St. Louis Muslims Complain of Bias in Reports on Middle East

February 18, 2001

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On February 18, 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that "some Muslims believe the newspaper has long presented a slanted view of the situation in the Middle East." A recent article by reporter Phil O'Connor, about the election of Ariel Sharon as Israel's prime minister, received a lot of praise for quoting three Jewish leaders and two Islamic leaders; other articles on the Middle East have not been as balanced. Part of the reason for reporters' difficulty in obtaining balanced viewpoints on their stories is that there are only 100 to 150 Palestinian families in the St. Louis area, compared to an estimated Jewish population of 54,000 to 60,000. Muslim readers have also noted a "greater emphasis on Palestinian violence" in the newspaper.