BANGOR, Maine — Linda Gradstein, the long-time Jerusalem correspondent for National Public Radio, will speak at 7 p.m. Saturday at Congregation Beth El at 183 French St.
She will talk about media bias in coverage of Israel and the Middle East.
This subject speaks to how the world sees Jews and the greatly concerning rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, according to a press release issued by the synagogue.
Gradstein is the Mid-East bureau chief for Media Line, an American news agency specializing in coverage of the Middle East.
Her reports have been picked up by The World, broadcast on Maine Public Radio and been on AOL News. She also writes for Slate, an online magazine. She has covered conflicts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Persian Gulf War, the leadership of Yasser Arafat and major elections in the region.
She said Thursday in a telephone interview that people tend to feel reporters are biased against their point of view.
“I’ve been called a self-hating Jew and a Zionist,” she said.
Gradstein said that she doesn’t believe journalists can be totally objective, but she does believe they can be balanced, especially over time.
She said that the biggest change she’s seen in her 25 years covering the Middle East is not in how reporters approach the job but in the technology.
“The rise of blogs and the 24-hour news cycle has people racing to get the story out,” Gradstein said. “There’s a lot of pressure to be first, but that’s how you make mistakes. Then, you have to print a retraction, but nobody reads it. “I’d rather not be first and get it right the first time.”
She also was scheduled to speak about her career at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.
Gradstein earned a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University in 1985 and a master’s degree in Arab studies. She spent a year as a Rotary Fellow at the American University in Cairo and was selected to be a Knight Journalist Fellow at Stanford University in 1998. Gradstein speaks Hebrew and Arabic.
Gradstein’s lecture is sponsored by Congregation Beth El, the University of Maine Judaic Studies and the Jewish Community Endowment Associates.
For more information, visit http://www.bethelbangor.org/ or call 945-45778.