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The 'Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America' (CAMERA) is an American nonprofit, tax-exempt organization based in Boston which describes itself as a "media-monitoring, research and membership organization".^[1] The organization was founded in 1982 by Winifred Meiselman in Washington, DC to respond to perceived anti-Israel bias in the Washington Post.^[2]
News media cite CAMERA as an advocate of Israel ^[3] and discuss the organization's mobilisation for the support of Israel in the form of full-page ads in newspapers ^[4], organizing demonstrations, and encouraging sponsor boycotts. ^[5] Critics of CAMERA call its "non-partisan" claims into question and define its alleged biases.
CAMERA created chapters in major cities, including New York, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and in 1988 a Boston chapter and office, founded and led by Andrea Levin; Charles Jacobs became deputy director of the Boston chapter.
In 1991, Levin succeeded Meiselman as executive director of CAMERA: "Under Ms. Levin’s leadership CAMERA’s membership grew within a few years from 1000 to over 20,000, and now numbers over 55,000, and besides the Boston headquarters the organization also has offices in Washington, DC, New York, Chicago, and Israel."^[6] The director of the Washington office of CAMERA is Eric Rozenman.^[7]
On its official website, CAMERA is described as "a media-monitoring, research and membership organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East" which "fosters rigorous reporting, while educating news consumers about Middle East issues and the role of the media." CAMERA further presents itself as a "non-partisan organization" which "takes no position with regard to American or Israeli political issues or with regard to ultimate solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict."^[8]
CAMERA is a member of the Israel Campus Roundtable, which includes the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Anti-Defamation League, The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership, and other pro-Israel organizations. As a member of this Campus Roundtable, CAMERA operates on college campuses to combat what it perceives as "propagandistic assaults on Israel . . . creating harmful misperceptions of Israel" and "publishes a student-focused magazine, CAMERA on Campus, containing specialized information useful in countering misinformation."^[9]

Contents

Some examples of commentary and critique by CAMERA

Some examples of commentary and critique relating to CAMERA

Notes

See also

External links

Some examples of commentary and critique by CAMERA

Main articles: National Public Radio#Criticism, Encarta, Munich (film)#Controversies, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy#Criticism

Among the organizations and works that have been criticized by CAMERA are:

★ 'Jimmy Carter's ''Palestine Peace Not Apartheid'' ': Arguing that "many if not most of the facts on which his book's premise rests are demonstrably false," CAMERA posts on its Web site a list of factual errors made by the Jimmy Carter in his controversial book^[10], as well as a roundup of criticism the book has received garnered from various sources.^[11]

★ 'National Public Radio': "A Record of Bias: National Public Radio's Coverage of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: September 26 – November 26, 2000" (2001) asserts that National Public Radio's "coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict has long been marred by a striking anti-Israel tilt, with severe bias, error and lack of balance commonplace."^[12] This report led to a response by then NPR Ombudsman, Jeffrey A. Dvorkin.^[13]

★ 'Encarta': In an article originally published in the Jerusalem Post and posted on the official website of CAMERA, Andrea Levin, the Executive Director of CAMERA, describes Microsoft's digital multimedia encyclopedia ''Encarta'' as "a troubling mix of solid information, bias and error." In particular, Levin points to the articles written by Shaul Cohen (of the University of Oregon), which she claims "blurs Arab aggression against the Jews from the Mandate period to the present, repeatedly equating the violence by the parties." ^[14]

★ 'Steven Spielberg's' film '''Munich''': In her film review of ''Munich'' (2005), posted on the official website of CAMERA, Andrea Levin claims that the film (a collaboration of director Steven Spielberg and playwright/screenwriter Tony Kushner) promotes "its thesis of Israeli culpability" and that "Israel's action battling its adversaries is cast as aberrant, bloody and counterproductive." Levin continues: "indeed, it is stunning to watch Munich and realize that its director [Spielberg] brought ''Schindler's List'' to the world. Where that was artistry drawn from truth, Munich is cinematic manipulation rooted in lies."^[15]

★ 'Mearsheimer and Walt's "The Israel Lobby" Paper': CAMERA published a detailed critique by Alex Safian of the paper "Israel Lobby," arguing that it is "riddled with errors of fact, logic and omission, has inaccurate citations, displays extremely poor judgement [sic] regarding sources, and, contrary to basic scholarly standards, ignores previous serious work on the subject. The bottom line: virtually every word and argument is, or ought to be, in 'serious dispute.' In other words, a student who submitted such a paper would flunk."^[16]
Positive commentary by Camera:

★ 'Fox News': "Launched in 1996, Fox News entered the field with the proclaimed goal of providing "fair and balanced" news reporting. True to its credo, Fox News offers a large variety of viewpoints and its reporters do not shirk from calling a terrorist a terrorist." [1]

Some examples of commentary and critique relating to CAMERA

In a 2003 profile of the organization in the Boston Globe, Mark Jurkowitz observes: "To its supporters, CAMERA is figuratively - and perhaps literally - doing God's work, battling insidious anti-Israeli bias in the media. But its detractors see CAMERA as a myopic and vindictive special interest group trying to muscle its views into media coverage."^[17]

★ 'Positive':
Former Mayor of New York City Ed Koch described CAMERA as "one source you can rely on when it comes to keeping track of news stories on the Middle East. . . ."^[18]

