It turns out that the rigorous reporting of the station that regularly touts its superiority is data from a defamatory list on the Internet.
According to its website, NPR defines itself by “great storytelling and rigorous reporting.”
In a recent news program, both of these elements were evident, but the former was not bolstered by the latter. The “great storytelling” was not based on “rigorous reporting,” but upon the kind of drudge that fills the Internet, the kind of research one would hope a station of NPR’s purported quality would not rely on.
Last week, in an interview with presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), NPR’s Diane Rehm informed Sanders of his hitherto unknown citizenship of Israel. Her implication was clear and stank of an age-old anti-Semitic canard: That Jews have divided loyalties and therefore aren’t trustworthy.
The “list” Rehm based her assertion on: A Facebook posting by anti-Israel (“IsraHell” in their words) activists that claims: “All these U.S.A ‘lawmakers’ have both israel and U.S. citizenships. Any questions????” Not for Rehm or her researchers, who accepted this visibly amateurish and biased list of “duel” citizens at face value. Apparently at NPR, Facebook postings accompanied by anti-Semitic tropes — Jewish lobby, Rothschild, dual loyalties — qualify as “rigorous reporting.”
What’s incredible is that when Sanders refuted her assertion, Rehm did not immediately admit her mistake nor did she acknowledge the unreliability of her source. Instead she pursued this line of questioning:
“Are there members of Congress who do have dual citizenship or is that part of the fable?”
Does it matter?
Has this question ever been raised to senators or representatives who, based on their last names or religion, might have dual citizenship with Britain, Germany or Ireland?
Rehm did not apologize to Sanders directly for what clearly seemed an attempt to parrot the “IsraHell” activist that Jews by nature will never be fair on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
In the statement she issued later that day, Rehm apologized for “having made an erroneous statement” but credited herself with “putting the rumor to rest” — the very rumor she propagated on her show. If anything, Rehm should have used the opportunity to highlight her carelessness in using what are fundamentally unreliable sources — people’s opinions on the Internet — which could have served as an instructive warning to her fellow journalists. Instead, she fully acknowledged using Facebook as her source, but failed to recognize the potential folly that will always lie with that choice.
In the new environment of social media, everyone is an expert and everyone has an opinion. It’s the job of the journalist to discern opinion from fact. The good judgment of journalists is needed more than ever in this new environment of ever abounding nonsense.
The public — who, after all, funds National Public Radio — rely on the station for “rigorous reporting.” Rehm — and NPR — may aspire to the highest standards of reporting, but if this instance is indicative, they are falling way short of the mark.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
