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The Honest Take

HonestReporting
Israel
Honestreporting
United Nations
Jews
Hebron Massacre
Grand Mufti Of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin Al-Husseini
Nakba
Nazism and the Palestinian Movement
Media Bias
Iran
American Intellectual Antisemitism
DEI
Identity Politics
Media Bias and Journalism.
Al-Aqsa Mosque
New York Times
Nicholas Kristof
Islamic Republic Of Iran
Human Rights Council
October 7

The Honest Take is HonestReporting's long-form interview series bringing together leading experts, journalists, and researchers to examine how Israel and the Middle East are covered — and what goes into creating and feeding the narratives that target Israel.

Each episode features leading experts, analysts, researchers, and journalists who work on media bias, terrorism, NGO accountability, foreign... more

PublishesDailyEpisodes6Founded16 days ago
Number of ListenersCategories
NewsNews CommentaryPolitics

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Latest Episodes

British-Israeli barrister Natasha Hausdorff has spent years inside the world's most powerful international courtrooms — the ICJ, ICC, and UN — watching the legal case against Israel get built in real time. She joins Ben Chertoff to take the genocide ... more

On May 11, Nicholas Kristof published a column in the New York Times titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians" - a 1,500-word piece alleging systematic sexual violence by Israeli security forces, grounded in anonymous testimonies and s... more

Yossi Klein Halevi grew up the son of Holocaust survivors in Brooklyn. As a teenager, he joined Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League. Then he moved to Israel, broke with extremism, and wrote a book called Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor - released ... more

Welcome to The Honest Take, the new long-form interview podcast from HonestReporting.

For 25 years, HonestReporting has been the global watchdog on media bias against Israel — monitoring newsrooms, calling out distortion, and forcing corrections fro... more

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Recent Guests

Rachel O'Donoghue
HonestReporting journalist
HonestReporting
Episode: THE HONEST TAKE LIVE: Kristof's Unbelievable Tale *Live broadcast, May 12, 2026*
Yossi Klein Halevi
Writer and author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
Author; commentator on Israeli history
Episode: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE NAKBA: The Forgotten History of 1948 — with Yossi Klein Halevi
Jonathan Harounoff
Iranian Jewish journalist, spokesperson for Israel's voice at the United Nations
Independent journalist/HonestReporting collaborator
Episode: What’s Really Happening in Iran? The War, the Regime, and the Silence with Jonathan Harounoff
Shai Davidai
Social psychologist, former Columbia Business School professor, author of American Intellectual Antisemitism
Former Columbia Business School; Author
Episode: Elite, Educated, Antisemitic: How Academia Fosters Jew Hate with Shai Davidai
Hillel Neuer
Executive director of UN Watch, watchdog organization focused on UN accountability
UN Watch
Episode: The UN Is Broken: How The Top Human Rights Body Declared War on Israel with Hillel Neuer
David Christopher Kaufman
Newly appointed opinion editor at The Daily Mail, former New York Post editor, author of Counterintuitive
The Daily Mail; former New York Post
Episode: Weaponizing Identity Politics to Demonize Israel and Jews with David Christopher Kaufman
Ashley Rindsberg
Investigative journalist and author exposing coordinated editing campaigns around Israel; founder of Neutral Point of View
Neutral Point of View (NPOV)
Episode: Who Edits the Truth? Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle for Reality with Ashley Rindsberg
Yardena Schwartz
Award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer; author of Ghosts of a Holy War
Journalist and Author
Episode: The Lie That Lit the Match: Hebron, Nazis, and the West's Vanishing Memory, with Yardena Schwartz

Host

Ben Chertoff
Host of The Honest Take; HonestReporting

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Talking Points

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Who Edits the Truth? Wikipedia, Reddit, and the Battle for Reality with Ashley Rindsberg
Q: Where did you first notice the divide between neutrality and what you describe as poisoning within Wikipedia?
I began by looking at bias studies in Wikipedia and then traced patterns of coordinated editing, both from inside and outside the editor community, to understand how negative or positive framings seep into articles and propagate through search and AI downstream.
Elite, Educated, Antisemitic: How Academia Fosters Jew Hate with Shai Davidai
Q: Can you give a 60-second book report on Orientalism and its impact?
Edward Said argued that Western study of the Middle East often comes from a Western perspective that reinforces a colonial mindset, which has allowed Orientalism to infiltrate multiple disciplines and shape how scholars conceptualize the East, often privileging Western viewpoints over local contexts.
The UN Is Broken: How The Top Human Rights Body Declared War on Israel with Hillel Neuer
Q: Can you walk me through how this machine works at the UN and who actually says 'condemnation' of Israel?
The process is driven by member states introducing resolutions, with Arab and Islamic states leading on Israel, supported by a broad bloc. However, the internal UN employees and independent rapporteurs operate with limited accountability, creating a dual track where states push condemnations and independent experts pursue their own agendas with little oversight.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE NAKBA: The Forgotten History of 1948 — with Yossi Klein Halevi
Q: What is the role of education and media in shaping the Nakba narrative, and how should they change?
Educators and media should present multiple perspectives without surrendering to apology or denial, acknowledge tragedies on all sides, and strive to tell a more compelling, historically grounded story rather than relying on simplistic narratives.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE NAKBA: The Forgotten History of 1948 — with Yossi Klein Halevi
Q: How do you respond to the charge of 'settler colonialism' when describing Israel?
I argue that Israel is the only case where a people re-indigenized itself in its historic homeland, and that applying settler-colonial frameworks flattens a far more nuanced history and risks delegitimizing Jewish historical claims.

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Frequently Asked Questions About The Honest Take

What is The Honest Take about and what kind of topics does it cover?

The long-form interview series concentrates on media coverage of Israel and the Middle East, examining how narratives are shaped, amplified, and sometimes distorted in Western newsrooms. Episodes frequently feature journalists, researchers, and analysts who dissect reporting practices, editorial processes, and the role of NGOs, international bodies, and foreign influence in shaping public perception. Notable threads across episodes include rigorous sourcing and fact-checking, debates over casualty reporting and narratives like Nakba or antisemitism on campus, and calls for accountability and transparency in journalism. The format often centers around critical examinations of media bias, with guests offering historical context, evidence-base... more

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2. Ask Haviv Anything
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The Honest Take launched 16 days ago and published 6 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on The Honest Take?

Recent guests on The Honest Take include:

1. Rachel O'Donoghue
2. Yossi Klein Halevi
3. Jonathan Harounoff
4. Shai Davidai
5. Hillel Neuer
6. David Christopher Kaufman
7. Ashley Rindsberg
8. Yardena Schwartz

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