Journalists are tasked to be objective and politically neutral. They’re duty bound to embargo their personal opinions, especially on controversial issues that they cover.
With this in mind, it was disturbing to see Globe and Mail journalist Eric Reguly – who’s reporting from Israel right now – respond to a Tweet by tacitly considering that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and ex-Israeli PM Netanyahu are “bad guys,” presumably not worthy of holding office.
Here’s the exchange that took place on Twitter on June 13:
And ultra nationalist, pro-settler Bennett in. So what’s the difference?
— Eric Reguly (@ereguly) June 13, 2021
For Reguly, being an “ultra nationalist” is clearly a pejorative, as is Bennett’s support for the settlement movement.
HonestReporting Canada has critiqued Reguly’s reporting in recent days for it being myopic, misleading, unfair and inaccurate. This is just his latest infraction.
How can a journalist who holds the personal view that the current and former Israeli PM are not fit to lead the country, be tasked to report on this conflict anymore? It’s a question that the Globe and Mail must answer.