[Foundation-l] David Shankbone in Israel

[Brian McNeil]

David Shankbone's first report from Israel
(http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Israel_Journal:_The_Holy_Land_has_an_image_prob
lem) has provoked a bit of controversy. One reaction I got was "why the
segue into the COO issue?" It annoys me to see that the MSM are now picking
this up (the COO issue) and whilst The Register broke the story I don't
think they did anything beyond fact-check what their source told them.
Details from Wikinews' investigation have been lifted and written into
recent coverage of the issue, we did check the Reg. story and we found more
- including bankruptcy proceedings (PACER will give you a list of the
creditors).

 

Anyway, back to David in Israel, and I assume a fair number of people are
aware this is an expenses-paid trip where the Israeli government and friends
are footing the bill. David's first piece seeks to say "here is the
stereotype, but that's not what I'm here for". If you read the talk you'll
see we have some people think you can't do any story about Israel without
going "OMG! Israel-Palestine! Car bombs! Terrorists! Human rights
violations! Israeli oppression!". I agree with David's argument that this is
like saying every coverage of the U.S. should have an aside about Camp Delta
in Guantanamo - and I *know* people who'd do that too - we've had to ban
idiots like that from Wikinews in the past.

 

I'd like people on the list to read this with a critical eye and see what
they think about Wikinews developing policies and structure to allow this
sort of reporting. Keep any eye out for David's forthcoming reports. The
indications I have from private email are that they're keeping their
journalist guests busy about 12-14 hours a day and if they don't have
breakfast with Israeli technologists it's probably the only meal of the day
they're getting off the job.  Not a holiday by any means.

 

 

Brian McNeil