Press Release: New Study on WAMC’s The Roundtable radio show
Guest List Excludes Palestinians, Arabs, Students – Privileges Democrats and US Government, Military Sources
# # # # # # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Study on WAMC’s The Roundtable Finds Guest List Excludes Palestinians, Arabs, Students – Privileges Democrats and US Government, Military Sources
Download the study here.
CONTACT: James Owens, PhD, 773-474-3837, jeowens.comm.umass@gmail.com
Albany, New York – (5/9/2024) – A new quantitative study shows that NPR affiliate WAMC’s morning news panel program, The Roundtable, excluded Palestinian, Arab, and student sources in its recent coverage of student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza. The study covers the recent two-week period of student campus protests and shows that The Roundtable did not include any Palestinian, Arab, or student sources. During that same time, 4 of the 5 Middle East experts included on Roundtable episodes had backgrounds in the US Departments of State, Defense, or Homeland Security or the National Security Council, and at least 2 of the 4 worked for defense connected consultancy firms.
The Roundtable’s description of the panelists to audiences did not disclose the breadth of panelists’ connections to government, corporate, and defense interests, the study found. For example, while a 2019 UAlbany press release reported that UAlbany Dean Robert Griffin’s job includes building partnerships with a cyber defense branch of the Israeli Defense Forces – the Computer Service Directorate – The Roundtable program made no mention of that role to listeners.
“While Jewish, Palestinian, and other students faced the violence of police and mobs, The Roundtable excluded their voices in favor of those from powerful US government, military, and political parties already over-represented on mainstream media” said Dr. James Owens, the study author. “The Roundtable needs to change its sourcing practices to end this pattern of bias against Palestinians, Arabs, students and others critical of US support for the unprecedented mass violence and death in Gaza.”
Inclusion on The Roundtable heavily skewed to whites and those connected with the New York state Democratic party, the study found. Whites were 93% of all panelists while Black, Indigenous, or persons of color made up only 7%. Other findings include that 85% of episodes discussing the Palestine/Israel conflict featured all-white panels and that, while panelists and hosts stated the words antisemitism or antisemitic at least 31 times during the study time range, the word Islamophobia was never stated by panelists.