PBS NewsHour Executive Producer Sara Just and NPR Standards Editor Mark Memmott seem to have come up with almost identical statements about commentator David Brooks’ conflict of interest. (Brooks, who works for the New York Times, NPR and PBS, had kept hidden the fact that his son was serving in…
Month: October 2014
In recent weeks I’ve phoned and emailed the NPR ombudsman’s office several times about commentator David Brooks’ conflict of interest – Brooks’ son has been serving in the Israeli military while Brooks has been commenting on Israel without divulging that his son was in the Israeli army. Ombudsmen are charged…
Not surprisingly, NPR’s ombudsman goes with the flow that will neither interfere with his current employment nor injure his future prospects in American journalism. Following is an email to me from the Office of the Ombudsman, and below that is my response to NPR: Dear Alison, Thank you for contacting…
The New York Times ombudsman (“public editor”) has now said that the Times should disclose to readers the fact that the son of columnist David Brooks, who often comments about Israel, is serving in the Israeli military. Ethics codes require such disclosure. So far, however, PBS has stated nothing about…
Regarding David Brooks’ son serving in the Israeli military, New York Times ombudsman (known at the Times as the “public editor”) Margaret Sullivan writes: “Mr. Brooks’s son is serving as a member of a foreign military force that has been involved in a serious international conflict – one that the…
A great many journalists reporting on Israel-Palestine for US media have personal and family ties to the Israeli military. Many have served themselves; others have sons, husbands, etc. who are currently served in the IDF or have in the past. This is a clear conflict of interest, but is virtually…
The website for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, referred to by TimesWarp analyst Barbara Erickson, seems to have been taken down. However, another site has the text of its code of conduct for columnists: As a newspaper columnist, I will strive to inform, educate and entertain my readers. I will…
Today I sent the following email to the New York Times Public Editor’s office: In September 2014, New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan wrote: “The Times could do a lot more to alert readers about conflicts of interests of sources used by the paper.” Similarly, The Times could and should…
It has now come out that David Brooks’ son is serving in the Israeli military. So while Brooks was providing pro-Israel commentary during Israel’s massacre in Gaza, his son was serving in the IDF. This clear conflict of interest should have required Brooks to recuse himself from commenting on Israel.…
The following explores a variety of cover-ups and sort of cover-ups… David Brooks is a prominent and powerful journalist. He is a columnist for the New York Times and a commentator for PBS New Hour and NPR. Now we learn, through an article in Jewish Journal, that Brooks’ son is…