03
Apr
Media And The World: World’s Apart
NEWS NOT IN THE NEWS
REUTERS PANEL
CHOMSKY ON ISRAEL
We are living in different worlds. There seems to be a disconnect between the world of the media and the world it reports on, as well as a disconnect between how different communities in conflict seek and process news reporting. We are in the midst of a dramatic convulsive crisis playing out before our ideas, one that is sowing the seeds for a global confrontation from which the United States and other countries cannot escape simply by changing the channel. Actions provoke reactions and the consequences can’t be contained.
FACTS ON THE GROUND
This morning, CNN is leading with the Battle in Bethlehem. As Israeli soldiers pour into Manger Square at the very birthplace of Christianity to root out Palestinian solidiers. The Holy land is now land of war — war without an end in sight. The US government looks on from a distance, disengaged, although feeble rejoinders against Ariel Sharon’s stated intention to deport Yasser Arafat into exile, arguing it will solve nothing. That assumes that Israel is trying to solve something. For Arafat, who spent 26 years in exile leading a people whose whole national story is framed as resistance to dispossession, this is the same as a death sentence. No wonder he would rather fight to the death. Sharon has been in the Arafat deporting business since his invasion of Beirut in the l980’s, which left a trail of blood in two refugee camps. He was frustrated then and is using what the New York Times calls today a US sanctioned “window” to act against “a fact on the ground,” a situation that others will deplore but do nothing about.
A PERSONAL PLEA
Yesterday. this conflict in far away Jerusalem came into my office here in Times Square with an unexpected telephone call from a Palestinian film maker named Leila who rang at the suggestion of a former BBC producer I know. Her house, she said, was surrounded by tanks, and a curfew had forced her inside. She said she and her friends were desperate to reach out to the US media in the vain hope that their story would be told on American TV and influence the US media. “Do people there know what is happening to us,” she asked as she recited a litany of abuse and devastation caused by the Israeli Army who, according to her, was terrorizing the civilian population in its campaign against terrorism. I told her I would get her number to a US network bureau in Israel, which I did. Unfortunately, I told her our human rights TV series “Rights & Wrongs” is no longer on the air and I had no outlet to show her footage. I suggested she reach out to the Indy Media Centers who are on the scene. She thanked me and, then there was silence, a silence on the line. She must have realized that there was little I could do and that the world media was harder to reach out to than she thought.
Perhaps that’s why, my email traffic is mushrooming with accounts being sent and forwaded from West Bank towns with reports that just make you want to cry. Their emotion driven stories don’t seem to be coming from in the reporting which offers a narrative of events, but rarely of feelings and personal experience. By the way they are written, or calls like Leilas are made, you know that this news from the inside is not orchestrated or propaganda. It is however often news not in the news:
NEWS FROM THE WAR ZONE
“I am the director of the Khalil Sakakini CulturalCentre in Ramallah (
“…..One of the employees of the Sakakini Center had theIsraeli army burst into his village (Kobar)yesterday, destroy belongings & arrest his younger brother,alongside 30 other young men from the village.
“The cleaning lady of the Center lives in a housewith an outhouse for toilets. For 3 days the Israelishave been posted by the door to her house & preventingall exit. When the eldest today sneaked out to theouthouse, the Israelis caught him & beat him. Hisschool teacher father tried to intervene, theIsraelis beat him & arrested him.
“One of the board members of our center was arrestedwith all the employees of the office building wherehe was working late Thursday night. They were allblindfolded & had their hands tied & placed in oneroom for 16 hours. The Israelis destroyed someoffice furniture & stole hard drives from computers. Theyall untied themselves once they realized the Israelishad gone on to bigger prey…
“The only local private TV station in town that usedto air hourly news & advice (Watan TV) has been seizedby the Israelis on Friday, & they are now airingpornographic films. Journalists have been orderedout of Ramallah today Sunday.
“All neighborhoods are abuzz with talk of who is nextin Israeli home incursions. As for me & many others,there is the human instinct of crying out for helpwhen in danger. What we have done: With our means we have made phonecalls to appeal for help & pressure on theinternational community to a number of high levelofficials in a number of neighboring countries, aswell as sent appeals to the media like this one.”
