FC: PBS purges website after complaints from Israeli groups

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: Anonymous User <anonymous () remailer havenco com>
To: declan () well com
Subject: PBS purges Web content on Israeli disapproval

>From The Register, available online at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26979.html

PBS purges Web content on Israeli disapproval

By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 05/09/2002 at 14:37 GMT

The US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is airing a documentary film
this week by affiliate WNET in New York, called "Caught in the
Crossfire: Arab-Americans in Wartime," which considers the predicament
of Arab-Americans since the 9/11 atrocity. In addition to the film is a
companion Web site offering background material for curious viewers.

Unfortunately, a few people disapproved of some of that material, and
PBS did exactly what any spineless pandering coward would do; they
buckled to pressure (or the fear of pressure) from New York's Jewish
and Israeli lobbying groups, and removed content from the companion
site which dares to tell the Palestinian story without the mandatory
pro-Israel bias.

Some of the purged, non-Kosher information may have been inaccurate,
according to this heavily-biased report by Ira Stoll in the New York
Sun. But the story's chief implication, that PBS buckled because it
feared that some diabolical cabal of well-heeled New York Jews could
obstruct its funding and shave its viewership makes this something of a
cyberattack -- or at least a cybersurrender.

[...]




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