due process, as well as the other international students, and there's so much media attention,' the seasoned world traveler began. 'And I'm like, Okay, well, I am an American, and I also wasn't afforded due process, and I was probably held in even worse conditions than them – surely there should be people who at least also want to tell my story. He lamented that there has been almost no interest from the mainstream media. 'So every time I see Mahmoud Khalil, I'm like: 'Is my life not worth as much as his?'' Brotman, who has American, South African, and Israeli citizenship and is in the process of adding a Canadian passport to his collection, had visited Lebanon twice before his arrest on his way home from Syria. A passionate traveler, he has also visited Taliban-run Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea – all countries where Americans and Israelis are generally unwelcome. He has also visited wartime Ukraine and Russia. He considers himself to be a 'citizen journalist' looking to uncover the truth about countries and their cultures. 'I don't only travel to crazy countries. I don't only travel to majority Muslim countries. One of my missions in life is to understand the world and to understand the complexity that we don't necessarily see in the mainstream media.' Brotman spends his free time 'going to different parts of the world, telling the stories of ordinary people,' showing people, for example, why we shouldn't be afraid of Iran, because 'we should understand that the people of Iran are very much against their government and deserve a lot of sympathy.' Of the many stories that Brotman shares on his social media, he goes out of his way to look for the Mizrachi Jewish component – something slowly being lost to time and the rewriting of history after most Jews were purged from the Middle East. In Damascus, under the new government, he spent time with one of the country's six remaining Jews. In Lebanon, he visited a Jewish cemetery, and in Iran, he filed formal permission with the regime to spend time with the Jewish communities of Isfahan and Tehran. Despite visiting some of the most regressive, suppressive, and violently run countries in the world, it was visiting Lebanon that made him the 'most scared' he had ever been. 'I was terrified in Lebanon the first time, but overall, I had a very positive experience,' Brotman confessed. 'I was terrified, because the conflict with Israel is so visceral. In Iran, it's not so visceral – they're far away. It doesn't impact people personally, like it does in Lebanon, because they're so close.' He first visited the country in 2021, and then again in 2022 when he had first intended to travel to Syria, but the Assad regime rejected his visa application. Despite forming connections and friendships in Lebanon, Brotman remained cautious. When his attempt to return from Syria via Jordan was canceled, he was somewhat nervous to make his exit through Lebanon. After arriving back in Beirut following eight days in Damascus, the traveling social-media journalist said the border officer took his passport and began staring at a screen 'for too long.' The wait seemed 'suspicious' at the time but the officials reassured him that there was just some kind of 'mix up.' With a 'thumbs up' from his tour leaders, Brotman followed the official but remained 'worried.' As it turned out, Brotman's anxieties were warranted. They asked him directly, 'Daniel, have you ever been to Israel or been in the Israeli army?' While he may have omitted that truth, he asserted that he had never lied about serving in the IDF and had little choice but to respond with an honest answer. 'I never lied to the Lebanese. No one ever asked me about Israeli citizenship before,' Brotman explained. 'I was never dishonest. And so I said, 'Yes, I was' and explained I lived in Israel, and I had to do army service.' AFTER HIS response, Lebanese officials told Brotman they were suspending him – something he didn't quite understand. They confiscated his phone, wallet, and watch and transported him to a cell with no bathroom and no natural light. 'There was no water in the cell. It was really filthy,' he recounted, explaining that he had been forced to urinate in empty plastic bottles due to the lack of facilities. His tour guide fled the country with his bag, Brotman said. He explained that she feared there would be something incriminating inside. Before leaving, she alerted the American consulate and informed his captors that he was an American citizen, hoping that would hold some weight and prevent him from being tortured by local authorities. The sudden captive traveler would later discover that each person in the tour group was investigated and Lebanese authorities had each of them write down their mother's names – searching for any indication that they were Jewish, he explained. The group quickly fled the country, changing their existing tickets. Brotman was later taken to an office and questioned. Authorities typed out a statement in Arabic and demanded he sign it, even though he doesn't understand the language. He demanded to speak to the US embassy, which authorities promised he would be allowed to do once he signed the form. Brotman still refused to sign until they translated the document with Google and he could verify its contents. During questioning, he asked the interrogator if he thought he would be treated this way if the roles were reversed and he tried to visit Israel. The interviewer just responded that he would never be in his situation. After a full day of questioning, he was driven 30 minutes away to be held in another city. Despite spending the day in custody, authorities failed to provide him with any food, and he was still not allowed to speak to the US embassy. It was on this first night that the psychological torture began, Brotman explained. A guard called into his cell that the embassy had sorted everything out and that he would soon be on a flight from Beirut home. This false statement would be repeated to him throughout his imprisonment. 