RED CRESCENT PRESIDENT LIES IN THE RAIN
There are bulletins like this one from the Red Crescent (Red Cross) organization: “URGENT: Apr 2 - 9 am - Ramallah - PRCS HQ. While responding to urgent calls from the sick and injured this morning, three PRCS ambulances were stopped by Israeli tanks, crews ordered out, including PRCS President Younis Al-Khatib, forced to lie in the rain on the street and crawl 50 m to nearby Israeli tanks. The status of the crew is not known. A total of 9 crew, and 3 ambulances are detained now. PRCS appeals to our partners and world community to intervene immediately in order to stop these atrocities against medical mission. PRCS has suspended ambulance operations in Ramallah.”
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE?
And , then there is this letter from an American college student from Minnesota named Tzaporah Ryter. She also appeals to the media: “I am not only scared for myself and for people here, but if this cannot be stopped, I am truly scared for all of humanity, for a world in which we send men to the moon but cannot stop ethnic cleansing. On the news in America, we see hardly anything of demonstrations. What are you doing over there? There do not seem to be any reports of what is happening.”
NEWS ON THE ISRAELI SIDE
This type of news is only reaching a small number of people. In any event, supporters of Israel and boosters of Sharon’s policies tend to tune in to their own voices — as do many Palestinians. Each side seeks confirmation for their own beliefs and screens out other views. The news flow Israelis get beats a different drum, often promotes fears that, in turn, unify support for the government. This is not to say that alarm about terror attacks are not real, but there does seem to a cause and effect relationship that is glossed over. In any event, Israel’s news relies on different sources, eg.
“MOFAZ: PALESTINIANS ARE NOT THE TARGET OF ISRAEL’S OPERATION:Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz asserted in astatement describing Israel’s military operation on Monday, that IDF actionsare not directed against the Palestinian people, THE JERUSALEM POSTreported. “Our war is not directed against the Palestinian people. We arefighting against terrorism and its perpetrators. We shall wage this war withdetermination and wisdom, while respecting the values of the IDF. We shallrespect human dignity adamantly. We shall not harm civilians and theinnocent.” Or:
“Arafat approves 30 new suicide missions
“Special to World Tribune.com
“Tuesday, April 2, 2002 TEL AVIV‚ Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has approved plans to send 30 suicide bombers to Jerusalem, Israeli military intelligence officers said. The officers said Arafat approved plans for a combined effort by his Fatah movement and such Islamic opposition groups as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to send at least 30 suicide bombers to Jerusalem…”
The folks reading these bulletins and relying on reports from websites like Debka.com are not terribly open to other perspectives including my own attempts to wade through the media coverage and point to omissions, errors, and outright distortions. This came in yesterday from a child psychiatrist from Australia, Dr. George Halasz, who I met last week and was very impressed with.
DENOUNCING MY “PERVERSION OF LOGIC”
“I was confronted by a perversion of logic the likes of which I cannot ever recall experiencing, as I read 3/31’s nine-page report by The Dissector–Middle East Miscoverage. The author’s intent was to provide a ‘context’; ‘the missing voices’; to expose the ‘pr and media spin’ and Washington’s complicity to attempt to redress a balance in the ‘miscoverage’ of the emerging reality in the Middle East……Danny’s column demands close reading, because then the facade of authoritative analysis dissolves and reveals simplistic, superficial propaganda. This is not overt propaganda. It is a refined, subtle and subversive propaganda, disguised as humanism, and is therefore seductive.
It is, in fact–although probably not intended to be–malicious propaganda that appeals our enemies, to Islamic and Arab terrorists, because it appeases and inspires them. Yes, this propaganda encourages the enemy because of the way it strengthens their convictions that we infidels are morally and physically weak. ….”
Is this what I am doing? I don’t think so. I hope not. But, made up minds on all sides don’t seem to able to hear each other’s arguments, or, for that matter, feel each other’s pain.
