Keep calling WAMC fund drive! New data: Military affiliated Middle East experts appear 11 times more than independent experts on 'Roundtable'
Research assistance provided by Truth and Justice for Palestine (TJ4P). As always, complete data available on GitHub. Check my work, please.
It’s working. Our call in campaign demanding greater fairness and inclusion on WAMC’s The Roundtable is reaching the ears of volunteers, station staff, management, and members of the Board of Trustees, according to sources at the station. Keep calling!
Today’s (very brief) post presents latest data documenting ideological bias towards the very military institutions responsible for implementing the US policy of unconditional support for Israel and its genocide in Gaza.
On The Roundtable, US and/or Israeli affiliated Middle Experts outnumber independent experts more than 11 to 1 (Figures 1, 2).
Despite this ongoing imbalance, Roundtable producers added panelists Donna Welton, former high-ranking State and Defense Department official, including at the very agency authorizing US arms transfers to Israel (the US Bureau of Political-Military Affairs).
This 11 to 1 imbalance violates WAMC’s own Code of Ethics: “Coverage of news events should be complete and accurate. If the subject involves controversy, the views of all responsible sides should be fairly presented.”
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And now here’s the latest data and details explaining the above findings:
US and Israeli military affiliated Middle East experts outnumber independent experts 11 to 1
Across the 119 episodes between 10/10/25-4/10/26), panelists who acquired expertise on the Middle East through working for the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, Department of Homeland Security, or the Israeli Defense Forces appeared 46 times. In contrast, only 4 appearances were made by Middle East experts independent of institutions that facilitate US or Israeli military activity.
Figure 1. Middle East experts on The Roundtable, by military or independent affiliation
Figure 2.
Why did Roundtable producers add Donna Welton, a key US official in US arms transfers to Israel?
Given this large and longstanding bias towards US and Israeli military, and against independent, experts one would think Roundtable producers would take corrective measures to redress, not reinforce, this imbalance in source selection. Think again.
Roundtable producers recently added 2 experts from Iran and Palestine, seemingly helping to add much needed and long absent ideological balance. However, Roundtable producers also added a former US official, Donna Welton, who exercised a leadership role at the US agency authorizing and facilitating US arms transfers to Israel. The move raises serious questions about whether Roundtable producers are more committed to fulfilling station policies of fair inclusion or ensuring that US military perspectives remain dominant.
Here’s the details: Recent campaigns generated over 1,000 emails to station managers demanding more Palestinian panelists and more panelists able to raise substantive critiques of Israel and more on the show. In response, Roundtable producers added a single Palestinian-American (Dr. Ahmad Abu-Hekmah) who appeared once in the 6-months of the study, and a single Iranian born panelist (Mahmood Karimi-Haka), who appeared 3 times. At the same time, Roundtable producers also added Donna Welton, former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Programs and Operations for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (BPM) within the U.S. Department of State and The Office of the Secretary of Defense.
The Bureau of Political-Military Affairs is the branch of the State Department that approves and facilitates US arms transfers to allies, including Israel. The BPM is also tasked with ensuring that Israel maintain “a qualitative military edge over military threats”. BPM is the agency from which former State Dept. official Josh Paul resigned in protest of its role in enabling the Gaza genocide. Paul described the agency as “the US government entity most responsible for the transfer and provision of arms to partners and allies”.
During the latest 6-months of data, Welton’s 3 appearances about match the total of 4 appearances by the 2 independent experts. In other words, despite adding 2 Middle East experts from the local Middle East community, Roundtable producers continue to maintain a more than 10-1 preference for military experts since October of 2024. (The ration of military over independent experts was 13 to 1 from 2024-25.) Given that the imbalance toward military expertise was 3 to 1 in 2023-24, Roundtable’s sourcing of Middle East experts is actually measurably less fair and inclusive than at the start of Israel’s genocide on Gaza and approximately the same since listeners began publicly demanding change.
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