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Times Watch for
January 5, 2004
Bulldozing Balance in the Gaza Strip
Reporter Craig Smith, new to the Israel beat, proves to be an old hand when delivering pro-Palestinian slant. His January 1 story, "Israel Plans 25% Expansion of Its Settlements on Golan," gives credence to the radically pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement: "…the [Israeli] army said it had arrested an Israeli soldier in the shooting of an unarmed British peace activist on April 11 in the Gaza Strip. The Briton, Tom Hurndall, was shot in the head when he went to the aid of some Palestinian children. He was pronounced brain dead and is now in a London hospital. Mr. Hurndall is one of several members of the International Solidarity Movement who have been killed or wounded while trying to protect Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza."
Smith takes the ISM's word that Hurndall was innocently aiding Palestinian children and that the group is simply protecting Palestinians. He then reminds us of another victim of Israel's alleged strong-armed Gaza tactics: "In March, an army bulldozer crushed to death a 23-year-old American member of the group, Rachel Corrie. The army took no disciplinary action in that case, though, like Mr. Hurndall, Ms. Corrie wore a fluorescent orange vest to identify herself as a member of the group."
Smith almost sounds as if he's accusing the bulldozer driver of purposely killing Corrie. Yet CNN reported that while ISM's cofounder claimed the bulldozer operator saw Corrie, others witnesses saw her death as a tragic accident: "Other witnesses, however, reported that Corrie had scaled a pile of dirt but then lost her footing and fell backward behind it, out of sight of the bulldozer operator. The bulldozer continued moving forward, covering Corrie with dirt and then crushing her."
Meanwhile, a report on the website Chronwatch suggests the International Solidarity Movement's presence in Gaza has less to do with protecting Palestinian children than it does protecting a supply tunnel for terrorists: "The [Corrie] incident tragically and unfortunately occurred while IDF forces were removing shrubbery along the security road near the border between Israel and Egypt at Rafah to uncover explosive devices, and destroying tunnels used by Palestinian terrorists to illegally smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza. Corrie was not demonstrating for peace or trying to shield innocent civilians, but she was interfering with a military operation to legally demolish an empty house used to conceal one of these tunnels."
For more of Smith's report from Jerusalem, click here.
• Rachel Corrie | International Solidarity Movement | Israel | Palestinians | Craig Smith | Terrorism
"Aversion to Taxes" Hurting States
Two stories in Monday's Times strongly hint that voters' stubborn refusal to embrace tax hikes are hurting vital spending programs.
"Despite Signs of Economic Recovery, States' Budgets Are Still Reeling" by John Broder notes: "States from coast to coast are facing similar fiscal problems and the political fallout that accompanies them. In Alabama, a conservative Republican governor, Bob Riley, who said he had never voted for a tax increase in his three terms in Congress, proposed the largest tax increase in the state's history to cover a deep budget deficit….Voters roundly rejected the tax increase in the fall, and now cuts have begun. Five thousand nonviolent offenders are being paroled early from prisons, troopers have gone to a four-day workweek, and schools have run out of money for textbooks and computers."
(The Times sounded equally dire about Alabama's fate last September: "As legislative leaders emerged ashen-faced from a meeting with Mr. Riley on the extent of the fiscal crisis, it appeared that his dire forecasts would come about: prisoners turned loose, nursing-home patients turned out and schoolchildren denied textbooks.”)
Then Broder goes West to uncover more budget woes, with the help of the nonlabeled liberal group the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: "Like several states, Oregon broadened medical coverage in the boom years of the late 1990's. Now, with budgets shrinking and health care costs rising at double-digit rates, states are cutting back severely by raising eligibility requirements and eliminating coverage for hundreds of thousands of people. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research group in Washington that tracks the effects of government policies on low-income people, 34 states have cut spending on Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program over the past two years."
New Jersey reporter Laura Mansnerus' story on the state budget also included unchallenged pro-tax counsel from the paper's favorite unlabeled liberal group: "[Nicholas] Johnson of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said New Jersey's predicament was largely attributable to the state's aversion to taxes. Most states were more willing to enact large tax increases a year or two ago, rather than postponing the pain, he said, adding, 'It's like pulling off a Band-Aid real fast.'"
For the rest of Broder on states' budget woes, click here.
• John Broder | Laura Mansnerus | Spending | Tax Cuts
Defending "The Reagans" Once More
TV critic Alessandra Stanley comments on the CBS airing of a creeps-inducing Michael Jackson special: "It is hard to get too indignant about CBS's lapse after a year that included…the cancellation of the mini-series 'The Reagans,' after a lobbying effort by right-wing groups who never saw the film."
Stanley was one of the few critics who stood up for the aborted miniseries (calling it "reasonably accurate" and "respectful."). And criticizing "right-wing groups" for not seeing "The Reagans" is a red herring; a similar handicap didn't stop Arts editor Frank Rich from accusing Mel Gibson of baiting Jews in "The Passion," Gibson's upcoming film recounting the death of Christ.
As for "The Reagans," the Media Research Center's Brent Baker found the final product "every bit as awful as conservatives feared with a belittling portrayal of Ronald Reagan."
For the rest of Stanley on the controversy over CBS and Michael Jackson, click here.
• Michael Jackson | 'The Reagans" | Frank Rich | Alessandra Stanley | Television
E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org