A CAMERA-sponsored billboard on a New York City building, part of an ongoing campaign to criticize The New York Times’ Israel coverage. Photo: CAMERA.

Earlier this month, the Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) sent out a letter urging supporters to attend a November 30 event at which New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Jodi Rudoren will be speaking.

As one of the Times’ key critics, CAMERA regularly lambastes the paper’s coverage of Israel-related issues, especially those involving the conflict with the Palestinians. The media monitor often highlights Rudoren’s articles in particular, citing examples of what it deems to be her blatant bias and severely imbalanced journalism.

The CAMERA letter reads:

The New York Times continues to display a troubling anti-Israel bias which has been the subject of a number of CAMERA studies and publications. Current Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Jodi Rudoren perpetuates this pattern, having shown herself to be an advocacy journalist, presenting a slanted narrative rather than objective coverage. CAMERA has documented and analyzed much of her reporting, including on the recent wave of terror attacks against Israelis.

On Monday, November 30, Rudoren will appear at the JCC on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. As part of “The Israel Forum” at the JCC, Rudoren will speak at an event titled, “Report from the Ground: Is this a Third Intifada?”

Please make every effort to attend the event. Rudoren and Times editors must be made aware that readers do not appreciate slanted coverage that characterizes terrorists as innocent victims — even “Boy Scouts” — and ignores the real victims: Israeli children, senior citizens, soldiers, civilians, police, even the reputation and legitimacy of the Jewish state. Be there and speak for them.

CAMERA Director Andrea Levin told The Algemeiner what she would like to see from people taking her advice and being part of the audience at Rudoren’s talk.

“A lot of readers are very unhappy with The Times, with the anti-Israel bias that permeates coverage,” she said. “The JCC event is an opportunity to hear the Jerusalem bureau chief first hand and ask questions. The overarching Times problem, in CAMERA’s view, is its failure to report honestly and fully the aggression against Israel, including the lurid incitement against Israel and Jews that fuels violence and blocks hope of peaceful coexistence.”

Levin continued: “Attendees might ask Ms. Rudoren why, for instance, she recently wrote that a 20-year-old Palestinian caught on video charging Israelis with a knife in his upraised hand was, in her words, a teenager with a ‘boy scout’-type knife. It was actually a balisong, banned in many countries as a weapon. What prompts a reporter in the midst of a campaign of stabbings to insert ‘boy scout’ about a perpetrator — to think ‘boy scout’ — with all its wholesome connotations? The Times correspondent has a chance to explain at the JCC — and the public can weigh the answer to this and lots of other questions.”

Levin told The Algemeiner that, as of last week, the event was completely sold out.

“I’m hoping at least some of those tickets were purchased by people who intend to ask challenging questions,” she said.