Did the Times target Israel by writing about how Israel targets journalists?

Via @noahroth I've learned that people are upset about the following cut-line published on the website of the New York Times

Now, unlike many innocents I don't expect newspapers to be unbiased. Newspapers are a human creation, after all, and anything created by human beings is going to slant one way or another. So I don't mind a bit if a newspaper has a rooting interest. In fact, I expect it. What I can't accept is when a paper or station displays mendacity of the sort frequently found at FOX News or when a journalist has a clear bias but insists he doesn't. (Fair and balanced, my tuches) .

The complaint is that the Times uses the cut line above to suggest that Israel is targeting reporters. And though I agree that this is exactly what the cut line does, I'm not sure why anyone has grounds to object. As the accompanying article asserts and substantiates, Israel has actually done this!

... three employees of news organizations were killed in Gaza by Israeli missiles. Rather than suggesting it was a mistake, or denying responsibility, an Israeli Defense Forces spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, told The Associated Press, “The targets are people who have relevance to terror activity.”

So it has come to this: killing members of the news media can be justified by a phrase as amorphous as “relevance to terror activity.”

Be honest: how would you expect an organization the consists almost entirely of reporters to react to such a statement from the IDF? Are newsmen supposed to applaud after having been told that reporters are fair game so long as some official claim, however tenuous, might be constructed to suggest that they are "relevant to terror activity?"

So yes, I agree that the Times is displaying bias here, but its a reasonable and expected bias. The Times is not rooting against Israel, with this article, and they haven't displayed any dishonesty. They are simply trying to protect themselves and their own co-workers. And as the article continues, we see that employees of the New York Times have genuine reason to be concerned:

Mahmoud al-Kumi and Hussam Salama worked as cameramen for Al-Aqsa TV, which is run by Hamas and whose reporting frequently reflects that affiliation. They were covering events in central Gaza when a missile struck their car, which, according to Al-Aqsa, was clearly marked with the letters “TV.” (The car just in front of them was carrying a translator and driver for The New York Times, so the execution hit close to our organization.)

With that parenthetical aside, the Times both confesses and explains their bias. In my opinion having done so, this piece fully meets the disclosure requirements of modern journalism.

Photo Credit: The image posted above was taken from http://www.treppenwitz.com/2012/11/ny-times-connects-the-dots.html. My post is not intended to specifically address or rebut any claims or arguments made there.

Search for more information about media crticism at4torah.com