Patterico's Pontifications

8/29/2007

L.A. Times Coverage Of The Terror Financing Trial [Reloaded]

Filed under: Dog Trainer — Justin Levine @ 11:13 am



[posted by Justin Levine] 

I had earlier accused the L.A. Times of ignoring the very important terror financing trial currently underway in Dallas.

Steve Clow (who I presume is the same Steve Clow who is a Times employee) claims that the paper has in fact covered this case.

It turns out that Steve is technically correct – but not enough to get me to retract the main thrust of my criticism. The Times has written three stories on this case respectively dated August 14, 16 & 17.  (I would not describe three stories to be “several” as Mr. Clow does, but I suppose that is a triviality.) Each of the stories deals with only a single witness featured in the trial (an Israeli intelligence agent).  The headlines of each story: “Anonymous testimony allowed at trial“;  “Israeli agent ties charity to terrorists“; and the final story thus far – “Charity trial witness falters“.

NOWHERE does the Times detail the nature of the government’s overall case or give readers a big picture of what is going on. It does not detail any of the evidence that has been provided by outlets such as Counterterrorismblog.org. It does not cover the strong evidence linking CAIR officials to HAMAS and examine what such implications might mean to America.

Compare the coverage that the Counterterrorism blog has provided with what the Times has chosen to emphasize in it opening paragraphs of the last article it has written on the case –

Charity trial witness falters

An Israeli intelligence agent whose earlier testimony linked a U.S.-based Islamic charity to Hamas acknowledged Thursday that none of the overseas charities it supported has appeared among hundreds of names on U.S. government terrorist lists.

The testimony seemed to cast doubt on a central element of the government’s criminal case against former officials of the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

Is this a joke?? Apparently so. After all, it is the L.A. Times.  It is perfectly fair to cover holes in the testimony of a prosecution witness. But to concentrate on this side issue as the primary emphasis of your reporting in this case?? [Once again, I ask you to compare this to the kind of coverage that they could be providing if they wanted to.]

No wonder I couldn’t find coverage of this trial in my original search of the paper’s website. I made the mistake of trying to search for obvious terms such as “Ghassan Elashi” (one of the primary defendants in the trial) and “CAIR”. There is not a single mention of either of these names in the Times coverage of this trial (!). In choosing my search terms for coverage of this trial, I guess I should have known to type in “Israeli intelligence agent” instead.

This is like writing three stories concerning Kato Kaelin on the witness stand, and then proclaiming that you have covered the O.J. Simpson trial. While the claim may be technically true, it does nothing to inform the readers what they need to know about the subject.

So to Mr. Clow and the L.A. Times, I will retract my earlier statements and substitute the following criticism instead: Rather than completely ignoring the trial, the L.A. Times has provided minimal, scant and frankly pathetic coverage of this trial that does nothing to educate the reader about the overall nature of the government’s case, the CAIR connections and its significance for America.  

The more I think about it, if this is the only kind of coverage that the L.A. Times is going to offer on this trial, it is probably best that you simply ignore it altogether. Therefore, please disregard my earlier criticisms.

8 Responses to “L.A. Times Coverage Of The Terror Financing Trial [Reloaded]”

  1. The LA Times can’t really be accused of incompetence any longer; willful misrepresentation of fact is closer to the truth.

    trentk269 (3d3bfe)

  2. And they keep calling me to reinstate my delivery. Why pay for mis-information?

    Tregg Wright (a8913f)

  3. Leave it to the L.A. SLIMES to give us only hgalf the truth and not the whole truth what a worthless piece of junk

    krazy kagu (044dd0)

  4. It’s interesting that Mr. Clow commented here to point out the LA Times’ trial coverage. That’s a positive attempt to interact online with people who are interested in the LA Times and – I assume – to check up on what bloggers say about the Times. But the minimal coverage of this trial shows that the Times’ editors consider the financial and legal prosecution of the War on Terror unimportant and not newsworthy.

    DRJ (bfe07e)

  5. You need to see the accuracy of the May 15th Prophecy and what Iran and Iraq has to do with it
    @ lastdaywatchers.blogspot.com

    leon (8b8f44)

  6. sev·er·al /ˈsɛvərəl, ˈsɛvrəl/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[sev-er-uhl, sev-ruhl] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
    –adjective
    1. being more than two but fewer than many in number or kind: several ways of doing it.
    2. respective; individual: They went their several ways.
    3. separate; different: several occasions.
    4. single; particular.
    5. Law. binding two or more persons who may be sued separately on a common obligation.
    –noun
    6. several persons or things; a few; some.

    G (722480)

  7. G –

    Toche. I will concede that 3 = ‘several’. I prefer usuing the phrase ‘a few’ to describe 3, while I reserve ‘several’ for numbers around 6 or 7, but it seems that 3 still technically qualifies for the term.

    Justin Levine (20f2b5)

  8. Did you see that Turkey is now about to attack Iraq Just like the May 15th Prophecy declared

    And also Lebanon about to form a new Government Just like the May 15th Prophecy Declared

    it all at Last Day Watchers Blog

    leon (8b8f44)


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