Khody Akhavi, The Electronic Intifada, 30 March 2007
"WASHINGTON, Mar 26 (IPS) - A controversial documentary on the threat of radical Islam, promoted by the two most-watched U.S. cable news networks, was marketed and supported in part by self-described "pro-Israel" groups, according to an IPS investigation.
Abbreviated versions and segments of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West ran on FOX News and CNN, but neither station disclosed the film's connection to HonestReporting, a watchdog group that monitors the media for allegedly negative portrayals of Israel.
HonestReporting marketed Obsession but denies it produced or funded the project.
"We initially gave some guidance to the Obsession staff," wrote Pesach Bensen, editor of Mediabackspin.com, the organisation's weblog, in an email response to IPS. "We're thrilled to see it succeed beyond our wildest expectations."
When Obsession was released last year, news pundits and anchors on FOX and CNN praised the independent film for its candid look at Islamic militancy. FOX incorporated footage from the film into a one-hour special, which aired seven times in November 2006. CNN's right-wing pundit Glen Beck called it "one of the most important films of our time". Sean Hannity of FOX News described it as "shocking beyond belief".
While such enthusiasm from right-wing talk show personalities comes as no surprise, mainstream cable news programmes also appeared to accept, without question, the premise of the film, which explicitly compares the threat posed by radical Islam to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s......
HonestReporting was founded in 2000 by British university students who objected to what they considered anti-Israel coverage by European media in response to the second Palestinian intifada.
There is no mention of HonestReporting's connection to Obsession on the film's website, www.obsessionthemovie.com. In an online "Ask the Filmmakers" segment on the FOX News website, Shore stated that he could not identify the film's funders for fear of retaliation by the "radicals" the filmmakers exposed.....
According to the New York Times, when a Middle East discussion group organised a screening at New York University earlier this year, distributors of the film required those in attendance to register at IsraelActivism.com, the official website of the Hasbara fellowships.
The programme, also known as the Jerusalem fellowships, was started in 2001 by Aish Hatorah -- an Orthodox Jewish outreach organisation and yeshiva based in East Jerusalem -- in conjunction with Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to its website, the group "educates and trains university students to be effective pro-Israel activists on their campuses" by providing its participants with "tools, resources and confidence to return to their campuses as leaders in the fight for Israel's image."
Aish Hatorah helped found HonestReporting. Rabbi Ephraim Shore, the president of HonestReporting, also helped found Hasbara....."
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