Copyright Southam Publications Inc. May 16, 2008

It was inevitable that The Gazette would take its share of criticism over coverage of Israel's 60th anniversary. Israel, Palestine, the Middle East - this is surely the most controversial bundle of political issues in modern times. Opinions are as passionate as they are contradictory.

We carried many stories and background articles from different perspectives. On our editorial page there was no doubt that The Gazette is supportive of Israel ("Shalom to Israel on its 60th birthday" was the headline on our editorial). We did not help ourselves, however, by stumbling on our reporting of the downtown rally at which as many as 20,000 people gathered to salute Israel.

The story began with an anecdote about a Quebec flag left on the ground to be "trod upon," an image that drew fire from quite a few readers (Tuesday's letters page presented a sample). The intention behind that was to go beyond a straight report of the event and reflect on flags and nationalism in a province where both are ever-present.

Unfortunately, it really didn't come across that way in the context of a story about a rally that went off with no significant disruptions. To many readers, it looked as if we had gone out looking for something negative - which certainly wasn't our intention. Throughout our writing and editing process, we should have realized how it would look the next morning.

The bottom line: While creative approaches to stories are always welcome, in this case our report should have better reflected the positive nature of the rally.

For a longer discussion of this and other issues, as well as a chance to comment, visit my blog, Ask the Editor, at montrealgazette.com.

Credit: ANDREW PHILLIPS; The Gazette