Changes

The '''Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)''' is a powerful Boston-based lobby group that tries was founded in 1982 to "respond to curb criticism the Washington Post’s coverage of Israel’s Lebanon incursion, and to the paper’s general anti-Israel in US mediabias" according to the organization's website.<ref name=history>CAMERA [https://www.camera.org/about/history/ History] organizational site, accessed May 3, 2019</ref>

Founded In the 1980s CAMERA had chapters in Washington, D.C. New York, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Boston which was led by [[Charles JacobsAndrea Levin]] in the wake of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon it claims . According to be "a media-monitoringCAMERA, its 1989 Boston conference “The Media, research and membership organization devoted to promoting accurate The Message and balanced coverage of Israel and the The Middle East"was "a large step forward. According to its website, it "systematically monitors[[Norman Podhoretz]], documentsprofessors [[Alan Dershowitz]], reviews [[Ruth Wisse]], [[Jerrold Auerbach]] and archives Middle East coverage" [[David Wyman]] joined Levin and its staffers "directly contact reportersthe Boston chapter’s Deputy Director, editors[[Charles Jacobs]], producers and publishers concerning distorted or inaccurate coverageas speakers at the conference. Afterward, offering factual information Meiselman passed on leadership to refute errors"Levin, and the Boston office became the headquarters.[http://www.camera.org<ref name=history/index.asp?x_context=24]>

According to its an interview with Levin Executive Directorof CAMERA, what sets it apart from other media watch-dog watching groups is that do not focus on Israel are "in no way comparable to CAMERA with its "sizable paying, activist membership.". <ref>Manfred Gerstenfeld [http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-33.htmPost-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism]Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, accessed May 3, 2019</ref>

In April 2008, the website [[Electronic Intifada]] published emails sent to a group of CAMERA members organized to impact the online encyclopedia [[Wikipedia]]'s coverage of Israel and [[Palestine]] issues. Electronic Intifada claimed that in the emails, CAMERA Senior Research Analyst [[Gilead Ini]] stressed the effort should be secret, and counseled members to avoid "picking a user name that marks you as pro-Israel, or that lets people know your real name." Wikipedia, too, tells users: "You should strongly consider choosing a username that is not connected to you." He also instructed members to "always log in" under their user names, so that Wikipedia would not "record your computer's IP address."<ref name="login">[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&type=International Office=signup&returnto=Main_Page Wikipedia login page]</ref> While directing CAMERA members to certain articles on Israel and Palestine, Ini cautioned that new Wikipedia users should "avoid editing Israel-related articles for a short period of time," so as not to develop reputations as "one-topic editors." <ref name="Wikipedia">"[http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9474.shtml EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia]," Electronic Intifada, April 21, 2008.</ref>

In 2005Ini has also publicly called on people to edit Wikipedia, CAMERA established an office suggesting that "is that if more fair-minded people participate in the Wikipedia experiment, the problems can be minimized."<ref>"[http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=118&x_article=1485 How and Why to Edit Wikipedia," Gilead Ini, camera.org, 5/3/08].</ref> Ini asserted in Israel as the Jewish Exponent that the initiative was meant to "offset" problems with Wikipedia's articles. "Convinced that directing more well -intentioned individuals to participate in the Wikipedia experiment could help offset the site’s problems," he wrote, "we sent a notice to monitor Israeli our members calling for volunteers to learn about and international mediaedit Wikipedia’s often-skewed entries about the Middle East."<ref>"[http://www.jewishexponent. The organization identified the British press com/article/16372 Wikipedia: World Wide Web's Wild, Wild West of Inaccuracy," Gilead Ini, Jewish Exponent, June 12, 2008].</ref> He charged Electronic Intifada with "disingenuously spinning [an online discussion forum] as a particular area of concernnefarious plot" in a letter to Harper's Magazine, singling out ''The Independent'and added that "CAMERA repeatedly urged all who read the forum to follow Wikipedia' s guidelines, and continues to urge all who visit our website to work toward improving the flawed Wikipedia experiment."<ref>"[http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=5&x_outlet=196&x_article=1525 CAMERA Letter in Harper''The Guardian'' for closer scrutinys Magazine About Wikipedia Issues," 8/14/2008.]</ref>