★ 'Negative':
In the ''Washington Report on Middle East Affairs'' — an organization that CAMERA claims "promotes a virulently anti-Israel position"^[19] — Mitchell Kaidy writes that "CAMERA depicts Middle East issues in black and white, with no gray areas of doubts or complexity. According to CAMERA, Muslims are the villains, because they are Muslim; they hate Jews because they are Jewish. Have historians therefore been consistently wrong in concluding that Islam, which honors many Hebrew prophets, has been more tolerant of Jews than Christians have been? CAMERA thinks so."^[20]

Notes

1. CAMERA: About CAMERA
2. "A brief history of CAMERA" on CAMERA's official web site. Accessed 14 August 2007.
3. Murdoch, Son Differ Sharply Over Israel
4. U.S. newspapers catching flak for Mideast war coverage: Media caught in the cross fire as both sides complain of bias
5. Guardian Unlimited: The readers' editor on ... a ruling in favour of freedom of expression
6. "A brief history of CAMERA" on CAMERA's official web site. Accessed 23 October 2006.
7. CAMERA at Jewish Information and Referral Service.
8. See "About CAMERA" and "Our Mission" as featured on the official website.
9. See "CAMERA on College Campuses":

Increasingly, campuses have been the scene of propagandistic assaults on Israel. Distorted literature, extreme speakers and false, inflammatory images are all too common, creating harmful misperceptions of Israel. This hostile environment can be intimidating to students seeking fair and objective information on Middle East issues.


CAMERA publishes a student-focused magazine, CAMERA on Campus, containing specialized information useful in countering misinformation. CAMERA also provides one-on-one assistance to students who encounter Middle East distortions in campus publications, flyers, rallies and classroom teaching.

The managing editor of ''CAMERA On Campus'' is Deborah Passner.
10. "A Comprehensive Collection of Jimmy Carter's Errors" ''CAMERA'', January 22, 2007.
11. "Roundup of Commentary on Jimmy Carter's Book ''CAMERA'', December 6, 2006.
12. CAMERA March 27, 2001, accessed July 21, 2006.
13. Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, "NPR's Middle East 'Problem,'", ''NPR: Archive'' of Ombudsman Columns February 22, 2002, accessed July 21, 2006. [In June 2006 Dvorkin left the position of NPR Ombudsman to become the executive director of the Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ), an organization founded by Bill Kovach as part of the Project for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ), effective July 1, 2006; see Dvorkin's last column as NPR Ombudsman, "Dear Listeners: Thanks and Farewell," and CEJ/CCJ press release, June 19, 2006.]
14. "Microsoft's Encarta Muddles the Middle East," ''Jerusalem Post'' February 12, 2004, ''CAMERA'' May 26, 2006.
15. "File Review of Munich: Spielberg and Kushner Smear Israel," ''CAMERA'' December 21, 2005, accessed May 18, 2006.
16. Alex Safian, "Study Decrying 'Israel Lobby' Marred by Numerous Errors" ("Updated April 6: Rebutting charges of expulsion and massacre"), ''CAMERA'' March 20, 2006, accessed March 24, 2006. Cf. "Reply to the Mearsheimer-Walt 'Working Paper'" by Alan Dershowitz of the Harvard Law School, in his essay "Debunking the Newest–and Oldest–Jewish Conspiracy," April 5, 2006, online posting, ''FrontPage Magazine'', n.d., accessed July 29, 2006 (pdf file); in posting an excerpt from Dershowitz's "reply" in "Dershowitz Responds to Walt and Mearsheimer Paper", CAMERA observes that Dershowitz cites "CAMERA's detailed refutation of Walt and Mearsheimer's claims" (hyperlinking to Safian). See also Glenn Frankel, "A Beautiful Friendship? In Search of the Truth about the Israel Lobby's Influence on Washington," The Washington Post July 16, 2006: W13.
17. Mark Jurkowitz, "Blaming the Messenger: When the Pro-Israeli Group CAMERA Sees News from the Middle East That It Deems Unfair Or Wrong, It Targets the Media-And Doesn't Let Go," ''Boston Globe Magazine'' February 9, 2003: 10, ''History News Network'' (George Mason University) April 24, 2006. [In spring 2006, Mr. Jurkowitz was selected to become associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), according to its press release "Mark Jurkowitz to be Named PEJ Associate Director" dated May 4, 2006.]
18. Ed Koch, letter to the editor, sent electronically to the Washington Post, ''National Review Online'', August 17, 2006, accessed August 19, 2006.
19. CAMERA page on WRMEA
20. Mitchell Kaidy, CAMERA and FLAME: Pressuring U.S. Media, ''Washington Report on Middle East Affairs'', July-August 1993, accessed February 2 2007.

See also

★ Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)

★ Israel Campus Roundtable (CAMERA is a member)

★ If Americans Knew, a US-based media-monitoring organization which covers much the same issues, but from an opposing viewpoint.

External links

★ CAMERA Official website.

★ "CAMERA: Fighting Distorted Media Coverage of Israel and the Middle East: An Interview with Andrea Levin" (Exec. Dir. of CAMERA) at Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

★ CAMERA at Nuclear Spin (part of SpinWatch, another "media watchdog" which identifies itself as "monitoring PR and Spin").

★ The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership Official website About Us.

★ FAIR: Region: Middle East Hyperlinked list of items headed CounterSpin, Media Advisory, Activism Update, Extra!

★ Online Home of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee for Concerned Journalists.