How, and Why, Journalists Get Israel Wrong

Mass protests, UN condemnations, and charges of war crimes have left Israelis wondering why their country has been singled out while states that do far worse are not held to account. While there are many explanations (not least of them anti-Semitism), one is the fact that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is, as Matti Friedman has put it, “the most important story on earth”—or at least treated as such by the media. Worse still, reporting on the Jewish state forces all information into a narrow and distorting mold that inevitably makes it appear cruel and oppressive. Friedman, drawing on his own experience as a reporter for the Associated Press, discusses how this distortion operates, along with much else, with Russell Roberts. (Audio, 75 minutes.)