One media watchdog organization, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), has put up a billboard across from The New York Times office as a reminder of children who were kidnapped in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel.
The billboard, titled “KIDNAPPED,” features a photo of “five-year-old Raz and three-year-old Aviv Asher who were taken hostage while visiting their grandmother’s village near the Gaza border in Israel,” according to CAMERA.
“Antisemites are tearing down hostage posters,” the billboard declares. “Why Is the New York Times Whitewashing This Jew-Hatred?”
“Our hope is that journalists and editors at The New York Times will see this billboard and do a little soul-searching about their frequently biased and inaccurate reporting about the Jewish people and the Jewish state,” CAMERA Executive Director Andrea Levin said in a statement.
PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTORS SWARM NEW YORK TIMES HEADQUARTERS CALLING FOR CEASE-FIRE IN GAZA
The group is predicting that “approximately 100,000 individuals will view its billboard each day.”
CAMERA has previously called out the Times for “both-siding” debate over the Israel-Hamas war after it released an Oct. 31 report headlined, “How Posters of Kidnapped Israelis Ignited a Firestorm on American Sidewalks,” dove into the polarization of the posters. Some videos have gone viral of citizens tearing down photos of kidnapped Israelis.
“Displaying the posters has become a form of activism, keeping the more than 200 hostages seized by Hamas in full view of the public. But removing the posters has quickly emerged as its own form of protest — a release valve and also a provocation by those anguished by what they say was the Israeli government’s mistreatment of Palestinians in the years before Oct. 7 and since the bombing of Gaza began,” Times reporter Katherine Rosman wrote.
“The way The New York Times framed the issue has the effect of justifying the poster vandalism, which is often accompanied by hateful invective against Israel. What we see from The New York Times is an effort to give the vandals an opportunity to rationalize their unethical behavior, as if they were misunderstood freedom fighters,” senior researcher for CAMERA Gilead Ini said.
“By ‘both-siding’ this, The New York Times creates a false sense of moral balance between the two groups, granting legitimacy to the vandals’ actions, making it appear the vandalism is as valid as the action of those trying to highlight the suffering of the hostages,” Ini said.
The Times defended itself for its reporting.
“This is a thoughtful and carefully-reported piece of journalism that accurately portrays a complex issue sparking real divisiveness in New York and across the country. Reporting out anything less than the reality of the situation would be journalistically irresponsible,” a Times spokesperson told Fox News Digital last week.
The New York Times did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media.