'That's when I first learned that the Lebanese really lie, and you cannot trust what they say,' Brotman recounted. 'The Lebanese authorities came back eventually – this is maybe nine o'clock at night – and they put me in handcuffs. They put me in the back of a prisoner transport vehicle, and it sped to Beirut. Bottles were flying everywhere. I was in this cage thing in the back of the vehicle… holding on for dear life with handcuffs on,' he said. 'I was hoping that maybe we're going to meet at the embassy like they said we would. But of course, that didn't happen.' Instead of being taken to the US consulate, the terrified prisoner was delivered to the headquarters of the country's general security. They asked for the pass code to his phone, photographed him, and returned him to the vehicle to be driven back to a new cell, where he was again denied food. 'They went through everything in my phone – everything – every message, every photo, everything,' Brotman explained, speaking of his fear for his Lebanese friends and acquaintances whose numbers he had saved. Authorities had 'found the Lebanese numbers, and asked, 'Do these people know about you? How do you know this person?...' They even questioned him about a taxi driver who had driven him during a previous trip to Lebanon. During the search of his phone, they found a photo of Brotman donning tefillin (phylacteries) in Russia. Although he had already admitted that he was Jewish, they believed that this was evidence of some greater crime. While obsessive about his Judaism, authorities seemed unconcerned about his sexuality, despite Article 534 of the Lebanese penal code often being used to imprison and target members of the LGBT community. While not explicitly illegal under Lebanese law, the article punishes 'any sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature' with up to a year in prison, with authorities using it to target non-heterosexual relationships, according to Amnesty International. 'They took me to a prison. I slept on a mattress in a cell, no blanket. It was really cold. I ask for a blanket. They didn't give me a blanket,' he recounted, speaking of the freezing conditions in the room. 'No access to the bathroom. Luckily, there was an empty water bottle, which I was able to use. And I wound up having to use water bottles during my entire detention.' When morning arrived on the second day, Brotman was crammed into a vehicle with many, mostly Syrian, prisoners. He was returned to the headquarters for more interrogations, but was placed where he could hear the sound of the Syrians being subjected to physical and psychological torture, he said. One Palestinian-Syrian man had a bag placed over his head as authorities pulled the trigger of a gun loaded with a single bullet, playing Russian roulette with his life. He recounted hearing the man being hit, but the gun never went off. Throughout this time, Brotman was never afforded an attorney. From that night onward, The petrified prisoner slept handcuffed in the locked office. He was only able to speak to two other prisoners during his time there. A German-Syrian man named Ahmed, who was denied access to the German embassy, provided him with comfort and advice on surviving the harsh conditions, advice he would later impart to another prisoner having suicidal thoughts as a result of his detainment. He was released by the authorities ahead of him; Brotman never learned the fate of the German man. On the third day, officials from the US embassy arrived. Brotman explained that the Lebanese had attempted to mask his treatment, even removing the handcuffs he had spent days living in. Still, the American prisoner showed the cuts on his wrists and did what he could 'to embarrass the Lebanese about the conditions I was being held in.' From then on, he was allowed to sleep without handcuffs. He was informed by the embassy that the White House did not want Israel to know about his situation, potentially fearing it could create wider issues in the region. 'I wanted Israel to know about it personally, but this was out of my control,' Brotman explained. 'I had no access to communicate with anyone, so I didn't even know if my family knew. I didn't even know if anyone was fighting for me on the outside; I didn't know if Israel knew; I didn't know who in the US knew. I really knew nothing.' Throughout his detainment, he was denied frequent requests for medical attention. He had picked up a parasite in Syria and was growing increasingly ill. 'I was very sick while I was there. I had a parasite. My whole group got very sick in Syria from the food,' Brotman recounted. 'The entire time, they kept on saying I could get medical attention, that I could get medication, but I never got it. So, eventually, on day five, when I met with the US Embassy again, I embarrassed the Lebanese and said, 'I haven't gotten the medical attention that I was promised. I have a parasite.'' Brotman braved making the comments in front of the head of general security, even going so far as to tell the embassy staff of the torture he had witnessed. One thing that continues to bother his is why the US Embassy failed to provide him with legal representation. He said staff arrived with a list of lawyers, but never presented him with the list. He was forced to appear before judges and go through the legal processes alone, representing himself. On the fifth day, Brotman's release was finally ordered by a judge, but they held him longer over an 'administrative step' they needed to take. 'They were constantly changing the rules; the goal posts were constantly shifting. I hadn't showered the entire time, hadn't brushed my teeth in days,' he said. 