The organization's translations are regularly quoted by major international newspapers, and its work has generated strong criticism and praise. Critics have accused MEMRI of producing inaccurate, unreliable translations with undue emphasis and selectivity in translating and disseminating the most extreme views from Arabic and
Persian media, which portray the
Arab and Muslim world in a negative light, while ignoring moderate views that are often found in the same media outlets. Other critics charge that while MEMRI does sometimes translate pro-
US or pro-democracy voices in the regional media, it systematically leaves out intelligent criticism of
Western-style democracy, US and
Israeli policy and secularism. In 2006, MEMRI released an interview with
Norman Finkelstein on Lebanese
Al Jadeed in which he discussed his book
The Holocaust Industry which made it appear as if Finkelstein was questioning the death toll of the
Holocaust. Finkelstein said in response that MEMRI edited the television interview he gave in order to falsely impute that he was a
Holocaust denier. In an interview with the Muslim-American newspaper
In Focus in 2007, he said MEMRI uses "the same sort of...techniques as the
Nazis" and "take[s] things out of context in order to do personal and political harm to people they don't like".
Juan Cole, a professor of modern Middle East history at the
University of Michigan, argues MEMRI has a tendency to "cleverly cherry-pick the vast Arabic press, which serves 300 million people, for the most extreme and objectionable articles and editorials... On more than one occasion I have seen, say, a bigoted Arabic article translated by MEMRI and when I went to the source on the web, found that it was on the same op-ed page with other, moderate articles arguing for tolerance. These latter were not translated." Former head of the
CIA's counterintelligence unit,
Vincent Cannistraro, said that MEMRI "are selective...for their political point of view, which is the extreme-right of Likud. They simply don't present the whole picture."
Laila Lalami, writing in
The Nation, states that MEMRI "consistently picks the most violent, hateful rubbish it can find, translates it and distributes it in email newsletters to media and members of Congress in Washington." MEMRI argues that they are quoting the government-controlled press and not obscure or extremist publications, a fact their critics acknowledge, according to Marc Perelman: "When we quote
Al-Ahram in
Egypt, it is as if we were quoting
The New York Times. We know there are people questioning our work, probably those who have difficulties seeing the truth. But no one can show anything wrong about our translations." in response MEMRI has stated, "[we have] never claimed to 'represent the view of the Arabic media', but rather to reflect, through our translations, general trends which are widespread and topical." Syrian sociologist and novelist
Halim Barakat claimed an essay he wrote for the
Al-Hayat Daily of
London titled "The Wild Beast that Zionism Created: Self-Destruction", was mistranslated by MEMRI and retitled as "Jews Have Lost Their Humanity". Barakat further stated "Every time I wrote 'Zionism', MEMRI replaced the word by 'Jew' or '
Judaism'. They want to give the impression that I'm not criticizing Israeli policy, but that what I'm saying is anti-Semitic." Fellow Georgetown faculty member
Aviel Roshwald accused Barakat in an article he published of promoting a "demonization of Israel and of Jews". Supported by Georgetown colleagues, Barakat denied the claim, which Roshwald had based on MEMRI's translation of Barakat's essay. Friedman has written in
The New York Times that "what I respect about MEMRI is that it translates not only the ugly stuff but the courageous liberal, reformist Arab commentators as well." In addition, he has cited MEMRI's translations in his op-eds. In 2002
Brit Hume of Fox News said, "These people tell you what's going on in pulpits and in the state-controlled TV. If you have indoctrination, it's important to know about it."
Jay Nordlinger, the managing editor of
National Review, wrote in 2002: ==See also==