The Media Accountability Project  

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Dear Global News editorial staff:

I’m writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East regarding your Friday news broadcast at 6:15am Pacific Time on BC 1 Burnaby, regarding the conflict between Iran and the United States. Virtually the entire segment is based on an unsourced claim regarding a supposed Israeli intelligence report on an alleged Iranian assassination plot against U.S. President Donald Trump. The use of multiple layers of wholly unsubstantiated assertions is inconsistent with basic journalistic ethnics and the report should accordingly be clarified.

The specific claim is made when anchor Jason Pires asserts that “Israel shared some intelligence that Iran may be plotting to assassinate Donald Trump.” He then introduces Washington bureau chief Jackson Proskow, who goes on to explain Trump’s rhetoric, U.S. military action and the choice of which plane to use as Air Force 1 through the lens of that purported assassination plot, the existence of which he takes as a given.

First, no source is given for the explosive claim that Israeli intelligence identified any such plot. Second, assuming that the intelligence report exists, no effort is made to substantiate it or even to identify it as a claim of an obviously-interested party to the conflict. Third, there is no account of any response from the impugned party, i.e., the Iranian government, nor even any indication that such a response was sought.

For an example of a more serious report that includes some additional essential details, please see the article in The Wall Street Journal article that explains, “That threat was deemed not to be entirely credible” according to U.S officials. The same report notes that officials “were concerned that Israel shared the intelligence to influence U.S. decision-making toward a return to an all-out war with Iran, noting that once piece of intelligence in isolation often provides a fragmentary look at a possible threat.”

Global News’ own Ethical Code of Professional Conduct states that your journalists must “properly attribute news content from other sources and not plagiarize,” and states that “when we do grant anonymity, we will disclose to the audience why we have done so.” If the segment was based on claims made elsewhere, your team has breached the former as the source is unattributed. If the segment was based on original reporting, your team has breached the latter by failing to disclose why the unidentified source was granted anonymity.

More broadly, to simply take at face value claims of such a serious nature and repeat them as fact, to make no effort to verify them or to consider the incentives that might influence the party purportedly making them, and to fail to seek comment from the party being accused, is simply inappropriate. It is not an approach that should be taken by a media outlet that aspires to serious journalism and your reporters should either follow up with a segment that addresses these shortcomings.

Sincerely,

 

Media Advocate
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East