Dan Perry led the AP’s coverage of Israel and the Middle East—from Pakistan through north Africa—for most of the 2010s. Before that, he led Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean for AP. He also served as the Foreign Press Association chairman in Jerusalem during the Second Intifada. He now writes at Ask Questions Later. I thought he’d be a good person to talk to about a question one of our ME201 students asked: Why does the media keep getting things wrong?
I’ve written about this before—in fact, I’ve written about it in the “About” section of this newsletter, because the Cosmopolitan Globalist was founded in response to this problem. I’ve also written about it here:
The Media Revolution and the New Man: Manufactured outrage and the breakdown of liberal democracy.
I have five free gift subscriptions to give away for Ask Questions Later. First come, first served.
Show notes
Matti Friedman’s article about the media’s coverage of Israel.
Here’s where Dan gets his news:
Basically, the baseline is phone alerts from the usual suspects—AP, Reuters, the NYT, the WaPo and so on. Nothing original there. I also get alerts from many Israeli media outlets, since these days I follow that story very closely. On occasion this will come at me from X as well, but I do not want to give that platform too much further credence. Then I get a variety of newsletters from a wide range of publications: These include The Hill, Newsweek’s “The Gist of It,” Semafor which does a decent roundup, and others. I also get Bloomberg newsletters for Tech and Business. And I also receive and read newsletters from The Forward, where I am a columnist.
Hardly a day goes by when I do not consult the website of The Economist, which is probably my favorite publication. Every now and then I will read the NYT and WaPo opinion sections, as well as that of Haaretz, which is Israel’s liberal standard bearer and absolutely a world-class newspaper.
And, of course, I get curated pushes from both Substack and Medium (I far prefer Substack, but Medium is oddly more proactive by email). And I am by now an avid consumer of quite a few Substack publications, in addition to The Cosmopolitan Globalist. Ron Fournier does a great job on US politics—more personal than Heather Cox Richardson, though I love her work (I like The Liberal Patriot’s take on things also). Chris Riback does a fantastic job of curating the news in all verticals with some style—highly recommended. David Andelman brings decades of foreign correspondent experience to a weekly analysis of global events and elections around the world. I love Cliff Schecter (Blue Amp) and Matt Robison for their passion for liberal causes. Marc Schulman’s Tel Aviv Diary is a crucial (yet these days dispiriting daily slog through the misery of the Israel-Palestine situation. Ted Anthony’s Significant But Unsorted and Nick Thorpe’s A Kind of Solution are eclectic and compelling on the cultural and societal side. And Larry Derfner (Now That’s Impressive (Not!) writes with curmudgeonly humor that I love.
And here’s a sample of what you’d read if you subscribed to Ask Questions Later:
Israel is self-destructing: A harrowing read for anyone who wants Israel to continue to exist. There are very big problems:
Perhaps humanity is artificial? An unsentimental look at the challenges of AI (part of a series):
Dear Palestinians: Statehood is not a right: In which Dan, a supporter of the two-state solution, nonetheless tries to put things in some perspective.
Putin is making Trump look like a chump: On Ukraine. It's odd.
Know what? Most advances came from the “elites.” Enough with the populism:
The War on Truth: A five-part series on the Authoritarian’s Game Plan:
