PrintJanuary 7, 2011
What the NYT and the WaPo publish -- and what they don't
In their Jan. 7 editions, the Washington Post and the New York Times carry stories about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak asking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer more concessions to the Palestinians in order to put peace talks back on track and open the way for Palestinian statehood.
During the same news cycle, it also came to light that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas freed a Palestinian terrorist who had murdered four Israelis just four months ago. Yet, releasing this killer from a Palestinian Authority jail did not rate any mention in either the Post's or the Times' Jan. 7 editions.
It would be interesting -- and perhaps revealing -- if editors of these two newspapers would explain to their readers why they deemed Mubarak pressing Israel for additional concessions to the Palestinians more newsworthy than Abbas freeing a terrorist killer who had served only four months behind bars. Why publish the former but not the latter?
Readers can readily guess why. But for the sake of transparency and accountability -- two virtues often advocated by the Times and the Post -- it would be instructive if their editors disclosed their own reasoning for ignoring Abbas playing cozy with killers to prove that he's just as supportive of terrorist tactics as Hamas.
