News-Editors Debate Ways to Overcome Liberal, Big-Tech Censorship to Inform Public

For centuries, scribes and journalists have been tasked with the responsibility of seeking and sharing the truth. Today, however, finding solid journalism accurately reported by the news media is difficult. Considering this dilemma, who can the faith community turn to and trust to report the news?

At the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in spring, Matthew Faraci, president of Inspire Buzz, moderated a lively panel discussion titled “Truth-Driven Journalism in an Era of Censorship.” Panel participants included Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax Media, Christopher Dolan, president and executive editor of the Washington Times, Joshua Philipp, senior investigative reporter for The Epoch Times and Phil Boyce, senior vice president for spoken word format at Salem Media Group.

The well-attended forum addressed several current issues impacting media producers and consumers, tying them to historical events.

Philipp, for example, referenced the 1967 riots in China which began as a minor labor dispute in the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China. The riots then escalated into a large-scale protest against British colonial rule involving Chinese Communist Party sympathizers against the British Hong Kong government. In Philipp’s analysis, this event is an example of government enforcement of political correctness and crackdown on those who fail to comply.

Censorship has been around for ages. During the Diocletian Period—the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire–Bibles were targeted as part of a larger program intended to wipe out Christianity. Today, the rise in media censorship has industry leaders expressing concerns.

“There is a war going on and journalists are being brutally attacked,” Ruddy said. He noted that social media is playing a big role in censorship: “We are being deranked, delisted and depressed on Google and on YouTube.”

Ruddy went on to explain how rankings and listings attract viewers, and viewership determines the impact of a journalist’s efforts to get the news out. Others on the panel agreed that social media censorship is hindering the conservative voice in America and is driving journalists to find new ways to get their stories out to the public.

“It’s like a new religion,” Philipp said. “It’s socialism in the guise of political correctness.”

“What people want is an accurate account,” Boyce added.

Referring to a Daniel Webster quote, Boyce said: “It used to be all about truth. When we present truth, it has the ability to dispel lies.”

Ruddy referred to a comment made by U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) as an example of the type of censorship journalists now face.

“When we reported that Rand Paul said masks don’t work, Newsmax could not post videos on some social media sites for a week,” Ruddy noted.

Dolan said his media outlet has traditionally been focused on freedom, faith, and family.

“We provide information so our audience can make decisions based on what is going on in the world,” Dolan said, noting that his publication was initially created as a “conservative voice” in Washington, D.C.

According to Dolan, “fact checkers” play a big role in what gets into publication and that can be detrimental.

“Fact checkers want to tell us what to put in and if they don’t like what we put in, they censor it. That is happening more and more.”

On a more positive note, Dolan added, “The truth always wins out.”

After a lengthy and lively discussion on censorship, social media, the challenges reporters face in getting and delivering the truth, Faraci asked each commentator to give the audience a takeaway based on what they hope to see in the future. Philipp responded by saying “If we fearlessly tell the truth people will remember that.”

Salem Media's Phil Boyce and The Washington Times' Chris Dolan remark on Google, Twitter, and other Big Tech suppression and censorship of legitimate journalism from mainstream right-of-center perspectives.

 

Boyce said journalists should continue seeking ways “to make this a better world.”

Dolan pointed out that “common sense policies, organizations committed to truth and the evolution of conservative groups with more access to social media” give him hope—and Ruddy wrapped it up by saying “this conversation is what gives me hope.”

Faraci concluded the session by calling the panelists his heroes and pointing to the “legacy and impact” they are leaving for future generations.

Dr. Judea Pearl, presenting Daniel Pearl Award for Journalistic Courage & Integrity, announces new, I.D.C. Institute for Middle East reporting accuracy

In presenting the annual Daniel Pearl Award for courage and integrity in journalism, Judea Pearl (father of murdered American journalist, Daniel Pearl) announces establishment of a new, journalistic institute for Middle East reporting at the I.D.C. in Herzliya, Israel.



At L.A. Press Club June 2013 Awards at the Biltmore Hotel. Prof. Judea Pearl clarifies his remark to the L.A. Press Association Awards that he established the media resource center in Herzliya in response to journalists commonly mischaracterizing Middle East history and parties' roles in reporting.




The awardee, Ciudad Juarez journalist Sandra Rodriguez Nieto, reported on the "Fast and Furious" Obama-armed, drug-mafia in Juarez, Mexico.  

Rodriguez Nieto reported for El Diario newspaper in the Mexican border city of Juárez during a wave of drug violence that resulted in thousands of murders, including two of her colleagues.

