Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor
of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Ricki Hollander, writing an article for The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America has a review of Lesley Stahl’s “60 Minutes” segment on Jerusalem. The review criticizes Lesley Stahl for presenting a distorted view of the Jewish ties to the city of Jerusalem.

The following is an excerpt from the review:

The efforts to delegitimize Israel’s claim to Jerusalem have generally been limited to Arab and Muslim leaders, but recently, international media outlets have jumped on board to support them. The latest one to join the fray is Lesley Stahl of CBS News’s “60 Minutes” in an October 17th segment entitled “Controversy in Jerusalem: The City Of David.”

Ms. Stahl did not bother to engage in any serious journalism, research or fact-checking. She simply followed the playbook of Time Magazine, the Economist, and BBC’s “Panorama” with a “paint-by-numbers” exercise calling on the same cast of characters, repeating the same distorted claims and reading from the same overall script. Parroting colleagues at the aforementioned media outlets, Ms. Stahl demonstrated how to promote Arab political propaganda with shoddy and partisan journalism:

1) Characterize it as “controversial” for Israel to publicize archeological findings of Israelite history in Jerusalem, discredit the field of biblical archeology and dismiss archeological excavations as something run by a “settler organization.”

According to Ms. Stahl:

It’s controversial that the City of David uses discoveries to try to confirm what’s in the Bible, particularly from the time of David, the king who made Jerusalem his capital…

…But for all the talk of King David, one thing is glaringly missing here at the City of David. There`s actually no evidence of David, right?

People who saw the “60 Minutes” segment on Jerusalem and even those who did not watch the program should read this article in order to understand the issues involved in the controversy between Arabs and Jews over the city of Jerusalem.

Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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