Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America" in English language version.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link){{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)In what was probably not a very smart idea, Gilead Ini, a senior research analyst for Camera, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, put out an e-mail call for 10 volunteers "to help us keep Israel-related entries on Wikipedia from becoming tainted by anti-Israel editors." (Basically, anyone with a Web browser can edit articles on Wikipedia, which wreaks havoc with the site's treatment of controversial topics like ... the Middle East.) More than 50 sympathizers answered the call, and Ini put his campaign into motion.
In follow-up e-mails to his recruits, Ini emphasized the secrecy of the campaign: "There is no need to advertise the fact that we have these group discussions," he wrote. "Anti-Israel editors will seize on anything to try to discredit people who attempt to challenge their problematic assertions, and will be all too happy to pretend, and announce, that a 'Zionist' cabal . . . is trying to hijack Wikipedia."
That is certainly what the campaign looked like to the Electronic Intifada, a parallel-universe, pro-Palestinian news organization operating out of Chicago. Someone leaked four weeks' worth of communications from within Ini's organization, and the quotes weren't pretty. Describing the Wiki-campaign, a member of Ini's corps writes: "We will go to war after we have built an army, equiped [sic] it, trained." There is also some back-and-forth about the need to become Wikipedia administrators, to better influence the encyclopedia's articles.
He said the network has been targeted by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, which ran a full-page New York Times ad calling NPR's coverage "false" and "skewed" against Israel. The advertisement also urged NPR's financial backers to stop supporting the network.
In general, the methods employed by Camera seem to me to go beyond a reasonable call for accountability. It has, for instance, been involved in a long-running battle with NPR, National Public Radio, in Washington, over its Middle East coverage, organising demonstrations outside NPR stations across the US and seeking to persuade NPR's supporters to withhold funds.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)In what was probably not a very smart idea, Gilead Ini, a senior research analyst for Camera, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, put out an e-mail call for 10 volunteers "to help us keep Israel-related entries on Wikipedia from becoming tainted by anti-Israel editors." (Basically, anyone with a Web browser can edit articles on Wikipedia, which wreaks havoc with the site's treatment of controversial topics like ... the Middle East.) More than 50 sympathizers answered the call, and Ini put his campaign into motion.
In follow-up e-mails to his recruits, Ini emphasized the secrecy of the campaign: "There is no need to advertise the fact that we have these group discussions," he wrote. "Anti-Israel editors will seize on anything to try to discredit people who attempt to challenge their problematic assertions, and will be all too happy to pretend, and announce, that a 'Zionist' cabal . . . is trying to hijack Wikipedia."
That is certainly what the campaign looked like to the Electronic Intifada, a parallel-universe, pro-Palestinian news organization operating out of Chicago. Someone leaked four weeks' worth of communications from within Ini's organization, and the quotes weren't pretty. Describing the Wiki-campaign, a member of Ini's corps writes: "We will go to war after we have built an army, equiped [sic] it, trained." There is also some back-and-forth about the need to become Wikipedia administrators, to better influence the encyclopedia's articles.