NewsBusters has reported for months how the mainstream media did an absolutely lousy job covering the controversy surrounding former President Jimmy Carter’s book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict [see editor's note at bottom of post]. As odd as it may seem, the ombudsman for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution agreed with us.
Angela Tuck, the AJC’s public editor, wrote the following on February 24 (emphasis mine throughout):
The controversy surrounding former President Jimmy Carter's book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the story that won't go away. And frankly, this newspaper was slow to cover the book and the firestorm it created.
That was only the beginning of this fabulous account of liberal media bias that would make Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly proud:
Some readers I've talked to believe this was a deliberate attempt by the newspaper to shield Carter, who has often been a polarizing figure in his home state and beyond.
[…]
Early on, editors at the newspaper should have run a review of Carter's book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," and had a writer probe the former president's assertions.
The article continued:
Depending on your perspective, Carter's book is either a courageous work by a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has championed peace in the Middle East for decades, or a divisive publication filled with lies.
That's why this newspaper should have looked at the book and the controversy surrounding it early on.
So should the rest of the mainstream media, Angela.
Editor's Note (Ken Shepherd | 10:40 EST): For a fuller list of NewsBusters posts on the media's coverage of Carter, you can search by node in the search field. Typing in "Jimmy Carter apartheid" will yield many of the articles NewsBusters contributors have written, such as Tim Graham's February 7 post on Helen Thomas's praise for Carter's book or Mark Finkelstein's November 27 post on Good Morning America's favorable treatment of the former president's latest book.
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.
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Carter
Wed, 02/28/2007 - 10:23 ET by iveseenitallCarter is a left-wing socialist. He's the epiomy of what the MSM stands for in America and around the world. He and the MSM blame Isreal for the termoil in the MIddle East. Reporting on him would simply expose more people to the truth about those who want a "new world order". Another sin of ommission for which the "new media" is quickly becoming infamous.
NEVER,NEVER trust a liberal
First of all, the AJC is
Wed, 02/28/2007 - 11:45 ET by Dave RFirst of all, the AJC is pretty much considered a joke by most of the people who live around here. Its circulation numbers have of late seemingly attached themselves to a falling anvil. As such, the paper, like most newspapers in this country, is doing a fair imitation of the Titanic.
As for their coverage (or lack thereof) of the latest trials and tribulations of Jihad Jimmy, it should come as no surprise to anyone who has read this paper over the years. The AJC has, with precious few exceptions, been one of the major “Carter apologist” organs in the country. The mantra of the left, a group that firmly includes the clueless Jimmy Carter, has been that Israel is causing all of the problems in that unfortunate region, and the 39th president obviously agrees.
This, along with what I perceive as a massive rehabilitation effort on the part of the liberal MSM when it comes to Carter’s failed presidency, ensures that he will get a pass pretty much for everything.
Perhaps it is time for his family to rein Mr. Carter in, before he proceeds to embarrass himself, and my home state, further.
I hate newspapermen.....I regard them as spies.....If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast. -Gen. William T. Sherman
Carter
Wed, 02/28/2007 - 20:30 ET by JoePRead the book and have to say, from living and working for over six years in the Middle East (Israel included), that he stole OUR line: we ALL called Israel the Apartheid State, LONG ago ---- hmmmm just as many Israelis do.
And his book is actually quite tame, but he points out truisms that the so-called main-stream press wouldn't touch with 10-foot poles, and they dare not bring them up in articles now, so they raise tiddly-wink issues WRT the book.
But at least he said things as a Westerner, whereas Israelis say the same and MUCH, MUCH more every single, soitary day. Read Ha'aretz.