Reporter Ian Fisher’s Monday profile of a Palestinian terrorist group, “Defining Hamas: Roots in Charity and Branches of Violence,” begins: “To most Israelis, Hamas is a terrorist group and little more, the core of Palestinian hatred that explodes against Israeli civilians who are innocently shopping or riding on buses. When talk of any peace accord nears, Hamas advocates the ideological extreme: no compromise on a Palestinian state, based on Islam, that stretches from the Mediterranean east to the Jordan River. It talks often of driving all Jews from the land.”

But that’s just one side of Hamas, according to Fisher’s story. “But to a Palestinian brother and sister here who are raising the four children of another brother who was killed in a construction accident in 1997, Hamas is a very practically minded savior. It pays for the children's school, transportation, clothing, even food. ‘I am so happy Hamas is taking care of them,’ said the brother, Abu Shaher Safdi, 26, a tailor. ‘There is no way I could afford it now.’ Since Hamas was founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian uprising, these have been the group's pillars: religion, charity and the fight against Israel. It is zealous on all three fronts, and that makes it a difficult foe, not easy to ‘deal harshly with,’ as President Bush urged today. Hamas itself, the Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, means ‘zeal’ or ‘bravery.’”

For the rest of Ian Fisher’s history of Hamas, click here.

Sen. Schumer Non-Scandal Watch

In “Can Anyone Beat This Senator? Schumer Is Flush…and Formidable” for the Sunday Metro section, Jonathan Hicks details the run-up to liberal Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer’s seemingly inevitable victory in his 2004 race for reelection. Yet over the course of the 1,200 word story, the Times again fails to mention the large fines the Federal Election Commission leveled against Schumer’s 1998 senatorial campaign, a Times oversight first noted by journalist Geitner Simmons.

As Byron York noted in a May 5 expose for National Review Online: “Schumer, an outspoken advocate of campaign-finance reform, has been hit with one of the biggest fines ever imposed on a member of Congress by the Federal Election Commission -- for violating campaign-finance laws.” But this seemingly juicy hypocrisy angle has so far failed to merit even a single mention in the Times, Schumer’s hometown paper.

For the rest of Hicks’ story on Sen. Schumer, click here.

Defending Democrats Against Non-Existent Attacks

Saturday’s front-page story by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Adam Nagourney, “Democrats Split on Challenging Iraq Arms Hunt,” focuses on Democratic attempts to use the prolonged hunt for Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction as an electoral weapon against Bush in 2004.

The paper seems also keen to accuse Republicans of calling Democrats unpatriotic: “But the risks for the Democrats are high. Mr. Bush has dismissed suggestions that he manipulated information, and Republicans were quick to try to paint Democrats as unpatriotic for raising such questions. In announcing the closed-door hearings, Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, accused Democrats of using the war for political gain. And Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader, said in an interview: ‘I think it's political posturing. Democrats are politicizing a very important issue.’”

Did you catch that bit where Roberts and Frist “painted Democrats as unpatriotic”? Neither did blogger Tom Maguire, who says: “In future stories, a bit of evidence to accompany the DNC talking points would be nice.”

The article continues with more focus on Democratic fears: “Democrats, in keeping with tradition and fearing they would be labeled unpatriotic, refrained from criticizing the administration during the war.” The Times is defending Democratic patriotism even when no one is questioning it -- as if it wants Democrats to be called unpatriotic so as to portray them as victims of rampant Republican jingoism.

For the rest of the Nagourney-Stolberg article, click here.

E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org