{"id":566,"date":"2013-11-17T12:22:02","date_gmt":"2013-11-17T17:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=566"},"modified":"2013-11-17T12:22:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-17T17:22:02","slug":"honestly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html","title":{"rendered":"Honestly!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had the privilege recently to speak with Joe Hyams, who directs HonestReporting, a media watchdog group specializing in the Arab-Israel conflict.<\/p>\n

As one who obtained a journalism degree, and is fascinated by all things \u201cInky Wretch\u201d (to quote the peerless Paul Greenberg), it grieves me to see so much media bias raging today. It always has, truth be told (the Sumerians were the same way, and just what the heck do you think \u201cMrs. Silence Dogood\u201d was?), but one particular area today seems infected like no other.<\/p>\n

Israel.<\/p>\n

When Israel transformed itself from a tiny, struggling nation-state with a lightning victory in the Six-Day War, international perceptions of the Jewish state took, shall we say, a turn for the worse.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Israel became perceived as the bully to the downtrodden Palestinians. Never mind the fact that an Egyptian terrorist named Abu Ammar was installed as the freedom fighter leading his people, the Palestinians. Decades of incitement in the Arab world have led us to a place where Mein Kampf is still a bestseller in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Sadly, Western journalists often fall right in line with the propaganda that it\u2019s all Israel\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n

Into this complex situation steps HonestReporting, a group founded during the dark days of the Second Intifada. HonestReporting features a sophisticated team well-versed in the use of social media, to draw journalists back to the ethical standards with which they began.<\/p>\n

Hyams, a Brit who spent eight years in Israel, recently came to the U.S. to head HonestReporting\u2019s efforts here. Since this country has long been Israel\u2019s best friend in the world, it seemed a natural thing to strengthen those bonds, especially at a time when Palestinian propaganda has moved into Evangelical Christian circles.
\n

\"Joe<\/a>
Joe Hyams<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Hyams understands the task.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does a cartoon do to public opinion?\u201d he asks rhetorically. \u201cWell, it does a great deal to public opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, anti-Semitic cartoons are ubiquitous in the Middle East, but have also made their way into Western print media. As a former advertising and marketing executive, Hyams knows the damage that can be done from a single image.
\n

\"Israel<\/a>
Israel depicted as a monster in a German newspaper<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\u201cClassic print and broadcast has evolved into recognizing our social media and harnessing it\u2026this is a very new way of moving people, and we\u2019ve seen that in the Arab Spring,\u201d Hyams says.<\/p>\n

HonestReporting has made dramatic progress in not only making the public aware of the issues, but also in garnering retractions, apologies, and corrections from leading media outlets. Hyams maintains that most journalists aren\u2019t malicious in their reporting of Israel, but in many cases are grossly misinformed.<\/p>\n

For example, I know from staying in Arab hotels in East Jerusalem that journalists are targeted by propagandists who teach them Arabic and offer tours to \u201cOccupied Palestine.\u201d <\/p>\n

Due to its diligence, successes, and growing influence, HonestReporting is now fielding 1,000 media inquiries each year, a trend Hyams sees continuing.<\/p>\n

\u201cJournalists themselves are called upon to be more than columnists, but tweeters and bloggers, to think quickly and respond in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is into this volatile field that HonestReporting provides an invaluable service. <\/p>\n

Check out their work at www.honestreporting.com, and prepare to be amazed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the privilege recently to speak with Joe Hyams, who directs HonestReporting, a media watchdog group specializing in the Arab-Israel conflict. As one who obtained a journalism degree, and is fascinated by all things \u201cInky Wretch\u201d (to quote the peerless Paul Greenberg), it grieves me to see so much media bias raging today. It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHonestly! - Is it the End of the World?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Honestly! - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had the privilege recently to speak with Joe Hyams, who directs HonestReporting, a media watchdog group specializing in the Arab-Israel conflict. As one who obtained a journalism degree, and is fascinated by all things \u201cInky Wretch\u201d (to quote the peerless Paul Greenberg), it grieves me to see so much media bias raging today. It…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-17T17:22:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2013\/11\/JoeHeadShot2013-253x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Honestly! - Is it the End of the World?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Honestly! - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"I had the privilege recently to speak with Joe Hyams, who directs HonestReporting, a media watchdog group specializing in the Arab-Israel conflict. As one who obtained a journalism degree, and is fascinated by all things \u201cInky Wretch\u201d (to quote the peerless Paul Greenberg), it grieves me to see so much media bias raging today. It…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html","og_site_name":"Is it the End of the World?","article_published_time":"2013-11-17T17:22:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2013\/11\/JoeHeadShot2013-253x300.jpg"}],"author":"Jim Fletcher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html","name":"Honestly! - Is it the End of the World?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2013\/11\/JoeHeadShot2013-253x300.jpg","datePublished":"2013-11-17T17:22:02+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-17T17:22:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2013\/11\/JoeHeadShot2013-253x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2013\/11\/JoeHeadShot2013-253x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2013\/11\/honestly.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Honestly!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/","name":"Is it the End of the World?","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jim Fletcher","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96","name":"Jim Fletcher","description":"Blogger and researcher Jim Fletcher has worked in the book publishing industry for 15 years, and is now director of the apologetics group Prophecy Matters. His new book, \"Truth Wins,\" provides important analysis of Rob Bell and his Emergent friends.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/author\/jfletcher"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}