Israel's Nuclear Plans

When I read the Sunday Times story that claimed Israel is planning a nuclear strike on Iran, I figured it was just a sensationalist report. Never did it occur to think more about the reporter who wrote the story or strategic considerations or anything beyond that.

Fortunately for us, the good people at Pajamas Media put some thought into it. Allison Kaplan Sommer writes:

One thing is clear: [Article author] Mahnaimi makes a regular habit of reporting that Israel is about to attack Iran. If his reporting was accurate, Iranian nuclear facilities would already be a smoking ruin – not once, but multiple times.

[...]

An unrelated story that nonetheless casts a big shadow on his credibility was published in 1998 when he reported on the Sunday Times front page that Israel was working on an “ethnically targeted” biological weapon that would kill or harm Arabs but not Jews quoting “Israeli military and western intelligence sources.”

In the so-called ethno-bomb, he reported, Israeli scientists were trying to exploit medical advances by identifying distinctive genes carried by some Arabs, and then engineer deadly microorganisms that attack only those bearing the distinctive genes.

I understand news reporting is not a science, but it's frustrating that editors continue to publish misleading material by reporters with obviously dubious records. Why wouldn't editors want readers to trust them? Surely, I'm not of a small minority who distrusts newspaper editors.

Jon N

Posted by Jon N at January 8, 2007 10:11 AM