Michael F. Brown

CNN: Two stories, one news agency



Casualties in Tel Aviv. Casualties in Rafah. Where does CNN go? Tel Aviv. And it was absolutely right to go to Tel Aviv. It’s failure came in an inexcusable unwillingness to send a second crew to Rafah. CNN also posted seven transcripts Thursday mentioning the Tel Aviv explosion. Six of these transcripts clearly noted in the link heading that they dealt with the Tel Aviv explosion. How many headings dealt with the Rafah incident? Zero. And only one of the seven transcripts even bothered to mention the attack on Rafah. Michael Brown examines the transcripts. 

Correcting CNN's measurement of Israel's Apartheid Wall



For months, CNN has misrepresented the facts of where Israel’s apartheid barrier will run. Repeated interventions only brought marginal improvements, until November 5-6, when CNN changed the reported length and cost of the project after contacting the Israeli government to check: “According to Defense Ministry spokeswoman Rachel Niedak-Ashkenazi, the planned fence route, which has been approved by the government, will be 690 kilometers (429 miles) long. Cost is estimated at $1.5 billion.” Michael Brown reports for EI

Persistent Partners for Peace squeezes a correction out of the New York Times Magazine



A Partners for Peace letter was published in the New York Times Magazine of September 14, 2003. The letter appeared after weeks of effort to have the Magazine acknowledge that the illegal settlement of Har Homa (Jabal Abu Ghneim) is not part of Israel. Michael Brown reports. 

Shebaa Farms: CNN and the US media encounter difficult terrain



During my formative years in North Carolina, my daddy used to say to me, “Son, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” My father’s adage applies all too well to CNN. Over the past 16 months, Partners for Peace has repeatedly contacted CNN to explain that Shebaa Farms is not in Israel, but in occupied territory. Time and again, we have sent letters stating that the United Nations regards Shebaa Farms as Syrian while Hezbollah sees it as Lebanese. The one thing we know is that it is not Israeli. Michael Brown writes for EI

Photostory: Injured ISM activist Brian Avery returns home



On 5 April 2003, Israeli troops shot International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist Brian Avery in Jenin. Avery, a 24-year-old American citizen from Albuquerque, New Mexico, experienced serious wounds to his face after Israeli troops shot at him with heavy machine gun fire from an armoured personnel carrier (APC). On 14 June 2003, Brian finally returned home after months of hospitalisation, to be greeted by a crowd of 60 people that included family and well-wishers at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina. Photos by Brooks de Wetter-Smith. 

US media ignore Sharon's embrace of ethnic cleansers in new Israeli cabinet



The inclusion in the new Israeli government of the racist National Union, which openly calls for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, received muted coverage in the US media and passed largely without comment. EI co-founders Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry, and regular EI contributor Michael Brown analyse how the US media mishandled the story in this coverage trend. 

The New York Times gets an 'F' for geography



“Every six months or so a report comes out detailing the woeful state of geographical knowledge held by many Americans. Usually people chuckle and wonder how it is that so many Americans think California is on the East Coast. After all, every rightly educated American knows it’s on the Left Coast.” Mike Brown writes about what happens when the New York Times sits in on a Middle East geography test. 

Killings of dozens once again called "period of calm" by US media

US media outlets were quick to declare two suicide bombs which killed Israelis an end to a period of “relative calm.” Michael Brown and Ali Abunimah note that the past six weeks have been anything but calm for the dozens of Palestinians killed and injured as Israeli occupation forces continue their destructive rampage away from the media’s attention.