Misplaced Pages

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Aaron Klein is an American author, a Middle East correspondent, head of the Jerusalem bureau for WorldNetDaily, and a columnist for The Jewish Press. His WND articles have been republished on Ynetnews and in The New York Sun. Klein appears regularly on John Batchelor's KFI-AM radio talk-show. In 2009, Klein's article criticizing Misplaced Pages for its approach to its article about Barack Obama received international attention.

Student career

At Yeshiva University in New York City, Klein edited the undergraduate bimonthly student newspaper, The Commentator. Articles published in The Commentator regarding events such as use of an eight million dollar gift to the school and the removal of a secretary, written while Klein was a co-editor in chief, allegedly caused the school administration to remove some issues from circulation. This prompted the paper's editorial board to threaten to sue the University. Yeshiva University later signed a contract in which it agreed to discontinue the practice and reimburse The Commentator for the confiscated issues.

Interviews with terrorists

Klein's book, based on his interviews with people he described as terrorists, was released in September 2007 with the title, Schmoozing With Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans - to a Jew!

The book includes Klein's described meetings with a recruited Palestinian suicide bomber; interviews with Muhammed Abdel-El, the head of a Popular Resistance Committee, and Hamas leader Sheikh Yasser Hamad; confrontations with the Muslim desecrators of Jewish and Christian holy sites; a section in which terror leaders are petitioned to describe what life in the U.S. would be like under the rule of Islam; a chapter on Christian persecution in the Middle East; and a chapter claiming the U.S. funds terrorism.

In April 2008, Klein appeared on the John Batchelor radio show where both interviewed Ahmed Yousef of Hamas. During that interview, Yousef revealed that Hamas endorsed Barack Obama for president.

Klein's methods of "getting terrorists to say nice things about Democrats" were criticized by Ari Berman in The Nation as "questionable sourcing" and part of a "smear campaign." But The Huffington Post said, "his journalistic methodology is scrupulously sound".

Galloway controversy

During a June 2007 interview, after an argument over whether Hamas is a terrorist organization, British politician George Galloway evicted Klein and Rusty Humphries from his office and turned them over to Parliament police, claiming the two had breached security by falsely presenting themselves as reporters.

Article criticizing Misplaced Pages

A March 2009 article by Klein criticized Misplaced Pages for what he described as preferential treatment of Barack Obama coverage. Klein said that Misplaced Pages editors had scrubbed the article of material critical of the president and that an editor had been suspended for attempting to add "missing" details about Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers and allegations that Obama was not born in the United States. Klein said similar negative content was found in the article of George W. Bush.

The story was picked up by the The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Drudge Report and Fox News. A spokesperson for Misplaced Pages stated that the Obama article had not received any preferential treatment and another spokesperson noted the site's content is monitored and edited entirely by users. "Editors are really, really trying to do this as neutral as possible".

Klein removed the name of the editor from the article after reports arose on blogs and Wired News that he might himself be the suspended editor described in the story. In an email sent in response to the Wired News article, Klein wrote that the editor "works with me and does research for me." But even liberal sources such as The Huffington Post have defended Klein's methods as "standard journalistic practice".

References

1. Poulsen, Kevin (2007-07-25). "Fox Claims Misplaced Pages Whitewashes Obama's Past — Update | Threat Level from Wired.com". Blog.wired.com. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
2. Aaron Klein article archive, The New York Sun.
3. ^ Berman, Ari (March 14, 2008). "The Smear Machine Grinds On". The Nation. CBSNews.com. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
4. ^ Asher Moses (2009-03-11). "Obama Wiki fiddler caught red-handed". Sydney Morning Herald. {{cite news}}: Text "March 11, 2009" ignored (help)
5. ^ Coleman, Mark (March 10, 2009). "Barack Obama 'receives preferential treatment on Misplaced Pages', report claims". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
6. Karen W. Arenson (15 December 1999). "Yeshiva Students Say the University Is Behind Removal of Campus Paper". The New York Times.
7. Aaron Klein and Alex Traiman. "University Pays Commentator in Censorship Case". The Commentator, V. 64, #2 (undated). Archived from the original on 6 March 2007.
8. Lori Lowenthal Marcus (March 2008). "Book Review: Schmoozing With Terrorists". Philadelphia Jewish Voice.
9. Jamie Glazov (31 October 2007). "Interview with Aaron Klein". FrontPage Magazine.
10. Gabriel, Brigitte (2008). They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. Macmillan. pp. 119–20. ISBN 0312383630.
11. Freund, Michael (October 28, 2008). "Look who's rooting for Obama". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
12. ^ Rindsberg, Ashley (2009-03-12). "Century of Smear: Obama, Rush Limbaugh, and Misplaced Pages". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2009-03-15. Many people have many things to say about Aaron Klein and even more things to say about World Net Daily. .... But I have never read a report by Klein which raises questions about his sourcing or accuracy. A reader of Klein's articles, which are often reported directly from the lion's den of Islamist terror, could grumble at his conclusions, but his journalistic methodology is scrupulously sound. Cite error: The named reference "HuffPo" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
13. "Galloway Defends Hamas, Ejects Klein and Humphries from Office". Jewish Press. December 5, 2007. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
14. Klein, Aaron (March 8, 2009). "Misplaced Pages scrubs Obama eligibility". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
15. Miller, Joshua Rhett (March 10, 2009). "Obama's Misplaced Pages Page Distances President From Wright and Ayers". Fox News.com. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
16. Klein, Aaron (2009-03-09). "Eligibility issue sparks 'edit war'; Misplaced Pages blocks users from posting criticism of Obama". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved 2009-03-11.

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• Living people
• LIVING deaths
• American journalists
• American Jews
• Yeshiva University alumni
• Critics of Misplaced Pages