Palestinian journalists confess: Hamas intimidates journalists to distort accurate reporting of Palestinian / Israel realities

Arab reporters protest Palestinian intimidation skewing honesty of Palestinian-based reporting Al Quds quotes an Asharq Alawsat article saying that journalists in Gaza impose self-censorship for fear of arrest - or worse - by Hamas. Over the two years of rule by the Islamic Movement, the freedom of the press is nonexistent in the Gaza Strip, according to journalists. Reham Abdel-Karim, Director of the Office of MBC in Gaza, told Asharq Alawsat, "There is no freedom ... Freedom here means to express the views of the governing party only."   Reham Abdel-Karim describes the press in Gaza as having become a mirror of the ruling party, and acting otherwise causes questioning. "We received a lot of calls and threats. [Hamas] tried various means, including diplomacy and the threat of direct action." He said, "I received an anonymous phone call threatening me with death if I covered events commemorating the death of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat," pointing out that the contacts are all-encompassing: "They contact us by name, one by one, and threatened us with death." (Hat-tip Elder of Ziyon).

Wall St. Journal's Pulitzer-prize-winner slams mainstream press' subjective scrutiny of candidates as 'not journalism, but show-biz'

Political cartoonist, Michael Ramirez, characterizes the lack of journalistic integrity demonstrated by much of the mainstream media during this presidential campaign.

Despite numerous questionable associations, foibles, and imbroglios of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden, mainstream news editors have chosen to mainly ignore them to hyper-criticize Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin's candidacy.

Pulitzer-prize winning, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board member, Dorothy Rabinowitz, comments on the level of intellectual capacity the TV networks attempt to pass-off as broadcast journalism.

Ms. Rabinowitz refers to CNN-anchor Campbell Brown as

"One of the least informed people I have ever met holding forth on television."

Ms. Rabinowitz claims that this explains why she believes Ms. Brown has been so nasty towards Republican vice-presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin: "She sees her own."