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Monday, November 05, 2007
Ignoring the home team(s)
The Israel Matzav blog was the first (to my knowledge) to point out a very telling slight on the part of Israel's premier leftist rag; Haaretz. Apparently they were in such a rush to plug a liberal British blogger in the 2007 Weblog Awards that they completely ignored the fact that several Israeli blogs (including, ahem, your humble host) are also finalists.
Here is what Carl of Israel Matzav had to say:
Haaretz does feature on leftist British Rabbi in Weblog Awards; Ignores four Israeli blogs
HaAretz, Israel's Hebrew 'Palestinian' daily, has done a feature about a leftist British Rabbi whose blog is a finalist for a Weblog Award while ignoring at least four Israeli bloggers - all right wingers - who are also in the competition.
"Prominent British Jewish stand-up comedian and rapper MC Rebbe was named a finalist in the world's largest blog competition this week, with winners to be announced Thursday. MC Rebbe said his was the only blog with a purely Jewish focus to reach the finals in the competition's Culture Blog category, out of nearly 4,000 short-listed entries."
Haaretz finds MC Rebbe attractive because
"Asked his opinion on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he said "I would happily perform alongside Palestinian comedians. Anything that breaks down barriers and gets people from either side of the divide interacting with each other."
The rest of us are not so Multi Culti.
The blogs Haaretz ignores include Mother in Israel and Treppenwitz in the Best Middle East and Africa Blog, Random Thoughts in the Best of the Top 2501 - 3500 Blogs, and yours truly (Israel Matzav) in the Best of the Top 251-500 Blogs.
I wish I could find fault with his reasoning, but as usual Haaretz eschews the most basic journalistic niceties (e.g. background, context, related local connections, etc.) in order to ram home their agenda.
However in my humble opinion, Haaretz also did a grave disservice to MC Rebbe by not linking to his blog. Here you have an article about a blogger and you don't link to his blog??? Idiots! Note to Haaretz: If you need help with some of the trickier HTML tags (e.g. < a href="...), just drop me a note. I'll be happy to do you a solid.
The only saving grace is that I was pretty much doomed to get creamed even if I had received a mention from Haaretz.
Posted by David Bogner on November 5, 2007 | Permalink
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I think it's most Hebrew newspapers that eschew things like context and local connections. The approach to journalism and journalistic writing is simply very different here.
And Ha'aretz openly acknowledges that they are a left-wing, secular newspaper. It's interesting that their left-wingness continues to amaze people, when they aren't exactly pretending to be unbiased. Why should you expect them to be anything other than what they say they are?
Posted by: Sarah | Nov 5, 2007 6:35:33 PM
Well....there's no disgrace in getting whupped by Michael Totten or Iraq the Model, two blogs that are very popular among the milbloggers. Number Three in that category is nothing to sneeze at.
You done good. :)
Posted by: Karl Newman | Nov 5, 2007 7:26:08 PM
"And Ha'aretz openly acknowledges that they are a left-wing, secular newspaper. It's interesting that their left-wingness continues to amaze people, when they aren't exactly pretending to be unbiased. Why should you expect them to be anything other than what they say they are?"
Sure, it's reasonable to expect Ha'aretz to sustain its left-wing stance. But why would that mean one would find acceptable their having featured MC Rebbe's claim to be the only Jewish-centred blog on the list without comment, as if it were true. That's conniving in a blatant misrepresentation, which goes way beyond bias. Maybe MC Rebbe is ignorant of the existence of the Israeli blogs; it can't possibly be true of Ha'aretz!
Posted by: Judy | Nov 6, 2007 2:55:58 AM
If only you'd be more "Multi Culti" -- you know, willing to perform along side Palestinian comedians who keep lobbing rockets your way (ha, ha, what a bunch of jokers) -- maybe you'd stand a chance.
Posted by: Bob | Nov 6, 2007 5:59:56 AM
Ha'aretz - isn't that short for Am Ha'aretz? :)
Posted by: psachya | Nov 6, 2007 11:13:37 AM
They should rename their paper to "KaKibbush" -- it would reflect their position much better.
Posted by: Jameel at the Muqata | Nov 6, 2007 11:41:01 AM
The fellow-pro-Zionism-aligned nominee (and the only such one in the Best Video Blog category), Democracy Broadcasting News, would be grateful for your vote. We're getting trounced by the leftist, Crooks & Liars. Help rescue us from 6th place, b'Kiddush Hashem. We're endorsing yours and all the sites you mentioned, as well.
Posted by: DemoCast | Nov 6, 2007 9:41:21 PM
I notice you don't link to MC Rebbe's blog either...
www.mcrebbe.com/blog
I suspect he was misquoted. If you read his blog you'll see he's not as "leftish" as some people seem to be suggesting!
Posted by: David | Nov 7, 2007 5:23:35 PM
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