Scholars: Haaretz ‘Likely A Forgery;’ ‘Utter Crap’

The team remains unsure what the motive might be for the elaborate hoax, since economic reward has not been associated with Haaretz for years.

Tel Aviv, October 30 – Researchers at Tel Aviv University have determined that the daily publication called Haaretz is almost certainly not the product of its purported authors, but an amateurish attempt to pass political advocacy as journalism.

Analysts from an interdisciplinary team at TAU conducted a study of Haaretz, which is billed as “the newspaper for thinking people” in its advertising, and discovered that no clear evidence of actual journalism can be found in its pages beyond that which can be attributed to random chance. The researchers looked at an entire year’s worth of Haaretz editions; their work will be published in the industry journal Yellow.

“Superficially, the people to whom the material in Haaretz is attributed appear to be competent, capable journalists,” explained Tenn Denshus, the lead author. “But that flimsy façade doesn’t even withstand the most basic investigation, once you take a look at some actual content. Once upon a time, perhaps, there was a publication by the same name that could boast a justified reputation for journalism, but this is not it. It’s utter crap that someone is trying to pass off as a legit news publication.”

Denshus pointed to the so-called paper’s adoption of a comically transparent effort to promote political organizations such as Btselem, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, which the team noted in the article hold an analogous status in the human rights field – unconvincingly veiled political groups in the garb of organizations pretending to care about human rights per se, while in fact focusing disproportionately on the human rights of one population to the detriment of others.

An authentic newspaper, or even a more convincing forgery, he continued, would make an actual effort to present news coverage in an impartial manner. “The amateurishness with which this endeavor has been undertaken – especially when it comes to the English-language web site that Haaretz runs – leaves little doubt as to its provenance, or lack thereof,” he added. “It’s as if someone took Fox News, pulled it to the other end of the political spectrum, got rid of the handful of reasonable voices, translated it into highfalutin Hebrew, and gave it an austere logo.”

The team remains unsure what the motive might be for the elaborate hoax, since economic reward has not been associated with Haaretz for years. “Haaretz can claim perhaps three percent of market share,” observed Meg Gammati, a member of the research team. “That’s not sustainable, let alone financially rewarding. So the forgery is most likely the work of hobbyists, or perhaps satirists.”