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View in at how he got his stories. Meanwhile, I was tempted to write about Israeli settlements, the
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Saturday, December 31, 2016
[The New York Times]
[NYTimes.com/Kristof »]
[Nicholas Kristof]
Saturday, December 31, 2016
[]
Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
[Lessons From the Mediaâs Campaign Failures]
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
For my [last column of the year], Iâve decided to look back on a dispiriting 2016 and look bluntly at mistakes we in the media made, while probing for lessons to take to 2017. We in the media routinely hold others accountable; hereâs my effort to do the same for ourselves. [Read!]
As my column notes, there were also some outstanding performances in the news media, including my [Times colleagues on Trumpâs taxes], [Buzzfeed on fake news websites], and David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post on Trumpâs foundation. Fahrenthold wrote this nice [behind-the-scenes look] at how he got his stories.
Meanwhile, I was tempted to write about Israeli settlements, the U.N. resolution, and John Kerryâs speech. Cut to the chase: I thought Kerryâs speech was excellent, the best explanation a senior official has made about why settlements are poison. As Kerry notes, Israel is on a path that increasingly makes a two-state solution impossible, and at that point if it wants to remain a Jewish state it will not be a democracy and will have no chance of enduring peace.
Itâs not that if the settlement policy ended, peace would break out. Bibi Netanyahu is right that there are other obstacles on the Palestinian side. But we should work toward a situation where peace is possible in 20 years â and settlements foreclose that possibility. Look, I remember writing about the Irish conflict in the 1980s, when peace was unthinkable there. But through hard work and efforts to avoid inflaming the situation, peace became possible â and the same just might be true of the Middle East, as long as settlements end. All this is particularly problematic because we Americans subsidize Israel (itâs our largest aid recipient), and Israel in turn subsidizes life in the settlements. So bravo to Kerry for the courage to speak truth.
More broadly, itâs appalling to see a foreign head of government, Netanyahu, collude with a president-elect to impugn the integrity and undermine the administration of President Obama. Netanyahu is unnecessarily antagonizing Democrats, and itâs already striking that the most consistent supporters of current Israeli policies are not American Jews but rather American evangelicals. That trend is likely to continue under Trump and his extremist pick for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a strong supporter of settlements. My colleague Tom Friedman had [this excellent column] about Trump and Israel, well worth reading.
[This powerful Washington Post piece]Â explores something Iâve written about a lot, honor killings in Pakistan, telling the story of five girls who were killed for having fun.Â
If youâre a university student, remember: Only a week left to apply for my [win-a-trip contest]. I expect to take the winner with me on a reporting trip to Liberia and maybe a neighboring country, to look at health, education, aid and other issues.
Finally, thanks for reading my column in 2016, and best wishes for a better 2017. [Hereâs my column] about the mistakes we in the media made in 2016 â with apologies for sometimes failing the responsibility placed in  us â and how we can and must do better in a Trump administration. [Read!]
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