"I didn't think a lot about the danger," she said. "I was convinced that my job as a journalist was the most important thing." Rodriguez Nieto uncovered stories of government corruption, failures in the judicial system and wrote a book about how criminal organizations influence the city's youth. (Monica Ortiz Uribe in Fronteras,  April 4 '13) 

David Bedein: Israel vs Palestine behind the scenes

Liberal bias from Israeli press outlets weakens public resolve for defense against Iran - Israel Media Watch

Media Comment: Iran and Israel’s extreme left-wing media

By YISRAEL MEDAD, ELI POLLAK

08/22/12 in the Jerusalem Post

Our suggestion: let the news speak for itself. Our media “experts” should stick to reporting the facts. That is the professional, the democratic and the lawful way for them to do their job.

Israeli journalists gather a story (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)

On Tuesday, during an interview by a sports reporter a politician commented that: “political reporters are a lot like sports reporters. They’ve all got opinions, even if they never played.” That politician was US President Barack Obama, and the interview was broadcast over the Des Moines, Iowa, KXNO sports radio. In Israel, the term we would use would surely be “kibitzing.” But there’s a multi-pronged barb in Obama’s words, which are applicable to our local media and those who run it.

As we understand it, this political contender for office knows well that reporters are not objective. It is only a matter of the degree to which they insert not only wrong information, through sloppy work or otherwise, but a bit of bias, whether through omission or commission. In addition to opinions that sometimes insert themselves into the reporting of news, there is also the lingering concern as to whether reporters are truly knowledgeable about their beats. Are they sufficiently experienced “players” who can take to the field to compete not only with rival journalists but also with the people and events they cover?

This last point is especially relevant to the tom-tom beating that has been going on, at ever-increasing volume, in certain media quarters covering the possibility that Israel’s government may be forced by circumstances to employ military alternatives to curb the nuclear weapons program of Iran.

Iran is the country whose supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, recently announced that Israel will disappear from the “landscape of geography” and that its land will be returned to the Palestinians.

A few days later, on the occasion of Al-Quds Day, he characterized Israel’s administration of the disputed territories and, for good measure, the formation of Israel as the root of evil in the Middle East, which was a “conspiracy [of] colonialists and oppressors.”

"Mugged by Reality:" respected American-Israeli journalist explains Israelis' situation internationally - but with context

Do Anglo-accented speakers enhance the effectiveness of 'hasbara' to the world? Do speakers like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, or Ambassador to the U.K. Ron Prosor present Israel's case more persuasively to English-speakers than Israeli-accented presenters?

As a recognized world-class correspondent with the Jerusalem Post, American-born, Israeli journalist, Herb Keinon explains how the lack of peaceful Arab-Muslim acceptance to Israel's gestures of peace have jaded many Israelis' prior optimism towards the 'peace-process.' A knowledgeable analyst, Mr. Keinon presents the context of Israel's situation- in this exclusive video interview with JooTube's DemoCast.TV crew - recorded during Mr. Keinon's most recent visit to Los Angeles.



Mr. Keinon, the diplomatic correspondent for the English-language Jerusalem Post, has been at the eye of the Arab-Israeli hurricane for the past 20-years- since assuming the diplomatic beat in August 2000, just after the failed, Camp David Summit.

Mr. Keinon has up-close knowledge and an intimate perspective of the global conflict and the evolution of efforts to maintain Israelis' security. He lives with these issues, residing in the West Bank community of Ma'ale Adumim with his wife and four children.

In our exclusive video, Mr. Keinon, reveals the insecurity that Palestinian terrorism has evolved within Israeli consciousness. Here, he makes a good case for understanding Israel's matured mentality in view of its learned vulnerablity.

Why does the Press refuse to report events without a pro-Palestinian-bias?

'Jerusalem bulldozer terror' reportage draws criticism of bias against Israel by the mainstream-media
While the BBC rushes to apologize for televising the saving of more civilian lives from an actual Palestinian atrocity against Jews, why does the media still refuse to apologize for airing Palestinian, 'fabricated- atrocities' which have falsely damned Israel in the world's eye? The media and enduring narrative by Caroline Glick in The Jerusalem Post

..."In this case, as in the case of the lynching eight years ago, the reason the BBC apologized is not because the film's images were too gruesome, but because it strayed from the accepted narratives of the Palestinian war against Israel. To maintain the narratives, "the right editorial balance between the demands of accuracy and the potential impact on the program's audience," is one that engenders the belief that Israel is either morally indistinguishable from the Palestinians, or that Israel is morally inferior to the Palestinians."... "the distorted footage put out by the media made it impossible for Israel to defend itself in the court of public opinion. Like the al-Dura affair, the media's open collusion with the Palestinians in Jenin and Hizbullah in Kafr Kana prolonged false narratives predicated on Israeli aggression which were about to be finally laid to rest."

Ms. Glick asserts, "The media only give us the information (not the truth) they wish us to have."