A REUTERS FORUM
Last night, I went down the street to the spanking new Reuters office tower at the “Crossroads of the World” at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, for a Reuters Forum entitled “Doing Business in an Uncertain World.” To Reuters’ credit, it is one of the few news organizations to actually sponsor first-rate discussions on timely issues with diverse speakers. They are usually held at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and draw a mostly academic crowd. But, this one, at the spanking new HQ, featured Thomas H. Glocer, the new American CEO of the British based company and the first non journalist to hold that position in a company that now makes 90% of its money from financial services and business info. Joining him was Arthur Sulzberger Jr. publisher of the New York Times based just around the corner. He will soon be one-upping Reuters with an even fancier towering edifice of glass and modern design. (He called it the “largest building between 8th Avenue and Chicago.”) To add to the tower metaphor, Geoffrey Wharton was also in the house, and on the panel. He manages the World Trade Center or, rather what was the World Trade Center for the real estate company that bought it just a few weeks before it was toppled by terrorists affecting, in his words, 50,000 people directly, destroying 15 million square feet of office space, and costing $7 billion dollars. He knows about uncertainty, if anyone does.
This panel of heavy hitters however began with a brilliant talk by Raghida Dergham, an Arab-American writing from the UN for Al-Hayat newspaper. She led off with an incisive tour of the issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict which she sees as the centerpiece for peace in the region, if not the world. She was passionate, calling for US engagement to impose a settlement on two parties that are incapable of doing so on their own, and explained how this crisis is radicalizing the Islamic militants and fueling the very terrorism that the US and Israel say they want to stop. She spoke about the issues, not the media coverage. So when it came time for a Q&A, I asked her if she felt that the media in this country was explaining the issues she laid out, offering context and background, and helping Americans understand what is at stake. I also asked the Times Publisher and Reuters chief to comment.
Her response was guarded, as I am sure she didn’t want to alienate the top journalists in the room. She criticized the tendency of the media to only follow events, as they happened, and not even give a weekly wrap-up to show the relationship between events. Most telling was her comparison to the controversy over Al Jezeera and her take on US media coverage. “Al Jazeera was being criticized for broadcasting incitement and appealing to emotion in a one sided way” she said. “I see the same thing on many US networks — incitement, rather than information.” When she finished, the moderator, Tom Goldstein, Dean of the Columbia Journalism School asked if the highest voices of the Times or Reuters had any comment.
MEDIA BIGS: SILENT
They passed, offering no comment at all. Silence. For me, this is a real leadership failure. Just as the US government looks away, and refuses to engage with its critics or the crisis, the media industry all too often avoids critiquing its own coverage, or even responding to a responsible, even moderate, Arab perspective as if they, too, are uninvolved in the issues. They didn’t even denounce the treatment that many journalists are receiving at the hands of the Israeli Army, although Glocer did speak of his commitment to protecting Reuters journalists. (Yesterday, The Israeli government threatened legal action against NBC and CNN for violating orders to leave Ramallah. A crew from a TV station in the Gulf was expelled!)
How about defending the media’s right to cover the story! I was disappointed by their failure to address that issue too. Why no call on Sharon and Arafat to protect journalists? And as for “incitement,” I saw exactly what Raghida was talking about this morning. Predictably, there was a screaming headline on the front page of the New York Post: “SACRILEGE: Arafat’s Gunmen Hide Out Where Jesus was Born.” Now, Mr. Murdoch wants to fuel a Christian crusade? Just what the world needs. Question to Rupert: Did you report that the Pope denounced the conflict, not the Palestinians, calling it a “war on peace?”
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? NOAM CHOMSKY’ S VIEW
If the media is reporting some of what’s happening, the analysis is hardly diverse. Z Magazine’s Z NET is running a new interview with Noam Chomsky, taped April 2. Chomsky, of course, is one of the most informed people on this issue, and the least quoted in mainstream media.
“Z: Is there a qualitative change in what’s happening now?
