“no rape occurred, (apparently)” – only a misleading headline.

ha'aretz supplement misleads readers: reporters' investigation finds that no rape occurred in sheikh jarrah – headline suggests otherwise.

October 2010

These contents were sent by letter to the editor of theHa'aretz weekly supplement and were published in the letters section of the supplement on October 15, 2010.

On October 1, 2010, an article appeared at the top of page 8 of theHa'aretz weekly supplement under the headline: THE RAPE AFFAIR THAT IS SHAKING SHEIKH JARRAH. This headline clearly informs readers that a rape occurred in Sheikh Jarrah.

But an examination of all the information contained in the text of that article reveals a different story. The article reports on a stormy debate among activists concerning sexual harassment. The reporters emphasize repeatedly that their investigation did not uncover evidence of a rape. However, "lack of evidence has not prevented the Israeli blogosphere from boiling over," the article reports.

Is there indeed "an ongoing web of indecent conduct" at the protests in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank? According to our investigation, the answer is negative.

The text of the article details the findings of that investigation and even the sub-headline of the article presents information that contradicts the main headline:

THERE WAS NO RAPE (APPARENTLY), BUT THERE IS AN AFFAIR. THE ISRAELI BLOGOSPHERE IS BESIDE ITSELF.

It is highly doubtful that most news consumers, who are chiefly influenced by main headlines and often do not read the texts of articles, noticed this contradiction. Even those who read the entire article may have been left with the impression that a rape occurred – since the main headline says as much, in contrast with what is actually reported.

The main headline also appeared as a main headline on the home page of the Ha'aretz web site. Later, however, the headline was altered to read: RAPE AFFAIR THAT DID NOT HAPPEN SHAKES SHEIKH JARRAH. This change, which better reflects the contents of the article, is welcome – but it was made too late, after the item was removed from the main headlines on the web site.