Letter exposes racism and hate at New York Times
The Arab Daily News is proud to publish this anonymous letter that we received from a high ranking official reader of the New York Times newspaper. The letter details the bigotry and racism that takes place at the newspaper against Arab Americans and Muslims, and the hypocrisy of the newspaper’s coverage of Israel.
I am a Part of the resistance in the New York Times
I work for the New York Times but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of the newspaper’s agenda and its worst inclinations.
The New York Times and the mainstream American news media is facing a test to its legitimacy unlike any faced by a modern American newspaper or news media.
The editors and publishers of the New York Times, “America’s newspaper,” have intentionally engaged in policies and practices of racism and discrimination against Arab Americans, refusing to give them a platform to air their views exposing the depths of the war crimes and atrocities of the “State of Israel.”
Many of the editors are active in the pro-Israel community and they engage openly in the demonization of Arabs and especially Palestinians, hiding behind a claim of “objectivity” and “accuracy” that in fact consists of a very sophisticated practice of exaggerating hate and violence by Palestinians against Israel while diminishing similar accusations of hate and violence by Israel against Palestinians.
In fact, its senior columnist Tom Friedman constantly softballs issues addressing Israel while defining in a negative manner issues that present the Arab World and Palestinians in a negative light.
The newspaper publishers openly have declared in the newsroom that they will not hire Arabs who have any sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians, and have threatened the few Arab and Muslim journalists who work there that their careers will be destroyed if they do what pro-Israel writers at the newspaper are free to do all the time, write propaganda to strengthen the positive image of Israel.
The New York Times has an unwritten policy that it will promote anything that is Muslim, as long as it does not lend too much support to any effort to criticize Israel.
The newspaper that I work for every day is engaged in a sophisticated racism against Arabs and Muslims. They support non-Arab Muslims but place Arab Muslims, especially those who support Palestinian rights or who are too critical of Israel, under surveillance. They reject stories about positive images of the Palestinians while elevating the profile of stories that exaggerate Israel’s positives.
In fact, the newspaper’s saying is “All the pro-Israel news that is fit to print.”
The New York Times will run stories that are critical of Israel, but the criticism is “leveled,” a newspaper term meaning that the edge is removed and the criticism is blunted. Criticism of Palestinians and Arabs, however, is not “leveled.”
The New York Times has dozens of fulltime reporters that cover Israel and Israeli life inside Israel, but only pays minimum wage to one freelance writer based int he Gaza Strip and two freelance writers based in Ramallah. The majority of news reporting, even about Israeli attacks in Gaza or in the West Bank, for example, are often based on press releases and interviews provided by Israeli officials.
In fact, the New York Times has a policy in which no accusation can be published against Israel, unless it is accompanied by three confirmed sources, and two quotes denouncing it from members of the Israeli government.
Additionally, any story critical of Israel must be reviewed by Israeli officials — who have a policy requiring that all news about controversial stories involving Palestinian-Israeli contacts must be approved by Israel. (Israel censors all of the news published in Western news media and those publications that refuse to submit to their censorship practices will be denied visas or credentials inside Israel.
Further, Israel prohibits Palestinian and Arabs who have expressed support for Palestinian rights, from covering Israeli government offices such as the Knesset. And reporters have been warned not to seek comment from Arab members of the Knesset and to only report on criticism or negative actions of the Arab Knesset members.
I am writing this letter anonymously fearing that I will be fired if my identity is released. The New York Times practices are also practiced by many other American newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, the Seattle Times, USA Today, the Boston Globe, and the Chicago Sun-Times.
The public should know that the news media is racist and biased when it comes to reporting facts and events involving the Palestinians and Israel. The public should know that they are only get a small part of the story about the suffering of the Palestinians, but are being spoon fed carefully crafted propaganda to promote Israel and make Israel look good. The public has a right to know that the New York Times and all of the nation’s major newspapers have rule to reject Op-Eds that are too critical of Israel or that are excessive in positive coverage of the Palestinians.
This letter was delivered to the New York Times with an urgent appeal to publish it, and the newspaper initially agreed believing it was an expose ridiculing President Donald Trump and the Trump Administration, but declined when it became obvious that the letter is about criticism of Israel, instead.
The writer is a satire official in the New York Times newspaper mind.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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