New York Times Buries Muslim Brotherhood Connection to Hamas
On April 2nd, The New York Times published a piece by Ethan Bronner titled, "In Israel, Time for Peace Offer May Run Out." In the piece, Bronner discussed various aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including statehood, violence, peace talks, religion, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
But while Bronner spent many paragraphs detailing the difficulties in establishing peace between Israel and Palestine, it wasn't until the 2nd page that he Donner admitted a "central obstacle to the establishment of a State of Palestine" is the political and physical divide between the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza. The more moderate PA has suggested elections for a unified government in both territories.
"But Hamas, worried it would lose such elections and hopeful that the regional turmoil could work in its favor - that Egypt, for example, might be taken over by its ally, the Muslim Brotherhood - has reacted coolly," Bronner wrote. After 1,138 words, he finally made a crucial connection between the terrorists of Hamas and the supposedly moderate Muslim Brotherhood - and obliquely showed that Hamas is more interested in killing Jews than in establishing a Palestinian state.
Unfortunately by burying this vital information, Bronner and The New York Times follow a path similar to the mainstream media reporting on the Muslim Brotherhood. For 17 years, ABC, CBS and NBC have mentioned the Muslim Brotherhood in hundreds of stories but only linked the group to fundamentalist Islam or "extremism" in 37 percent of those stories.
For the most part, the networks chose to stick with the meme that the Brotherhood is "peaceful" and "moderate," even "charitable." And even in the wake of the Egyptian uprising in January, the networks glossed over the Brotherhood's violence, only linking 32 percent of stories to radical Islam, violence and extremism.
