Blatant Bias

With Israeli President Moshe Katsav currently in all sorts of bother, how refreshing to see a news report that focuses on the big picture.

Looks like the important thing is that Jerusalem just became a bit less occupied.

 

In case you were wondering, this report is not from Al Jazeera, nor from the Palestine Media Center. It is from United Press International (UPI), which was, according to Wikipedia “one of the three biggest news agencies, along with the Associated Press and Reuters.” Even though UPI has downsized, they claim that their “audience consists of millions of decision-makers who depend on UPI‚Äôs insightful and analytical stories to make better business or policy decisions.” And even though they also claim that they “strive to provide coverage that is fair, balanced and accurate,” I tend to believe that they do have a large audience. Heck, one of its partners is the BBC.

 
As their website indicates, UPI are a business more than anything else. My suggestion is that we all publicize this blatant example of bias, and write to Michael Marshall, the Editor-in-Chief, at: editorforms@upi.com.

For now.

Update: Michael Marshall responds in the comments:

This is NOT a UPI story. It is a story from the Bahrain News Agency. That is why at the top of the story, after the date, “(BNA)” appears and not “(UPI)”.

UPI carries a number of official government news agency wires, particularly from Middle Eastern countries, as a service for clients who want to track what official government media are saying.

Their content has no connection with UPI’s editorial views or journalistic standards regarding accuracy, balance, and lack of bias.

Given that UPI provide this content to clients and partners, I do not think UPI have made this distinction clear enough. It certainly wasn’t clear to me when I read the report.

I have also asked Mr Marshall to confirm whether or not Israel is included in the list of “Middle Eastern countries” from which UPI carries a number of official government news agency wires. Looks like they don’t, which raises the same issues about UPI’s standards regarding accuracy, balance, and lack of bias.