Author Archives: James North

Did Philip Gourevitch rush to the Congo partly to protect his tarnished reputation?

Posted on December 7, 2012 by James North

Why is a well-known American journalist still covering up for Rwanda and Paul Kagame?

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 2 Comments

Will Israel’s government investigate the Israeli billionaire who is looting the Congo?

Posted on December 6, 2012 by James North

An Israeli mining magnate is robbing the poorest nation on earth

Posted in Israeli Government | 8 Comments

‘New York Times’ reporter in Congo is revealed as incompetent

Posted on December 5, 2012 by James North

Canadian reporter shows that the ‘NYT’ was guided through a Potemkin village

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 5 Comments

‘New York Times’ failure on Congo is becoming chronic

Posted on November 26, 2012 by James North

America’s ‘newspaper of record’ continues to bungle the Congo story

Posted in US Politics | 1 Comment

‘New York Times’ Congo coverage goes from ‘F’ to ‘D-minus’

Posted on November 23, 2012 by James North

A modest improvement today in the ‘NYT’s’ dismal coverage of the Congo disaster

Posted in Media | 7 Comments

‘New York Times’ fails dismally again, this time in Congo

Posted on November 22, 2012 by James North

A New York Times reporter romanticizes Congo “rebels’” and misses the bigger, awful story

Posted in Media | 17 Comments

‘New York Times’ covers up a key Netanyahu motive for the vicious Gaza attack

Posted on November 15, 2012 by James North

America’s leading newspaper ignores the Gaza assault as part of the Israeli prime minister’s election campaign

Posted in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, US Politics | 13 Comments

Stop calling him ‘Bibi’

Posted on October 12, 2012 by James North

Biden called Netanyahu Bibi over and over again in the debate last night– because the press does so. And when the press calls him “Bibi,” they humanize him in an affectionate way, making him out to be a bumbler– like one of the inept thieves in the movie Home Alone. When in fact he’s the prime minister of a militant and colonial state that imprisons thousands and that lately whitewashed the killing of a 23-year-old American woman

Posted in Israel/Palestine | Tagged | 58 Comments

Excellent news for the third world

Posted on September 5, 2012 by James North

Big oil, gas and mining companies will now have to publish their payments to third world governments.

Posted in US Politics | 6 Comments

A modest lexicographic proposal

Posted on August 26, 2012 by James North

Language matters, and using the word “settlements” by itself is biased

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Occupation | 52 Comments

Rudoren writes up settler/colonist leader as ‘worldly, pragmatic’ wine-lover

Posted on August 18, 2012 by James North

Are other readers of the New York Times as enraged as I am by the latest piece from the paper’s new Jerusalem bureau chief, Jodi Rudoren? It’s a glowing profile of settler/colonist leader Dani Dayan, suitable for framing on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 55 Comments

Is the mainstream press ignoring the Congo because there is no ‘Islamic threat’?

Posted on July 24, 2012 by James North

Do the Congolese people have to start a jihad to draw attention to their suffering?

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 22 Comments

Why is Obama winking at the military coup in Egypt?

Posted on June 19, 2012 by James North

Egyptian military council dissolves the legislature and disqualifies presidential candidate and renders presidential winner ‘toothless.’ US says nothing

Posted in Arab Spring, Egypt, US Policy in the Middle East | 43 Comments

Egypt is looted, and the U.S. press calls it ‘reform’

Posted on March 13, 2012 by James North

Neoliberals and market Bolsheviks have privatized industries in Egypt, and the result is crony capitalism

Posted in Arab Spring, Egypt, Middle East, US Policy in the Middle East | 14 Comments

Does the US have anything to teach Egyptians about democracy?

Posted on February 6, 2012 by James North

When will the Egyptian Democratic institute come to the U.S. and lecture Americans on how to excercise the popular will?

Posted in Arab Spring, Egypt, Middle East | 7 Comments

Pamela Olson to speak in New York City tonight

Posted on January 30, 2012 by James North

Oklahoma-raised author of Fast Times in Palestine will be in Chelsea tonight

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 5 Comments

Moral dilemmas in everyday life in Egypt

Posted on January 14, 2012 by James North

Greatest danger to Egypt’s future is not politically-sophisticated Muslim Brotherhood but military/industrial elite– called “felool”, or “remnants”

Posted in Arab Spring, Egypt, On the ground reports | Tagged | 6 Comments

Egypt’s history through British-colored glasses

Posted on January 11, 2012 by James North

Muslim Brotherhood began as anticolonial movement. And Nasser had audacity to demand nationalization of canal Egyptians died to build

Posted in Arab Spring, Egypt | 16 Comments

Learning from Egypt: the case of the criminal billionaire Ahmed Ezz

Posted on December 27, 2011 by James North

Prison sentence for corrupt billionaire Ahmed Ezz is yet another way the Arab spring can school American progressive movement

Posted in Arab Spring, Egypt | 4 Comments

Bias in the Great Library at Alexandria?

Posted on December 21, 2011 by James North

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in Alexandria, Egypt, was blasted for having the ‘Protocols of Elders of Zion’ in an exhibit. A reporter visits and finds a very different scene.

Posted in Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Middle East | Tagged | 66 Comments

Terrific young Israeli journalists are indispensable

Posted on October 17, 2011 by James North

Some of the young Israeli journalists who started the vital web-based magazine 972mag.com are in the United States to promote their new venture, and I was lucky enough to meet them here in New York City, at the premises of … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 15 Comments

Two strikes for Ethan Bronner; does he get a third?

Posted on September 25, 2011 by James North

Once again, the New York Times’s public editor has taken the paper’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, to the woodshed for conflict of interest. This time, Bronner was caught (by the tireless Max Blumenthal) getting paid to give speeches by … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 16 Comments

‘Liberal Orientalism’ is also misleading

Posted on September 9, 2011 by James North

Liberal Orientalism can be just as misguided as the more conservative variety. One recent example, a book by a young American journalist/poet named Eliza Griswold, sold briskly in hardcover and is just now appearing in paperback. The title summarizes the … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 29 Comments

Shamai Leibowitz, a moral giant

Posted on September 6, 2011 by James North

Daily newspapers are supposed to put the most important news right at the top.  But today’s New York Times article about Shamai Leibowitz leaking documents to blogger Richard Silverstein waits until the 6th paragraph, on an inside page, to tell us … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 42 Comments

Bad interventions, and a few good ones– which was Libya?

Posted on August 28, 2011 by James North

The Qaddafi family is apparently about to fall in Libya, and I am still not sure exactly what I think about the Western military intervention to support the rebels. What does it matter what I, an American citizen with no … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 42 Comments