N&O Public Editor Blames Jews For “Information Blockade”

McClatchy’s Raleigh News & Observer public editor Ted Vaden, a self-described “readers’ advocate,” recently had this to say about the N&O’s coverage of Israel’s response to years of Hamas’ terrorist rocket attacks on its civilian population:

… But I do think the [N&O’s] coverage did not adequately convey the extent of suffering and pain inflicted on ordinary [Gaza] citizens.

That's in some measure because the Israelis have banned foreign reporters from entering Gaza. To get the Palestinian side, reporters have had to content themselves with phone interviews from outside Gaza to Palestinian health authorities and other officials. (all emphasis added)

Dion Nissenbaum, McClatchy's Jerusalem correspondent, gives a good account of the Israeli information blockade on his blog, at the McClatchy Web site, www.McClatchydc.com.

"In essence, Israel has transformed the entire Gaza Strip into a closed military zone," he writes. "Reporters from every major news organization, from the BBC and CNN to The New York Times and The Washington Post to NPR and McClatchy to AP and Fox News, are being barred by Israel from going into Gaza to cover the deadliest military campaign there since Israel seized the area from Egypt in the 1967 war." …

Vaden leaves N&O readers in no doubt as to whose fault it is foreign correspondents aren’t in Gaza.

Vaden blames the Jews.

But take a look at a portion of my Jan. 12 Press access to Gaza questions post which was a response to the liberal/leftist anti-Israel press:

... Gaza has a border with Egypt.

And this Jan. 11 report by IRIN, a self-described “UN humanitarian news and information service,” says the Egyptian controlled border crossing at Rafah is open 3 hours every day.

So why isn’t the foreign press entering Gaza via Egypt?

The lengthy Jan. 6 NYT story I linked to above complains about Israel closing the border. But it says nothing about crossing access from Egypt.

That silence is typical of almost all MSM stories I’ve read reporting on news organizations' difficulties gaining access to Gaza.

However, in the fifth paragraph of a Dec. 30 Guardian story reporting on Israel’s actions I did find one sentence concerning Egypt and press access to Gaza:

Egypt has largely kept its one crossing into Gaza, at Rafah, closed except for in rare medical emergencies, and it too does not allow journalists to cross.

Questions:

Why do major news organizations like the BBC, Reuters and the NYT say so little about the Egyptians denying them access to Gaza?

Why, in almost all their stories, do they blame only the Jews for restricting foreign press access to Gaza?

And why does McClatchy’s Raleigh N&O public editor Ted Vaden do the same thing?

Vaden's entire column's here.