A Feb. 4th Associated Press (AP) story by Daniel Estrin reported that an American Jewish group promoting the discredited practice of “gay conversion therapy” was recently ordered to close by a US court.
The article focused on the fact that, in Israel, the Health Ministry strongly advises against so-called “gay conversion” therapy, calling it potentially dangerous, but that no law limits it, and that some Israeli professionals who use the “therapy” have professional ties to the US-based group.
However, some news outlets have twisted the story to suggest that, after being ordered shut, the group (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing – JONAH) subsequently moved its operations to Israel, or that JONAH therapists packed their bags and fled to Israel.
Here’s the headline accompanying an AP story in The Independent on Feb 5th.
Here’s how The Scotsman framed it, on Feb. 4th, in a headline accompanying their version of the same AP story.
The headlines used by The Independent and The Scotsman are extremely misleading.
First, if you read the AP article, you’ll see that, contrary to the Indy headline, there is nothing to suggest that any ‘banned’ JONAH therapists relocated to Israel. Additionally, the headline at The Scotsman is ever more misleading, as the group clearly did not move its operations to Israel after being banned in the US.
If you’re still not convinced that the headlines are inaccurate, the author of the article wrote the following on his Facebook page specifically in response to media outlets which got the story wrong.
So, there you have it from Estrin himself. Though some Israeli-based practitioners of the “therapy” continue their work in Israel, the group itself didn’t move to Israel, nor is there any evidence that any JONAH therapists relocated to the country.
The Indy and Scotsman used headlines to frame the story in a manner inconsistent with the information presented in the original AP article.