'Then they're like, 'ah, and now there's another administrative step. We have to get administrative permission for you to leave the country. And that could take three days.' Despite the appearance that the Lebanese officials were dragging their feet, Brotman was more confident that he would soon be freed. He had learned that US President Donald Trump was visiting Riyadh and knew that Beirut would not want to be holding an American prisoner while the president was in the region. 'I knew that Trump was meeting with the Lebanese president, and I was like, there is no way in hell that they can hold me when Trump is meeting with him. So I knew that the timing was perfect,' Brotman recounted. At 10 o'clock that night, 'the guard came into the room with my phone. This is the first time I've had access to my mobile phone... and the investigator says, 'We just got administrative approval. Book your ticket now.'' Despite wanting him gone, the guard denied his attempts to get an early morning flight the next day, telling him they didn't want to wake up that early. So, he was forced to wait another 24 hours to travel to London. Guards also warned him they would arrest him again should he wear the Magen David necklace that was confiscated from him at the airport. Even though he was eager to leave the country, Brotman explained that he knew he was being placed in dangerous conditions. Several articles have been written on Hezbollah's control of Beirut airport and the surrounding location, and the terror group had already made foiled attempts to take Israeli hostages in the same way Hamas did. The US Embassy had also promised to send staff to meet him at the site, a promise they failed to fulfill. Despite the risks, Brotman flew to London and was greeted by friends and loved ones without incident. Despite leaving Lebanon unscathed, he explained that the incident had left him with deep psychological scars. He feared Arab people approaching him for a week after his return, despite his general love of the Middle East, and panicked at the sound of footsteps outside his door. Brotman has since consulted with a Human Rights lawyer and is looking into taking action against Lebanon at The Hague. 'I know the UN is a bit useless, but for me, it's very important, just from a justice perspective, to have on record what happened to me.' He still struggles with the lack of understanding and sympathy he experienced upon his return. 'You don't have to agree with Mahmoud Khalil's activism, and you don't have to agree with people deciding to stay in the United States illegally, but at the end of the day, everyone, regardless of whatever they allegedly did, should be afforded due process,' the abused former prisoner said. 'That's the principle. And I just don't understand why there's such an outpouring of sympathy when some are denied due process. But when I'm denied due process, some people tell me 'You deserved it.' It's been very painful,' he said sadly. 'I'm an American who was held in subhuman and inhumane conditions without due process. Why did AOC [US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] greet Mahmoud Khalil at the airport when he arrived in New York? Why didn't I receive any contact from my senator, Marsha Blackburn [D–Tennessee], who knew I was being held? So I think that there are just questions – 'Why is my life worthless?' – I'm grappling with that.' Of the many difficulties now faced by Brotman, one particularly sour point is knowing that the incident will bar him from traveling to many countries throughout the Middle East, stopping him from engaging and learning from people. He was also doxxed in Canada by anti-Israel activists, which cements his situation as a known Jew and Israeli. Still, he has hopes that more countries, including Lebanon, would sign the Abraham Accords and he could resume his adventures. Despite serving in the IDF and holding Israeli citizenship, Brotman visited Iran. He visited the Islamist country after gaining South African citizenship in 2018, something that allowed him to avoid the complicated visa process he would have had to undergo as an American. He explained that during his 2019 trip, he had to seek government approval before being able to visit and speak with the Jewish community – a bureaucratic barrier not experienced by other populations there. Not one for abiding by red tape, Brotman asked a young boy in Isfahan if he knew where the local synagogue was. By some divine luck, the boy was Jewish and had been heading to synagogue, so he invited Brotman to accompany him. Walking into the synagogue, Brotman was met by an Islamicized version of the Judaism he grew up with. He recounted having to remove his shoes before entering the shul, a practice usually reserved for mosques, and how the crowds of Jewish women were forced to wear Islamic hijabs. The synagogue could not display the Magen David, he said, and instead relied on the menorah as a symbol of their faith. Despite the large number of attendees on Shabbat, Brotman found himself isolated and alone. He explained that he believed those around him were suspicious of an outsider and feared finding themselves in trouble with the authorities. Still, one man took the risk of opening up to the suspicious Shabbat guest and explained the abuse that the community suffered under the Islamic regime. While the country has Jewish schools, all must be overseen by a Muslim head master, Brotman explained. It is also illegal to teach about the atrocities of the Holocaust, separating Iranian Jewry from one of the greatest tragedies to befall their people and a major low moment in Jewish history. If any member of the Jewish community is found to have gone against the regime by visiting Israel or some similar slight, the entire community is collectively punished, Brotman recalled the man telling him. Still, many had made the