A long-time Wikipedia editor, "Zeq," joined the group and suggested that some CAMERA members "stay away from any Israel realted [''sic''] articles," until building up enough support to become nominated as administrators, who help resolve controversies. "We will go to war after we have build [''sic''] our army," Zeq wrote. After the emails were published, Zeq was banned from editing Wikipedia for one year, for -- in [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents/Wikilobby_campaign&oldid=Modus Operandi207414931#No.2C_no the words of one Wikipedian] -- "recruit[ing] meatpuppets from off-wiki to push POV," a point of view. CAMERA responded by "temporarily or permanently" ending its Wikipedia email group, "in hopes that members' personal contact information will not be made public." <ref name="Wikipedia"/> ==Membership== According to CAMERA, the organization has over 65,000<ref name=history/> paying members and "thousands of active letter writers". The range of media monitored by CAMERA includes "all major print and electronic media in the United States as well as professional journals, websites, encyclopedias, travel guides, and so forth." [http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-33.htm] ==International office== In 2005, CAMERA established an office in Israel, to monitor Israeli and international media. The organization identified the British press as a particular area of concern, singling out ''The Independent'' and ''The Guardian'' for closer scrutiny. {{fact}} ==Student Fellowship Pilot Program ==  CAMERA also offers a Student Fellowship Pilot Program in which the fellows are taught to "counter campus media bias". The following account provides a good summation of the kind of education they receive: :We learned how to effectively respond to an inaccurate or unfair article about Israel with a letter-to-the-editor or an Op-Ed piece. Also, if an article contains a factual error, students should gather the information needed to document the error, and then press the editors for a correction. If bias is chronic at a particular paper, encourage university administrators to fund a new newspaper with higher editorial standards. :We also discussed strategies for dealing with anti-Israel professors. If a professor attempts to silence your views in the classroom, seek administrative assistance. If that fails, press for accountability by publicizing the problem.[http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=22&x_article=926] ==Campaigns==

In one of its media alerts, it CAMERA describes Israel's acclaimed historian [[Benny Morris]] as a "fabricator.". [http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=8&x_nameinnews=169&x_article=280]. It's Its other targets include [[Robert Fisk]], [[Israel Shahak]], [[Edward Said]], [[Norman Finkelstein]], [[John Pilger]], [[Ilan Pappe]], [[Amira Hass]] and [[Gideon Levy]]. It , and has even gone as far to accuse accused Israel's prominent daily [[Ha'aretz]] of fueling "anti-Israel bias.". [http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=6&x_article=171#hass]

The kind of inaccuracies that CAMERA claims to redress include substituting purported myths for real ones. The following quote from a CAMERA Student Fellow is instructive: "Is it true that Israel is not complying with [[U.N. resolution 242]], requiring withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967? Not at all. ''The resolution does not actually specify particular territories or the extent of the withdrawal''". [http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=22&x_article=926] (emphasis added)

In a May 7, 2002 , full-page ad in the ''New York Times'', CAMERA criticized the media for their lack of understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Palestinian violence was attributed not to the occupation or the alleged atrocities of the occupying army, but instead to the "hate education" to which they are subjectedin Palestinian society. (<ref>''The New York Observer'', May 13, 2002) .</ref>

Responding to CAMERA's criticisms of the "anti-Israel" bias in its Middle-East coverage, the Executive Editor and Publisher of the the ''New York Times'' attended a journalism forum at the University of California in 2002. The editors of the right-wing ''New York Post'' noted with some consternation that the majority of the criticism that came their way was for exactly the opposite. (''New York Post'', November 22, 2002).

