Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

Betraying Truth:
Ethics Abuse in Middle East Reporting
Kenneth Lasson*
This article presents a brief overview of press freedom under the First
Amendment, attempts to create a working definition of media “objectivity,”
examines various codes of professional ethics for journalists, and
analyzes specific cases in which such standards have allegedly been
abused or abandoned in Middle East reporting.
The duty of the journalist is . . .seeking truth and providing a fair and
comprehensive account of events and issues.
— Preamble, Code of Ethics, Society of Professional Journalists
In a world at once increasingly chaotic and historically interconnected,
the news media have come to play unprecedented roles both in the virtually
instantaneous recording of fast-moving events and in influencing the occurrence
and evolution of those events themselves.
This phenomenon has been amply illustrated over the past half-century–often
with utter clarity and sometimes profoundly–in the protracted
conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, which has been as much a
war of words as it has been of armed battles, suicide bombings, and other
brutally random acts of terror.
Thus has it become more essential than ever to require that the media
be encouraged toward professional responsibility while at the same time
being held accountable for ethical failures. How can this be accomplished
in a free society in which journalists are protected from recrimination for
what they speak and write–such as in the United States, where the First
Amendment both shields the press from governmental interference and
grants it broad power to disseminate information as it sees fit? 1
The media, of course, are not beyond reproach. Freedom of the press
does not mean immunity from criticism. Reputable journalists abide by
standards that, though largely self-imposed, are presumed to be honestly
applied. When these principles are abrogated, violators should be taken to
task.
Nowhere has this responsibility been more tested than in the Middle
* Professor of Law, University of Baltimore. Many thanks to Eric Easton and
Eric Rozenman for their thoughtful comments on the manuscript.
1. “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press.” U.S. Const. amend. I.
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