Berl Falbaum
When “60 Minutes” smells blood in the water, the venerable investigative program goes to the remotest corners of the world to get answers.
No one can escape its correspondents and camera crews. If their subjects refuse to respond, the program will let its viewers know.
But apparently it does not like to be questioned or answer other journalists’ questions.
After the program ran two segments, segments I considered terribly one-sided and distorted on the Hamas-Israel war only 12 weeks apart (January 12 and April 6), I had questions and sought answers.
I sent three emails and made one phone call in which I said I was writing a column on its coverage and, in the “60 Minutes” tradition of fairness, I wanted to interview someone about the two programs.
To my utter surprise (not really), I received no response. So, on the mere chance that program reads this column, here are some of my questions:
• In the January 12 episode, correspondent Cecilia Vega, using a statistic from a medical magazine, “Lancet,” estimated that 70,000 Gazans may have died in the war. That number was about 25,000 higher than even the Hamas Heath Ministry says have died. Why did she use that estimate and why did she not mention the number of combatants that have been killed?
• Vega alerts us that we will see children playing with ammunition casings and “a close look reveals where they come from — the Department of Defense.” Why is that so “suspicious,” as the question implies, when the Biden administration announced it sent 50,000 tons of military aid to Israel? Why the follow up indictment that this comes “in the form of taxpayer-funded weapons”?
Much of the segment is devoted to Vega interviewing two former State Department officials, Hala Rharrit, and Josh Paul. Both told Vega they resigned because of U.S. support for Israel, which they accused of humanitarian abuses.
Why wasn’t any of the following reported:
Rharrit spoke last August on a panel sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which charged Israel with committing genocide.
The title of the program? “Muslim Resignees Speak: How Islamophobia & Anti-Palestinian Racism Fuel Biden Administration’s Gaza Policy.”
CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, wrote that Rharrit has repeatedly appeared on behalf of CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2009 Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial, the largest terrorism financing case in U.S. history. Why wasn’t this mentioned?
As to Paul, why didn’t Vega mention that Paul resigned just 12 days after October 7? He obviously did not resign because of Israel’s “abuses”; the war was in its infancy.
Why no reference to the fact that Paul, after his resignation, became a senior advisor for DAWN, whose chairman, Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of CAIR, praised Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, saying he was “happy to see” Palestinians “break the siege” of the Gaza Strip?
Now, to the April 6 piece in which correspondent Scott Pelley focused on the plight of Gazan’s children.
• Why two pieces on the relatively same subject in 12 weeks?
• You cite that 50,000 Gazans have been killed; your colleague said 70,000, and like others in the media, neither of you reported on combatants killed. Why?
• Why choose children in Gaza as your subject? Here is what the United Nations International Emergency Fund (UNICEF) had to say about the suffering of children in present wars around the world:
“By almost every measure, 2024 was one of the worst years on record for children living in conflict zones in UNICEF’s history. More than one in six children globally now live in areas affected by conflict, forced to face unthinkable violations.
“In the Sudan, for instance, UNICEF reports that 30 million people are in need of aid, more than half (that’s 15 million!) of them children who face daily violence and sexual assault.”
• Given the horrendous numbers, wouldn’t the Sudan have made an even more tragic story? The International Rescue Committee calls Sudan the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.”
• Isn’t using children exploitation? Did you have to broadcast the wounds the children suffered? Did your cameramen have to give close ups of the injuries? Didn’t you add to their emotional and psychological distress with your questions?
• Why no mention that Hamas fights from civilian infrastructures, that civilian deaths are part of its strategy to put Israel on the defensive? Frequently, it has fired at its own people.
As I have written frequently, the suffering in Gaza is horrendous; it deserves to be covered. And Israel, like any country, should be held accountable when warranted. But the reporting needs to be balanced and in context. The two “60 Minutes” segments fall into the category of propaganda.
The above include only some of the questions I have. Of course, I can understand why you would not want to answer them.
So, I am thinking about coming to your offices with a camera crew and ringing your doorbell. And like a “60 Minutes” technique, the camera crews will be filming while I wait for the door to open.
