Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), founded in 1982 by Charles Jacobs, is a non-profit, tax-exempt, media watchdog group based in Boston that mostly addresses media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, focusing on coverage that it considers unfair to Israel.

A national media-monitoring, research and membership organization, CAMERA describes itself as "a media-monitoring, research and membership organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East. CAMERA fosters rigorous reporting, while educating news consumers about Middle East issues and the role of the media." Others have described CAMERA as an "ultra- right wing pro-Israel lobby group that attempts to suppress criticism of Israel" which uses inflammatory rhetoric to bolster its position.

Positions

National Public Radio

CAMERA's 2001 assertion that National Public Radio's "coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict has long been marred by a striking anti-Israel tilt, with severe bias, error and lack of balance commonplace" helped fuel protests against NPR and its financial supporters.A Record of Bias: National Public Radio's Coverage of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, CAMERA, March 27, 2001

Microsoft's Encarta Encyclopedia

In an article in the Israeli Jerusalem Post newspaper, CAMERA writes that Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia is "is a troubling mix of solid information, bias and error." In particular, CAMERA points to the articles bylined by University of Oregon's Shaul Cohen which CAMERA claims promote a false "equating of Jewish and Arab conduct." Microsoft's Encarta Muddles the Middle East, Jerusalem Post, February 12, 2004 (reprinted on the CAMERA Website, accessed May 26 2006)

Spielberg's Munich

CAMERA has criticized the film Munich (2005), the Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner colloboration, claiming that it promotes "its thesis of Israeli culpability" and that "Israel's action battling its adversaries is cast as aberrant, bloody and counterproductive." CAMERA continues: "indeed, it is stunning to watch Munich and realize that its director brought Schindler's List to the world. Where that was artistry drawn from truth, Munich is cinematic manipulation rooted in lies."File Review of Munich: Spielberg and Kushner Smear Israel, article from Camera.org, accessed 18 May 2006

Mearsheimer & Walt' "Israel Lobby" Paper

CAMERA published a detailed critique of the paper, saying that it was "riddled with errors of fact, logic and omission, has inaccurate citations, displays extremely poor judgement regarding sources, and, contrary to basic scholarly standards, ignores previous serious work on the subject".Safian, Alex. Study Decrying “Israel Lobby” Marred by Numerous Errors, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, March 20, 2006. Accessed March 24, 2006.

Praise and Criticism

In an 1998 speech, Alan Dershowitz stated: "As a life-long civil libertarian, I am committed to the proposition that the answer to bad speech is not censorship, but more good speech. The answer to false speech is not censorship but more true speech. The answer to half-truth is full truth. The only people who should and do fear CAMERA are those who should and do fear the truth."Alan Dershowitz, Remarks at "The Media, the Message and the Middle East" conference in Boston, MA (October 29, 1989).

The Boston Globe, in a piece describing the organization's work, wrote that "To its supporters, CAMERA is figuratively - and perhaps literally - doing God's work, battling insidious anti-Israeli bias in the media. But its detractors see CAMERA as a myopic and vindictive special interest group trying to muscle its views into media coverage."Mark Jurkowitz, "Blaming the Messenger", Boston Globe Magazine, February 9, 2003, p.10. Online on the site of the History News Network, accessed 24 April 2006.

A 1993 article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs — a publication criticized by CAMERA for "promota virulently anti-Israel position" — states that "...Levin (CAMERA) indicts the National Geographic, Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East, Webster’s New World Encyclopedia and even the Encyclopedia Britannica for 'unabashed inventions', and 'mutilations of fact'. She offers no documentation or authority for these attacks.... CAMERA promotes even more aggressive tactics against university libraries."[http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0793/9307029.htm CAMERA and FLAME: Pressuring U.S. Media, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1993, Page 29. Online copy accessed 10 April 2006.

External links

References

Criticism of journalism | Arab-Israeli conflict | Israel and Zionism | Non-governmental organizations involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict