BREAKING NEWS, two words to get the blood pumping. And last night that Breaking News banner was back on CNN as the news network cut, what I thought was live, to footage of chaos in the streets of Jerusalem after two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Zion Square shopping mall. And then, as rescue workers arrived a car bomb went off with flames cascading into the air as firefighters and emergency personnel arrived on the scene. (27 more Israelis were killed in a bombing of a bus in Haifa on this Sunday morning.)

It was a horrific terror offensive, which by the AM, an enraged government spokesman was comparing to the attack on the Twin Towers, given the size of Israel’s population. He, like the spokesman interviewed last night, put the blame squarely on Arafat. When I tuned in 6 had died; by the morning the number was 37 with Israeli officials claiming 50 plus have died as a result of similar incidents in the last few weeks. “They are killing our children,” he said echoing perhaps unconciously, similar statements by Palestinians.

TERROR AND MISSING CONTEXT‘

As the US wages war on terror, Hammas uses terror against civillians, even using nail bomb, a crude anti-personnel weapon as deadly as the cluster bombs the US Air Force has been dropping. Here we go again: another cycle of violence with each side blaming the other and the US envoys arriving too late and with an ineffective intervention. Significantly, the early edition of the Sunday New York Times only carried one piece on the crisis, tucked at the bottom of A5 alongside a much bigger ad for Givenchy perfumes (”SCENTS OF STYLE”) That headline hinted at the context that fuels a war where one side has tanks, and the other young boys with explosives on their backs. (And there is no moral equivalency in the tactics implied, only the suggestion that in every conflict, there are grievances and a backdrop–in this case fifty years of occupation and failed peace efforts.)

That Times story carried this headline: ISRAELIS KILLL 2 PALESTININANS, INCLUDING 11-YEAR OLD. The article is just the latest dispatch on what has been 14 months of deadly incidents like these. It quotes the US envoy General Anthony Zinni who says: The Most important thing to deal with initially is a sustained cease fire. Fat chance of that now. Who will ever hear again about Muhhammad Sahlah, ll, shot dead when he and other schoolboys threw stones at a tank near the village of Wad Burqin, close to Jenin.

PICTURES DRIVE THE COVERAGE

How did CNN and other US outlets cover all this? In the first phase, it was driven only by the dramatic pictures provided by Israel’s Channel l and locked in on the pain of the victims. Establishing what happened properly must come first. But I slowly noticed that this Breaking News was not at all live, but that the same shots were shown again and again on a loop, just reinforcing the imagry of carnage, almost as a form of Saturday Night entertainment. Where were the independent experts on the phone, or in the studio to explain why this was happening. Not there.

The focus was only on this one incident, this BREAKING NEWS about the outbreak of terror. In the first hour, only one side, the Israel side, with an official in WASHINGTON blaming Arafat was shown. A Hammas spokesperson was on and the only one to suggest that the occupation and earlier incidents may have been contributing factors. (Hammas later claimed “credit” for the murderous assault.)

It took quite a while for Arafat’s PR operation to respond. So for the first hour or so, there were constant reminders by CNN’s correspondent that Arafat has said nothing, that Arafat is silent, with the implication being that he was guilty as charged. (As he may be!) With this “Where is Afraf” mantra being heard contiunually while the pictures of the aftermath of the terror attack was shown and reshown like that plane crashing into the World Trade Center, the frame of the story was set.Israel was so prominent because CNN could get an interview with Sharon’s spokesperson immediately who was being covered. The Palestinian response was slower in coming, perhaps not as savvy or callibrated to the news cycle.

MARCHING TO CNN’S CLOCK

It is as if all governments must march to CNN’s clock. Within an hour, we learned that Arafat had indeed denounced the crime, that he had also denounced an earlier incident and that his forces, hardly at the same strength as the Israeli Army had fought a gun battle with Islamic Jihad a day earlier. The suggestion is always that the Palestinian Authority is somehow a real counterpart to the Israeli government, with the same level of resources and control, and can, by simply, pushing some buttons, make the violence by militants and fanatics disappear. There are, alas, no such magic wands in the real world.

The essence of all of this is as it usually is, simplification and a flattening of issues offered no context. From the outset of this latest intifada, the US media has been calling it “ARAFAT’S WAR ON ISRAEL” while knowledgeable experts offer a totally different view, that this is really a war by Palestinian AGAINST Arafat and a US brokered peace process that had tended to avoid dealing with the underlying issues of occupation, land, water and social justice all around. But none of this was explored or explained. Only one voice, the voice of Sharon’s government was hear, as if it speaks for all Israelis. Later, official Palestinian spokesmen were called on. There were no independent views offered.

Shouldn’t CNN learn by now to slow down a bit when these dramatic events occur and to seek to offer a more sober view that doesn’t sound like cheerleading for one side. By all means, show us the sufffering of the victims, and by all means, treat terrorism critically. But journalists have a responsibility to be somewhat even handed and offer the background so that these tit for tat attacks are presented in a many sided cycle of violence that is on going. Somehow the structure of news gathering and presentation doesn’t seem to lend itself to this especially when there is BREAKING NEWS in the form of dramatic and violent imagry to horrify, outrage, and provoke emotional reations. Denunciations will not lead to peace–only negotiations can do that. The Israelis currently will not reengage in that process. So here we are. And where are we?

SPIN AND COUNTERSPIN

As for CNN, it is not an independent factor in all this, at least not according to David Halberstram’s new book “WAR IN A TIME OF PEACE,” a now somwhat dated title about “Bush,Clinton and the Generals.” This prize winning journalist , who won his spurs while covering Vietnam (and getting tossed out with US gvernment pressure writes about the Pentagon’s view of the Clinton White House.”…in their view the primary concern at the White House was not necessarily the reality, or at least reality as the military men perceived it. Rather it was the appearence of reality–spin. What the people at the White House wanted to do, many military menbelived was to keep certain issues off CNN, of if that was not possible, if they finally exploded out of the world of constant media coverage, to deal with what was going on CNN with an acceptable amount of counterspin…”Spin and Counterspin sadly is the name of the game, and media is its stage rarely set out an indepdendent agenda to offer perspective. The consequence in the real world of these deeply institutionalized ways of thinking and doing is not just a bad grade in a Journalism school class, but more violence, posturing and death. Why did the terrorists attack the World Trade Center the way they, did, why did they blow themselves up in the center of an Isreali city on a Saturday night? Partially, to get on TV. To have their voices heard, one way or another. The sad truth is that our world is being broken in some imperceptible way by BREAKING NEWS

WHERE ARE THE CRITICAL VOICES?

Unfortunately, many in the Arab World seem to believe that the corporate media which hews so closely to US government worldviews and Establishment thinking, does so because it is dominated by the Jews who they see as a monolithic force siding with THE ZIONISTS. Never mind that this is conspiracy thinking is totally wrong, misguided, self-defeating and simplistic. Yes of course, Jews are prominent as individuals but are their every acts orchestrated to fulfill some religious or Jewish agenda. OF course not. But when you have your ideas formed and filtered in cultures dominate by theorcratic ideas at the top and fundamentalist forces at the bottom, it seems that way. Have they ever heard of public companies? Have they ever heard of corporate agendas and political agendas that often intersect? I guess not.

Contributing to the problem is western coverage that treats politics like sporting events with only two teams on the field. Hello Arab World: not all Jews are zionists or supportive of Ariel Sharon and his gang of ministers. Why don’t you know that? I know why. No one ever tells you, Not your media, and not ours. Dissenting views, and peace perspectives are filtered out,marginalized and silenced. That is why the conflict in the world becoming jihad versus jihad, Bush v bin Laden. One side denounces evil; the others infidels. Forget about the Middle East. We are back in the Middle Ages, or have we ever left? Read this from the Gulf News. Henry Ford is back with the protocols of Zion:

GULF NEWS: THE ARAB WORLD SEEKS ITS OWN NETWORK”For some time Arab and Islamic countries have shown great concern at the biased dissemination of information emanating from Western countries. The biggest complaint levied against the West by governments and people is the perpetuation of the Israeli and Zionist perspective on issues, particularly those regarding Arab and Islamic countries. This bias is unacceptable to impartial observers and is seen as totally objectionable by Arabs and Muslims. Yet this bias is not so surprising, considering the domination people of the Jewish faith have over the media, over the entertainment scene and even over the economic life of many Western countries. In America, for example, it is estimated that over 70 per cent of the country’s economy is controlled by Jews; witness also the number of Jews employed in the numerous TV stations.” Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Information and Culture, has presented proposals to the Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers on how to counter the pro-West, pro-Israeli, anti-Arab, anti-Islam propaganda that spews forth every day from the Western media. His proposals, which have yet to be made public, are, in the eyes of many people, not before time. The Arab and Islamic world has the financial resources to counter such propaganda. The Arab and Islamic world has the talent and ability among its intelligentsia and journalists to thwart such daily onslaughts from the Western news services. But, most importantly, the Arab and Islamic world has the desire and the duty to broadcast truthful news which otherwise, left to the existing media, would be completely distorted and bear passing resemblance to reality. With such an important mission it becomes imperative that a comprehensive news service is established by the Arab and Islamic world, broadcasting globally to a public that has already discerned bias among existing agencies, but thirsts for an alternative - the truth.”

THE ARAB WORLD SEEKS ITS OWN NETWORK Isn’t this what Al-Jezeera is about, without the anti-semitic overtone that seem so engrained in middle east discourse about media in which the terms “Zionist” and “Jew” have long been interchangable terms on the one side, and “THE ARABS”, as if there are no distinctions, on the other. Did you know that a Saudi Prince has long been one of Rupert Murdoch’s business partners?

AFGHAN AGONY

On Friday night, CBC showed pictures of the civilian casualties from a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan that I saw nowhere on the US channels. They interviewed families of young children whose limbs and lives were literally torn apart who were enraged at the US bombers who report hitting three more villages by mistake yesterday. No list of the dead was released. The Background to the political story is also largely missing in the US coverage. Here’s a story from Friday’s Guardian by Tariq Ali, who offers some background on the King who is being maneuvered back on to the political stage. Have you read this in the Washington Post?

“The facts are these: the situation in Afghanistan is inherently unstable.Turf wars have already begun in “liberated” Kabul, though open clashes havebeen avoided: the west is watching and money has been promised. But the damwill burst sooner rather than later. Once the marines depart, with orwithout the head of Bin Laden, the alliance will discover that there is no money foranything except waging war. Schools and hospitals and homes are not going tobe sprouting next spring or the one after in Afghanistan or Kosovo. And ifthe 87-year-old King Zahir Shah is wheeled over from Rome, what then?

“Nothing much, thinks the west, except to convince the Pashtuns that theirinterests are being safeguarded. But judging from past form, Zahir Shahmight not be satisfied with the status quo.

“A document from the German Foreign Office, dated October 3 1940, makesfascinating reading. It is from State Secretary Weizsacker to the Germanlegation in Kabul and is worth quoting in some detail: “The Afghan ministercalled on me on September 30 and conveyed greetings from his ministerpresident, as well as their good wishes for a favourable outcome of the war.

“He inquired whether German aims in Asia coincided with Afghan hopes; healluded to the oppression of Arab countries and referred to the 15m Afghans[Pashtuns, mainly in the North West Frontier province] who were forced tosuffer on Indian territory.

“My statement that Germany’s goal was the liberation of the peoples of theregion referred to, who were under the British yoke… was received withsatisfaction by the Afghan minister. He stated that justice for Afghanistanwould be created only when the country’s frontier had been extended to theIndus; this would also apply if India should secede from Britain… TheAfghan remarked that Afghanistan had given proof of her loyal attitude byvigorously resisting English pressure to break off relations with Germany.”

“The king who had dispatched the minister to Berlin was the 26-year-old ZahirShah. The minister-president was his uncle Sardar Muhammad Hashim Khan.”This whole article is now on counterpunch (www.counterpunch.org)And now he is back in Germany, where by the way, Neo Nazi groups marched in Berlin and were confronted by anti-Nazi marchers over the weekend. Missed that on CNN.

YOU HAVE MAIL

We get letters:” Okay,Danny, picture this: in a world where restatement of the obviouspasses for warm and fuzzy, especially among the ineffectual voice ofdissent, imagine that the truck being driven right past everyone is the$$$$$ that tax payers submissively pony up for …. (name your own personaloutrage). Now, keep in mind the statement made by Alexander Haig, whilewitnessing a gathering of a million strong at the Comprehensive TestBan Treaty in NYC in the 80’s, “Let them march all they want as longas they continue to pay their taxes”. TAX STRIKE!!!- be the first onyour block to stop the truck in its tracks.

stay tuned,

Hardy Darring

YOU HAVE TO READ THIS

And finally, this item this Sunday which just takes the breath away. Its from the Pakistan News Service as relayed by the Globalvision News Network. It is about a world going to the dogs.

“CLEVELAND, Nov 30 (PNS): Many Muslim-Americans have been targeted since the events of Sept. 11 because of their beliefs, but now the spotlight is on a breed of dogs called “Afghan hounds.” NewsChannel5’s Kareen Wynter reported that the hounds are being attacked in northeast Ohio. Afghan hound owner and breeder Lorie Starinsky said that her dogs have suddenly come under attack because of their name.

“What could these dogs have to do with politics and religion (and) things going on around the world?” she said. “(I had) a little bit of fear (that) because ‘Afghan’ is in the name, they would be targeted in some way.”

The dogs get their name because of their origin; they came from the Middle East decades ago. Starinsky said that many people refuse to believe that’s where the political ties end.Starinsky, a member of the Afghan Hound Club of America, said that the organization even considered canceling a recent dog show.

“You hate to worry (that) there’s going to be some nut job coming in and shooting these dogs, (but) it’s happened before,” she said.

Personal safety is also a concern. It’s not just the hounds that have turned into targets, but also their owners - from the clothes they wear (one T-shirt said “Afghan hound lover”) to their personalized license plates, NewsChannel5 reported.”In just about every state, people have these Afghan license plates and have had their cars beat up a bit,” Starinsky said.Starinsky said that she’s sick of the nonsense and that the dogs are loving and innocent just like other breeds.

I AM ON NPR’s ON THE MEDIA TODAY

Tune in at 3 ET. Or check the show out online at onthemedia.org. I will be back tomorrow in this spot, now having alienated CNN, The Israeli government, Hammas, The Arab World. The President of these United States and the King of Afghanistan all in one column. At least some dogs will still lick me.

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