Hamas "Combines Philanthropy and Militancy"
 

     The Times seems to have a strange obligation to bring up the propaganda "charity" work of the anti-Israeli terrorist group Hamas whenever possible.

     It's the very first thing Steven Erlanger notes in his Sunday story on Hamas' announcement it would take part in a Palestinian vote: "Hamas, the Islamic group that combines philanthropy and militancy, confirmed publicly on Saturday that it would take part in Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for July 17, ending a 10-year boycott of the Palestinian Authority. The Hamas announcement, at a news conference in Nablus in the West Bank, is a victory for the new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to bring Hamas and its militant ally, Islamic Jihad, into the mainstream of Palestinian politics."

     Nothing in that lead paragraph would lead a casual reader to realize that the goal of the group is the destruction of Israel.

For Erlanger's story in full, click here:

Bush's "Prepackaged News"
 

     Sunday's huge front-page feature by David Barstow and Robin Stein, "Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged News," devotes several thousand words to the Bush administration's use of video news releases aired by local television stations across the country.

     They point out: "Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production."

     Later the Times huffs against this apparent outrage against genuine journalism: "An examination of government-produced news reports offers a look inside a world where the traditional lines between public relations and journalism have become tangled, where local anchors introduce prepackaged segments with 'suggested' lead-ins written by public relations experts. It is a world where government-produced reports disappear into a maze of satellite transmissions, Web portals, syndicated news programs and network feeds, only to emerge cleansed on the other side as 'independent' journalism."

     Not until the 12th paragraph do the genuine journalists at the Times let slip (in a dependent clause) that the Bush administration didn't exactly invent this practice: "The practice, which also occurred in the Clinton administration, is continuing despite President Bush's recent call for a clearer demarcation between journalism and government publicity efforts. 'There needs to be a nice independent relationship between the White House and the press,' Mr. Bush told reporters in January, explaining why his administration would no longer pay pundits to support his policies."

     As this archived article from the September 1994 World & I magazine notes: "Congress creates VNRs [video news releases] in its own fully equipped, tax-payer-funded television station in the belly of the Rayburn Building in Washington. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration hires out, paying companies like Medialink of New York--at taxpayer expense--to transmit VNRs by satellite to stations around the country."

     Not until the 31st paragraph (it's a long story) does the Times offer any concrete figures comparing the use of such video news releases during the administrations of Clinton and Bush. The comparison makes one question how this came to be such a hot story in the first place: "Federal agencies have been commissioning video news releases since at least the first Clinton administration….A recent study by Congressional Democrats offers another rough indicator: the Bush administration spent $254 million in its first term on public relations contracts, nearly double what the last Clinton administration spent."

For the full exhausting report from David Barstow and Robin Stein, click here:

"Dogged Clinton Haters" vs. "Government-Watchdog Group"
 

     Philip Shenon and Robert Pear file an update Sunday on accusations made against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, asserting: "Mr. Delay could face new legal bills over a swirl of allegations made against him and other House members, Republicans and Democrats, that they accepted foreign trips from lobbyists and registered foreign agents, in violation of House rules. This week, a coalition of government-watchdog groups, including Common Cause, Judicial Watch and Public Citizen, called for an ethics committee investigation into the travel, which included elaborate trips to Britain and South Korea."

     Notice the strange new respect for Judicial Watch? Now that the group is joining liberal watchdogs in going after the conservative Republican Rep. Tom Delay, the group is apparently nonpartisan.

     But when Judicial Watch had the bad manners to launch a complaint against the campaign of liberal Sen. Hillary Clinton last month, the Times took care to call JW a "conservative legal group that has dogged the Clintons for years," while the story's cut-out line used an even harsher term: "A tangled tale of a slick operator, the first couple and dogged Clinton haters."

For the full story from Shenon and Pear, click here:

Bret Schundler, Neo-Nazis Both "Far Right"?
 

     Josh Benson's lead story for the Sunday New Jersey Section (not online) on former Jersey City governor Bret Schundler's fight for the governor's nomination in New Jersey is headlined "Tilting Toward the Right." His lead sentence is even more slanted: "You could call a fight for the hearts and minds of the far right in New Jersey -- a state that voted convincingly for John Kerry last November -- something of a Pyrrhic victory."

     Meanwhile, page 3 of Monday's paper carries this headline to a story about neo-Nazis: "Germany's Far Right Tries to Put On a Normal Face."

     One hopes the Times sees a difference between American conservatives and Hitler lovers in Germany.

Oh, Those Colorful Qaddafis!
 

     A Saturday profile by Craig Smith on the soccer-loving son of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi features this odd description: "[Saddi] Qaddafi, of course, comes from a colorful family used to making headlines. His only sister, Ayesha, is studying law in Paris and has signed on to Saddam Hussein's defense team. His youngest brother, Hannibal, has a penchant for speeding and getting into scuffles with the police: earlier this year he reportedly brandished a 9-millimeter handgun after beating up a woman in a Paris hotel. Another brother, Moatassim, was caught four years ago trying to buy tanks and short-range missiles for his personal army brigade."

     There's no mention in that "colorful" description of Libya's involvement in the 1988 bombing of a jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270.

For the full profile, click here: