“Decline,” the late writer Charles Krauthammer famously observed in 2009, “is a choice.” Krauthammer’s observation was aimed at the United States and geopolitics. But it applies to journalism, as well. Many major U.S. news outlets are failing to provide readers and viewers with fact-based coverage of international affairs—including, but by no means limited to, the Middle East.
Take, for example, Foreign Policy magazine.
In February 2020, FP reporter Keith Johnson claimed that “one of the many reasons that Palestinian leadership dismissed” the latest U.S. Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal “out of hand” was “that it included a demand for Palestinians to cede the water-rich West Bank and the entire Jordan Valley to Israel.” Water rights, Johnson asserted, played a key role in the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) decision to reject peace entreaties. But there was one small problem: PA leadership never said that.
In his numerous comments about the proposal, PA President Mahmoud Abbas never cited water as his reason for opposing the plan. Nor was water cited as a chief reason by Palestinian leadership when they rejected more than half a dozen other peace proposals dating back to the 1930s—an important fact that Johnson omitted.
Contravening standard journalistic practice, the Foreign Policy article itself failed to specify which Palestinian leader blamed water disputes, nor did it provide a link or citation showing that “water rights” was a reason for Palestinian leaders rejecting the proposal. And when CAMERA contacted Johnson asking which Palestinian leader cited water as a reason for rejecting the plan, he declined to respond.
Foreign Policy has provided dozens of “reports” on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a body that is ostensibly tasked with assisting Palestinian refugees. Yet, as CAMERA has documented, Foreign Policy reports are often more like press releases and advocacy journalism for the UN Agency. The magazine frequently omits UNRWA’s documented problems, including hiring members of U.S.-designated terrorist groups and employees advocating violence and making antisemitic statements.
Further, Foreign Policy has “stacked the deck” with quotations and citations from UNRWA defenders and anti-Israel advocates—while simultaneously omitting detailed criticisms from UNRWA critics, including the organization’s former legal counsel, James Lindsay.
More recently, Foreign Policy has continued to fumble in its reporting on Israel and Palestinians.
A Sept. 17, 2021 op-ed (“Israel Isn’t Strong Enough to Attack Iran”) repeatedly implied that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel. For example, it stated “Nor can Tel Aviv afford to ignore Washington’s express…” Also: “Washington’s demands continued to limit Tel Aviv.” Elsewhere: “for which Tel Aviv and its allies blamed Iran” and “to what extent should we believe Tel Aviv is truly ready.” The magazine billed the op-ed as “an expert’s point of view.”
Tel Aviv is not, of course, the capital of Israel. Jerusalem is. Using Tel Aviv as shorthand for the capital can confuse and misinform readers. And as CAMERA pointed out to Foreign Policy staff, other news outlets have corrected this same error.
CNN, for example, noted in a CAMERA-prompted correction to a July 22, 2018, broadcast that “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.”
The Associated Press made a similar correction to a Feb. 21, 2018, article (“Palestinian leader calls for peace conference by mid-2018”), as did the Los Angeles Times in July 2017. That latter correction noted, correctly, “the Israeli government is based in Jerusalem.” It is not based in Tel Aviv—and using that city as shorthand for the capital can unnecessarily confuse readers.
Yet, Foreign Policy ignored CAMERA’s requests to correct the misleading op-ed.