No one can escape its correspondents and camera crews. If their subjects refuse to respond, the program will let its viewers know.
But apparently it does not like to be questioned or answer other journalists’ questions.
After the program ran two segments, segments I considered terribly one-sided and distorted on the Hamas-Israel war only 12 weeks apart (January 12 and April 6), I had questions and sought answers.
I sent three emails and made one phone call in which I said I was writing a column on its coverage and, in the “60 Minutes” tradition of fairness, I wanted to interview someone about the two programs.
To my utter surprise (not really), I received no response. So, on the mere chance that program reads this column, here are some of my questions:
• In the January 12 episode, correspondent Cecilia Vega, using a statistic from a medical magazine, “Lancet,” estimated that 70,000 Gazans may have died in the war. That number was about 25,000 higher than even the Hamas Heath Ministry says have died. Why did she use that estimate and why did she not mention the number of combatants that have been killed?
• Vega alerts us that we will see children playing with ammunition casings and “a close look reveals where they come from — the Department of Defense.” Why is that so “suspicious,” as the question implies, when the Biden administration announced it sent 50,000 tons of military aid to Israel? Why the follow up indictment that this comes “in the form of taxpayer-funded weapons”?
Much of the segment is devoted to Vega interviewing two former State Department officials, Hala Rharrit, and Josh Paul. Both told Vega they resigned because of U.S. support for Israel, which they accused of humanitarian abuses.
Why wasn’t any of the following reported:
Rharrit spoke last August on a panel sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which charged Israel with committing genocide.
The title of the program? “Muslim Resignees Speak: How Islamophobia & Anti-Palestinian Racism Fuel Biden Administration’s Gaza Policy.”
CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, wrote that Rharrit has repeatedly appeared on behalf of CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2009 Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial, the largest terrorism financing case in U.S. history. Why wasn’t this mentioned?
As to Paul, why didn’t Vega mention that Paul resigned just 12 days after October 7? He obviously did not resign because of Israel’s “abuses”; the war was in its infancy.
Why no reference to the fact that Paul, after his resignation, became a senior advisor for DAWN, whose chairman, Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of CAIR, praised Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, saying he was “happy to see” Palestinians “break the siege” of the Gaza Strip?
Now, to the April 6 piece in which correspondent Scott Pelley focused on the plight of Gazan’s children.
• Why two pieces on the relatively same subject in 12 weeks?
• You cite that 50,000 Gazans have been killed; your colleague said 70,000, and like others in the media, neither of you reported on combatants killed. Why?
• Why choose children in Gaza as your subject? Here is what the United Nations International Emergency Fund (UNICEF) had to say about the suffering of children in present wars around the world:
“By almost every measure, 2024 was one of the worst years on record for children living in conflict zones in UNICEF’s history. More than one in six children globally now live in areas affected by conflict, forced to face unthinkable violations.
“In the Sudan, for instance, UNICEF reports that 30 million people are in need of aid, more than half (that’s 15 million!) of them children who face daily violence and sexual assault.”
• Given the horrendous numbers, wouldn’t the Sudan have made an even more tragic story? The International Rescue Committee calls Sudan the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.”
• Isn’t using children exploitation? Did you have to broadcast the wounds the children suffered? Did your cameramen have to give close ups of the injuries? Didn’t you add to their emotional and psychological distress with your questions?
• Why no mention that Hamas fights from civilian infrastructures, that civilian deaths are part of its strategy to put Israel on the defensive? Frequently, it has fired at its own people.
As I have written frequently, the suffering in Gaza is horrendous; it deserves to be covered. And Israel, like any country, should be held accountable when warranted. But the reporting needs to be balanced and in context. The two “60 Minutes” segments fall into the category of propaganda.
The above include only some of the questions I have. Of course, I can understand why you would not want to answer them.
So, I am thinking about coming to your offices with a camera crew and ringing your doorbell. And like a “60 Minutes” technique, the camera crews will be filming while I wait for the door to open.
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