journey to visit the Jewish state, their ancestral homeland. AFTER GETTING the green light from the regime to meet with the Jewish community, Brotman journeyed to Tehran's Palestine Street, which houses a large synagogue. It was here he was able to learn about what Jewish life was really like in a country that saw swastikas being openly sold in the streets. Tehran's four kosher restaurants were not allowed to advertise themselves as such and were barred from placing mazuzot on their external door frames. Throughout his conversations with local Jewry, he discovered the extent to which they were treated as 'second-class citizens' by the state. They were barred from owning large businesses or working in the civil service. The restrictions around Jewish labor may be one reason so many Iranian Jews find themselves in poverty and, Brotman explained, many distanced themselves from the idea of aliyah over fears of destitution in Israel. 'I felt it was very much a humiliating status that they were in, being barred from certain professions… the fact that people have to get permission to talk to them… My understanding is they had to cut all ties with any family members in Israel,' he shared. 'I cannot even imagine what it's like for the Jews in Iran now, because this was in 2019, but being constantly surveilled, not being able to fully teach about their history, they're cut off from the Jewish world. It was quite shocking.' Despite forming friendships and connections in Iran, Brotman came to the difficult decision to let that social network go cold. He was aware that many would face harsh sentences, potentially death, over connections to him, despite the community not knowing he was Israeli. While the Jewish community could be predicted to be treated with suspicion for unknowingly interacting with a former IDF soldier, Ayatollah Khamenei's personal media crew interviewed Brotman about his experience visiting a local shrine. During his first two visits to Lebanon, the country was without a real government, and its economy was in free fall. The Lebanese people were reeling from the Beirut blast tragedy and the coronavirus pandemic. During his visit, he was advised to avoid eating meat and dairy because the frequent power blackouts would put him at serious risk of food poisoning. Despite the country's messy situation, Brotman enjoyed his trip and the company of the civilians of the country. Still, little things were reminders of the control Hezbollah had. Brotman's tour guide took him to meet with Hezbollah, and visit a museum dedicated to the terror group, the Museum for Resistance Tourism. He described how the building was covered in a faux spider web, the sound of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and footage of Israeli soldiers being killed. He laughed as he recalled the absurdity of an American Jewish woman at the museum who asked their Hezbollah tour guide what they thought of the two-state solution. The man's face 'went white,' he joked. Despite being surrounded by people who considered him an enemy, Brotman's adventurous spirit led him to take advantage of all that Lebanon had to offer. For the low cost of $50, he was able to fly above the Syrian border in a helicopter flown by the country's military – an experience unlikely to be had in a Western nation. He was even able to visit a military base, despite being a foreign national. Despite his love of the Lebanese people and his enjoyment of the country, Brotman was nervous to reveal himself as being Jewish. He eventually confessed to one friend, who responded well to the admission. Putting aside his feelings of insecurity, he elected to visit the country a second time in hopes of exploring Jewish history there. He located a Jewish cemetery but found it locked – although he was eventually able to access it after climbing over from the neighboring Christian graveyard. A local shop owner told him about the country's once-flourishing Jewish community, his memories of the Jews, and how he himself had been circumcised by a Jewish mohel as a baby. Despite not being able to find a living Jew in Lebanon, the community still had signs of life. He discovered a grave from 2018 and some Danish embassy workers told him of a local family who ran a chocolate shop, but he was unable to meet them. 'In a nutshell, my experiences in Lebanon were very positive. The people have been given the short end of the stick,' Brotman concluded. 'They have a government that has not been held accountable for the port blast, where hundreds of Lebanese died, and I saw the damage. They have an economy that's in ruins. They deserve so much better than what they have. The Lebanese people are good people and they're very resilient.' When he built the confidence to ask about Israel, many civilians said they dreamed of peace with their Jewish neighbors. It was only the Shi'ite Muslims in Lebanon who seemed intent on conflict, he said. Having had the rare opportunity to rub shoulders with many in the Arab world, including members of terror organizations and officials from hostile nations, The Jerusalem Post asked Brotman what his findings were on whether Israel's enemies have an issue with antisemitism or anti-Zionism – a debate which continues to overshadow the global anti-Zionist movement. Reflecting on how Lebanon threatened him if he wore his Star of David while still in the country, the way authorities checked if his fellow tour members had Jewish mothers, and how a photo of him donning tefillin was treated as evidence, Brotman concluded that antisemitism was an essential component in how the country treated him and was embedded in their mentality. 'I think in some of these places, they say: 'We don't have a problem with Jews, we just have a problem with Israel' [but] I've sort of concluded that that's not the case… because I think it's too hard to separate the two,' he shared. 