Deceipt At The Washington Times
Deceit and pressure can take other forms. The Washington Times (circulation 100,000) has dodged responsibility for severe breach of journalistic integrity and ethics by one of its reporters, Paul Martin. The paper's reputation was tarnished by the refusal to fully admit and come clean on Martin's faking of report's under a fake reporter's name (Sayed Anwar), fake dateline (Bethlehem), dodgy facts, and most egregious for purporting to be an Arab "spilling the beans" on his own people. Paul Martin, based in London created a fictional name called Sayed Anwar as a reporter for the Washington Times. The fictional Mr. "Anwar" (i.e. Paul Martin) published pieces of propaganda masquerading as an Arab telling of horrible Palestinian attacks in Bethlehem. Examples of these reports are found at:
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020513-2162940.htm
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020523-702805.htm
The Washington Times later admitted the fictional nature of this character to Howard Kurtz who wrote about it in a Washington Post Column May 26, 2002. However, Mr. Kurtz appeared to accept the WT impromptu excuse which was never published in the Washington Times. Kurtz's article is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14749-2002May26.html
However, when I called the Washington Times offices on June 5th, 2002 an assistant to Mr. David Jones (Foreign Desk editor) stated that letters could be forwarded to Mr. Anwar through their office. Later and in direct correspondence Mr. Jones stated that there was fear of the reporter being subjected to dangers and hence the pseudonym. He indicated that he was not in charge at the time this has transpired. He stated that, had he been involved, he would have insisted on published reports spelling out the use of a pseudonym and he would not have accepted the use of an Arabic pseudonym rather than an Anglo one. But the facts are:
1) We were informed that the acting foreign editor of the WT admitted that at least one story was written after Martin left the Middle East and was stationed in London. Thus, the use of the excuse of danger to Martin's life would not be tenable. Further, many reporters regularly report biased and highly damaging stories regarding Palestinians and none were ever targeted by Palestinian militants. By contrast, journalist associations and human rights organizations have reported targeting of Journalists by Israeli forces. Even the report by the US State Department on Israel acknowledged the IDF shooting at journalists: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8262.htm
2) To this date, there has not been a published acknowledgment of this deceit with an apology to the readers not only for not stating that a WT reporter was writing under a pseudonym but also, and more significantly, for using an Arab name on reports written by Paul Martin.
3) Mr. Paul Martin was writing his material (both under his name and under the pseudonym) in close communication with the Israeli settler propagandist David Bedein of http://www.israelbehindthenews.com. The latter web page prominently displays the Washington Times articles (but it states that Sayed Nawal is a pseudonym). This further diminishes the Washington Times credibility.
The pattern of deceit and dodging the facts to tell a story is bad enough. Doing it under an Arabic name is unforgivable. The Washington Times should have instituted disciplinary action against this reporter including at least reassignment to cover other parts of the world. Further, the Times should have published a full article explaining the disciplinary action taken and correcting the record for its readers. But the fact this reporter and others like him are connected to the Zionist establishment causes fear and trepidations. |