The Media Has Rights, And Responsibilities

Your September 23 article regarding Sheldon Adelson, Ronald Lauder, and Israel’s Channel 10, “American Billionaire Sparks Israeli Media Furor,” misses the main point.

The article asserts only the media’s rights, and ignores the media’s responsibilities, in reporting news. You report that a number of editors at Channel 10 resigned when they were forced to issue an apology for an investigative piece that looked at Adelson’s influence and connections. But you do not report on Channel 10’s failure to fact-check its original story, which is what required the on-air apology in which the station admitted that the original allegations it reported were false.

Channel 10’s personnel were indignant that they were required to apologize for their professional journalistic failure. They evidenced no remorse at their own lack of professionalism. As a newspaper that does fact check its own stories, the Forward should have reported on this, as well. And perhaps the Forward could editorialize that the poor, as well as the rich (and not to the exclusion of the rich), should have a vehicle to require the media to report accurately about their concerns, also.

Michael S. Goldstein

Beachwood, Ohio

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