'Any Jewish person, even if they're not an Israeli citizen, is an Israeli citizen in the waiting. They can become an Israeli citizen tomorrow. A Jewish person can come to Lebanon, or any of these countries, do whatever they want to do, and then the next day apply for Israeli citizenship. 'Every Jew is a potential Israeli citizen. Most of us have either family or friends or some kind of ties there, because half of the Jewish people live there. So I think it's very, very hard to separate Jews and Israel as much as they'd like to say so.' DESPITE THE risks of traveling as an Israeli on a foreign passport – highlighted by cases like that of Russian-Israeli Elizabeth Tsurkov – and his own treatment in Lebanon, Brotman said he had no regrets about his trips. He saw them as a first step toward building peace and restoring humanity to people shaped by government incitement. The world-traveling journalist stressed that for things to improve, change had to come from within. In democratic nations, the people had to decide to vote for something better and where voting wasn't an option, they need to take action to demand better. 'They all deserve better governments, and it's going to need to come from the people. That's one thing that needs to happen for the path forward: a bottom up change,' Brotman shared. The other thing that needs to happen is we need to start humanizing each other, he said. 'How many Israelis have actually met a Lebanese person who lives in Lebanon or an Iranian person who lives in Iran? I'm not talking about a bitter exile living in Los Angeles, I'm talking about someone who really lives in Iran. I think that building human-to-human bridges is extremely important, and it becomes very difficult when those bridges are criminalized,' Brotman said. 'In Lebanon, if they even see that you make a phone call to Israel, they'll arrest you. So when human-to-human bridges are [blocked], there's a reason why they don't want us to have contact with each other. If we want contact with each other, we're going to realize that the other side is human, that we deserve a better reality, and we're going to want to change the government. So I think countries like Lebanon and Iran want to prevent that in every way possible,' he said. 'I think that we need to stop fearing each other,' Brotman concluded. 'As Jews and Israelis, we need to realize that these people are the biggest victims of their own governments. As horrible, as terrible as these countries are to Israel, do you know what they do to their own people?' The Jerusalem Post elected to withhold parts of this interview to protect members of Iran's Jewish community.
Fox News
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
NBC's Savannah Guthrie shrugs off bias accusations against journalists in conversation with Monica Lewinsky
NBC "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie addressed questions of media bias in a new podcast interview with Monica Lewinsky, dismissing the criticism as mainly in the "eye of the beholder." Lewinsky, who hosts the weekly podcast "Reclaiming" and is friends with the longtime morning show host, praised Guthrie for doing her job with integrity and wondered how she works to keep her personal and political views to herself. "It's interesting in our world now that there will be people, probably people listening right now, who might say 'Oh well she isn't dispassionate at all,'" Guthrie said. "You know, bias is really in the eye of the beholder. All I can tell you is what I try to do, which is to be straightforward, to be accurate, to be fair, to be precise. We used to say it's 'down the middle,' but it's not really, it's more nuanced than that." "There is no 'down the middle,'" Lewinsky said. "It's not down the middle," Guthrie said. "It's not like you do a story, and you say, 'Some say the sun came up this morning, others say it didn't.' That would be wrong, that would be factually incorrect." Guthrie joked it was "adorable" how there used to be normal policy disagreements in politics, but now things had become "so personal." While Guthrie and Lewinsky didn't specifically discuss accusations of liberal bias against the industry, her rhetoric about not simply covering both sides evenly all the time was reminiscent of recent arguments from other mainstream journalists. In 2021, Guthrie's NBC colleague Lester Holt was praised in liberal media circles for saying, "I think it's become clear that fairness is overrated ... the idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in." His remarks were widely interpreted as not giving equal shrift to conservatives and Trump supporters for the sake of fairness. Outside the media, Guthrie also questioned whether there is an inherent bias from news viewers who may be looking for their beliefs to be confirmed by those reporting the news. "What I would just challenge people to think about when they are analyzing — whether you're again, consider yourself of the left or the right or whatever you are — is when you're identifying bias in the people that you are receiving your news from, just to ponder and ask yourself whether it is your bias that is determining that the person you're receiving the news from is biased," she proposed. Guthrie continued, saying that the bias some viewers claim to see may actually be their own and that everyone is now a "couch media critic." "Maybe the bias that you're feeling is that you wish that you were watching someone who agreed with your view of the world and that's okay," she contended. "But you're hearing something different, and you know … we live in a time, where everyone's kind of a couch media critic and I think there's good things about that because it challenges everyone to be better — and then there's some parts about it that just really aren't on the level, and it's not an honest critique," Guthrie added.