CAMERA demands nothing short of an absolute reflection of the Israeli government position in the media as at times it has even complained about giving too much airtime to critics within Israel's own government. [[Ted Koppel was ]] has been taken to task for giving "twice the air time" to a whole group of critics on his ''Nightline'' as he did to the single supporter (''The Washington Times'', Oct 10, 1996).

===Measuring Success=success==

The successes that CAMERA claims include the ''[[New York Times]]'', ''[[Reuters'']], ''[[Public Broadcasting Service'']], and ''[[National Public Radio'']]. In the case of ''PBS'', CAMERA claims to have generated "more letter-writing complaints than they had ever received on any subject.". The organization also testified against the service in Congress. {{fact}} In an interview, CAMERA's executive director [[Andrea Levin]] was asked about her view of NPR . "We do not track them closely on any subject except ours. I can only reply in an impressionistic way. It seems that their consistent thematic line is excoriated for its "one that represents a very politically correct view of the world" . This means being highly critical of the United States and for putting U.S. intervention in [[Iraq]]. They put a "very heavy emphasis on all politically fashionable subjects such as gay and feminine rights as well as Palestinian rights,"she said. [http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-33.htm]

The organization's main publication is the ''CAMERA Media Report'' "a critique of bias and error that is sent to journalists, CAMERA members, libraries, synagogues, and Congress". CAMERA claims that its publications have even been seen in the Vice-President [[Dick Cheney|Cheney]]'s office. {{fact}}

[http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=22 ''CAMERA on Campus''] is a publication of CAMERA that tries to monitor and silence criticism of perceived inaccuracies about Israel on the campuses of various American institutions. The organization also distributes "tens of thousands of copies" of the publication "three times per year to more than 400 campuses in North America". [http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-33.htm]

In 2005 ''CAMERA on Campus'' played a prominent role in the campaign against to publicize perceived abuses by the Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) department at Columbia University, and even ran interviews with one of the chief crusaders, Prof. [[Alan Dershowitz]] of Harvard [http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1848], who himself was busy fending off accusations of plagiarising plagiarizing Joan Peter's 1984 hoax [[From Time Immemorial]] [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/24/1730205][http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn09262003.html], and trying to suppress [[Norman Finkelstein]]'s book in which the charge has been thoroughly documented.[http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=4&ar=1]

In an interesting development, CAMERA has also managed to get a spot on the otherwise critical source of radical news [[Pacifica Radio]]'s online feature AudioPort.{{fact}}

==Student Fellowship Pilot Program Staff== *[[Andrea Levin]], Executive Director

==Contact details==CAMERA also offers a Student Fellowship Pilot Program in which the fellows are taught to "counter campus media bias"<br>P. The following account provides a good summation of the kind of education they receiveO. Box 35040<br>Boston, MA 02135-0001<br>Tel: (617) 789-3672<br>Fax: (617) 787-7853<br>Email: feedback AT camera.org<br>Website: http://www.camera.org

:We also discussed strategies for dealing with anti-Israel professors. If a professor attempts to silence your views in the classroom===Sympathetic===*[[Manfred Gerstenfeld]], seek administrative assistance. If that fails, press for accountability by publicizing the problem."[http://www.camerajcpa.org/indexphas/phas-33.asp?x_context=22&x_article=926htm CAMERA: Fighting Distorted Media Coverage of Israel and the Middle East An Interview with Andrea Levin]", [[Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs]], No. 33, 1 June 2005.

==Staff=Critical===*[http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=18&region_id=13 FAIR: Region: Middle East] Hyperlinked list of items headed CounterSpin, Media Advisory, Activism Update, Extra!*In the ''[[Andrea LevinWashington Report on Middle East Affairs]]'' — an organization that CAMERA claims "promotes a virulently anti-Israel position" — 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, Executive Director has been more tolerant of Jews than Christians have been? CAMERA thinks so."[http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0793/9307029.htm CAMERA and FLAME: Pressuring U.S. Media]

==Contact details==Web[[Category: httpIsrael]][[category://www.camera.org/Lobby group]][[category:media]]