“I think there is a qualitative change. The goal of the Oslo process wasaccurately described in 1998 by Israeli academic Shlomo Ben-Ami justbefore he joined the Barak government, going on to become Barak’s chiefnegotiator at Camp David in summer 2000. Ben-Ami observed that “inpractice, the Oslo agreements were founded on a neo-colonialist basis,on a life of dependence of one on the other forever.” With these goals,the Clinton-Rabin-Peres agreements were designed to impose on thePalestinians “almost total dependence on Israel,” creating “an extendedcolonial situation,” which is expected to be the “permanent basis” for”a situation of dependence.” The function of the Palestinian Authority(PA) was to control the domestic population of the Israeli-runneocolonial dependency…
“But now that plan has apparently been shelved in favor of demolition ofthe PA. That means destruction of the institutions of the potentialBantustan that was planned by Clinton and his Israeli partners; in thelast few days, even a human rights center. The Palestinian figures whowere designated to be the counterpart of the Black leaders of theBantustans are also under attack, though not killed, presumably becauseof the international consequences. The prominent Israeli scholar Ze’evSternhell writes that the government “is no longer ashamed to speak ofwar when what they are really engaged in is colonial policing, whichrecalls the takeover by the white police of the poor neighborhoods ofthe blacks in South Africa during the apartheid era.” This new policy isa regression below the Bantustan model of South Africa 40 years ago towhich Clinton-Rabin-Peres-Barak and their associates aspired in the Oslopeace process…
“It is convenient in the US, and the West, to blame Israel andparticularly Sharon, but that is unfair and hardly honest. Many ofSharon’s worst atrocities were carried out under Labor governments.Peres comes close to Sharon as a war criminal. Furthermore, the primeresponsibility lies in Washington, and has for 30 years. That is true ofthe general diplomatic framework, and also of particular actions. Israelcan act within the limits established by the master in Washington,rarely beyond.”
BUSHWHACKING BUSH
What is striking that Chomsky is not alone in criticizing Washington’s policies. No less an establishment organ that Business Week is blasting the Bush Administration, but when TV news covers his debate, it is usually presented in partisan terms. BW writes: “How badly has George W. Bush mismanaged Middle East policy? His bungling has not only helped bring the region to the brink of war but it has also jeopardized the White House’s own top priority — its battle against terrorism.
“The Bush strategy has sent a ringing message throughout the Middle East — terrorism works. And that, in turn, has isolated the U.S. in its efforts to crack down on Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. After reviewing the events of the past months, it’s no wonder that Saddam and his Mid-East surrogates think they have Bush on the run.
“If the President is serious about a war on terrorism, he needs to become fully engaged in the Middle East.” That’s Business Week, folks, not the Indy Media Center or the Palestine Monitor.
A READER WRITES ON THE COVERAGE
In the e-mail today, Larry Houghteling shares some thoughts about media coverage of this mess. “Re Israel vs. Palestine: The Saturday Times had aninteresting juxtaposition which I discovered thismorning as I was trying to read the op-ed page. I’dpeeled the outer wrapper — pages 1 & 2 and the op-edand the final ad page — off, and there in the upperright hand corner of p. 2 we have the daily quotation,with Colin Powell’s explanation of whathas halted peace talks: “Let us be clear about whathas brought it all to a halt: terrorism.”
“Then over to the right, on the op-ed page, we haveYossi Beilin on what halted talks: ” instead ofaccepting the successful talks that had taken placebetween Israel and the Palestinians at Taba in Egyptin January 2001 as a way toward a final settlement,Ariel Sharon decided, after being elected primeminister, to terminate the peace process. (H)e brought it to an end with the help ofShimon Peres and the Labor Party.”
He goes on to say that part of this process was the decision to demonizeAbu Amar and the Palestinian Authority.
“It’s horrifying that at a time when it’s clear that only the US can get the two sides to get serious about peace talks again, the American foreign minister gets quoted saying such baloney. There was an NPR report this evening about the Arabs’ horrified chagrin at the US administration’s lack of savoir-faire and tact.”
Yup.
SAVE NPR?
Larry cites National Public Radio. The other day I got one more of this Internet chain letter appeals to “Save NPR.” It came from the respected investigative reporter Mark Dowie. Oops. Dowie writes again today.(BE WARNED:
“Friends,
“I write with egg on face. Of all people, I should have known about thisnow infamous hoax. The NPR thing I sent you yesterday turns out to be ahoax perpetrated by people who intend to embarrass NPR. Please don’tforward it, and if you have done so, please do as I have done here anddo what you can to stop the madness.
“There were and surely are members of our legislature who would like toend public radio, but without Ginrich to lead them, they are an insignificant minority. Not to worry.
“Our intentions were good, but this will not help NPR and PBS.
“Sorry,
“Mark”
No problem, Mark. You were not alone. A new court decision threatens even more media consolidation. See that news on Mediachannel.org today, as well as my weekly column, this week on the Middle East. I love hearing from you on all sides. Write: dissector@mediachannel.org
