NY Times compares Israel's brief detention of reporter with Iranian abduction

This morning, a Washington Post reporter was briefly detained in Jerusalem.

Times of Israel reports:

Booth and his cameraman were interviewing locals near the Damascus Gate next to the Old City of Jerusalem. An Arab woman told him that she could get some of the bystanders to demonstrate against the police if he paid them, police spokesperson Asi Aharoni tells The Times of Israel.

Someone who saw the scene unfolding contacted nearby Border Police officers. The officers approached Booth and his photographer and asked that they come with them, Aharoni says.

They were taken to a nearby police station to be briefly questioned and have already been released, the spokesperson says.

Here is how the original report about the incident was reported in the New York Times in the first minutes when reporters were tweeting that Booth was "arrested" (it has since changed):

The Israeli authorities briefly detained The Washington Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief, William Booth, on Tuesday while he was conducting interviews near the Damascus Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City, the newspaper Haaretz reported.

Mr. Booth and an employee of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel were reportedly accused of “incitement,” according to Haaretz, but were released after a brief detention.

Mr. Booth is a veteran correspondent for The Post, having served as a bureau chief in Mexico, Miami and Los Angeles, as a pop culture correspondent, and as a reporter covering conflicts on several continents.

Last month, The Post’s Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian, was freed after being detained for nearly 18 months by the Iranian authorities.

Mr. Rezaian and three other Americans of Iranian ancestry were freed as part of a delicately negotiated swap with the United States, which released seven Iranians who had been held for sanctions violations.

What exactly is the relationship between a misunderstanding where a reporter is briefly detained and an 18 month abduction on trumped-up charges?

Four American journalists were arrested in Bahrain this past weekend. No one compared them to Jason Rezaian - certainly not the New York Times. Or the Washington Post.

A reporter was arrested in Turkey for alleged terror activities. No one compared him to Jason Rezaian.

Reporters have been arrested in Yemen in the past month. Again, no comparisons in the media to Rezaian.

So what relevance does Iran's abduction of a Jason Rezaian have to this story?

The NYT wants its readers to associate what Israeli police did with what Iranian dictators did. And that is not news that is fit to print.

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