Letter In Vain?
Traditionally, one of the more supportive publications, I have been shocked by the deterioration of the Israel coverage in the Wall Street Journal. Interestingly enough, the editorials continue to be balanced, but the articles are not anymore.
I thought, therefore, I would drop them a line and find out why this might be while reminding them of some home truths in the battle for truth; in the battle for people’s minds.
I don’t suppose they will dare print my letter, but I thought the schism in factual reporting in a reputable newspaper needs to be highlighted, and so I reproduce it here.
In these days of immediate gratification offered by online media and social media, banner headlines seem to be the panacea for attention deficit disorder in the printed domain.
There are those of us who prefer in-depth analysis purportedly offered by respectable publications such as yours. On the other hand, we are already put off by those very same banner headlines, which are misleading, and which are no longer addressed or detailed in the body of the article. You used to mention in the body of your articles that the number of Gazan fatalities was provided by Hamas themselves and that the number of combatant terrorists among them killed in action was not pointed out. You no longer do so. Why not?
Today, September 18, 2025, the headline blares “Israel Presses Gaza Incursion As Death Toll Surpasses 65,000.” You cite the source of this data as “local health officials.” In other words, you happily accept statistics provided to you by Hamas or through the Hamas-controlled ‘Ministry of Health.’ It is widely recognized that those numbers are routinely inflated to garner support and sympathy on the world political stage, which also blindly accepts unverified data, failing to take into account the number of terrorist combatants eliminated. It does not take into account those who died of natural causes. It does not take into account the number of Gaza civilians who perished while being employed as human shields by Hamas in their homes, schools, hospitals, and mosques.
On September 15, 2025, your headline screamed from the front page, “Putin, Netanyahu March On With Trump On The Sidelines.” Putting Putin and Netanyahu in the same headline also misleads your readers.
Putin’s Russia invaded a neighboring sovereign state (not the only one) to restore the Soviet hegemony in the region and to regain strategic military facilities as well as the Ukrainian breadbasket. For sure, Putin has strung Trump along.
On the other hand, Israel’s Netanyahu faced an invasion of Israel’s sovereign territory in which 1200 Israeli citizens were killed- the equivalent of 40,000 in the United States. Hamas recorded on their own cameras their own savagery while they murdered, mutilated, raped, and burned their victims, ranging in age from babies to Holocaust survivors in their 80s and 90s. Moreover, they took 250 hostages, several of whom have been murdered by Hamas and dozens more are still captive, being starved and beaten to death in the Hamas terror tunnels, which were constructed with misdirected international aid contributions. In other words, our taxpayer funds. Israel works hand in glove with the US as a close and valued ally, and one can even readily see through the crocodile tears shed by the administration in the wake of the bombing of Hamas leadership in duplicitous Qatar.
All in all, it seems as though there is a disconcerting trend towards laziness in reporting, resulting in imbalance and inflammatory influence.
It’s a slippery slope but it is not too late to reverse course.
Michael Turek
