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old hand
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old hand
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Shoshannah, you said: There is simply no question of the media bias AGAINST Israel in favor of the 'palestinians'... the only real concern, then, is how many people actually believe them, and I'm afraid that way too many people in this superficial world run by a totally biased media do!You also said that this topic made you hot. So if this becomes frightfully political we can probably move to private, or to another forum or board more conducive to a knock-down debate.  I wonder, however, whether you considered your statement regarding media bias in light of your own phraseology - separating a capitalised Israel from the dubeity of single inverted commas accorded to the 'palestinians'. In times of conflict language, whose ability to convey unbiased meaning is fragile at the best of times, becomes completely subservient to the (conscious or otherwise) expression of prejudice by the parties concerned. At least, IMO. In the very next paragraph, for instance, you describe the inconveniences attendent upon your daily life as a result of the current conflict. Others, however, might wonder whether the activities you describe (shopping, visiting friends and c) are even available to Palestinians caught up in this conflict, let alone in the truncated forms that you experience them. From a simple 'analysis' of the language you use I can hardly tell one way or the other. So in my own way, I fall upon my own biases, and they were not all moulded by journalists. In fact the sources of my biases in this matter include: 1. Hani - a Palestinian student in Kashmir, whom I met in 1981 2. Innumerable 'plucky little Israel' thrillers, and Reader's Digest articles - Raid on Entebbe and so on. (circa 1975 - 1985) 3. A dawning understanding that (for whatever reason) India (the country in which I grew up) did not accord Israel diplomatic status 4. A smattering of reading concerning the history of the state of Israel 5. Knowledge that one of my mother's mentors, and most beloved friends, Flo Hyam, was planning to retire to Israel (circa 1986) ....and finally 6. The media - primarily the British print media - 1992 onwards. I think of myself as a pro-Semite anti-Zionist. I do not like the idea of a racially, or religiously-based 'homeland', and I don't care how many millennia old the traditions of that religion/culture/race are. I do not like the idea that the British government salved its conscience for the Holocaust by giving away land that it had no right to. I do not like the idea that the American government time and again provided arms and support to Israel when the state was younger and already demonstrating that it was quite happy to treat territory taken during war as legitimately belonging to it. I do not like the idea that muslim militants consider terrorism a legitimate political tactic. I do not like the idea that even today, in Israel, a large proportion of the population sees no reason why the country cannot continue just as is: asserting the divine right of Israelis to all the land in that area - to the exclusion of equal rights for those of different cultural/religious traditions. These are my biases. I admit them openly - I would not like the continuation of Israel as anything but a completely secular state, and if my feeble vote in the UK can make a difference in that direction I will use it for that purpose. I am, however, ahppy to be corrected in anything that I may have got wrong factually. For instance, is it incorrect that in the current conflict over 90% of the deaths have been of Palestinians? Is it incorrect that in a number of instances when unarmed Palestinian women and children have been killed it is by Israeli soldiers whose official expanation was that they were being attacked and fired in retaliation? Notice how I have used language to express not just my biases, but to attempt to sound open-minded, yet cynical of Israeli attempts at PR or political spin on this affair? Do you really think there is such a thing as a person with access to 'the truth' in such an affair, or that anybody who is thoughtful about language would be willing to believe anybody who might make such a claim? I think it's a tough one. cheer the sunshine warrior
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old hand
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The US media, contrary to popular belief, is pretty carefully, and subtly, controlled to show only an acceptable side of the story. It's great fun to watch and compare the Canadian news and the US news, and see what the US media leaves out. My brother and I were doing an experiment in this sense. We were watching (a few years ago) coverage of the US bombing of Afghanistan - I can't remember the reason any more. The US channels were all indignant about whatever had capitulated the bombing - some perceived or real threat against the US embassy there, I think. The kept playing various statements by the president, etc., on the need to maintain American sovreignty (in a foreign country???!) The Canadian channels carried much of the same, with some added interviews with Afghanistan officials saying that some of the bombs had hit schools or civilian targets or something like that. Now of course that may not be true - but the US channels didn't even bother to show that side of the story! They had to carefully construct the story so that it would seem necessary to bomb them, with no pity at all for the bomb-ees. So I agree with Shoshanna, it helps if you can get information from an outside source. I find the Canadian news is not really picking sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict, not in any obvious way. They're just painting the whole picture as really horrible and depressing, actually, both sides filled with some sort of hatred which they've forgotten the reason for, and lots of innocent people on both sides getting killed... 
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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> world conflict (taking sides)
I'm definitely not joining in this debate in this forum. I think that AWAD should be open to people of all opinions, some of which, I'm bound to disagree with.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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I'd never known that weather reporting could go ...on and on and on ... for sooooo long.No kidding. I can't watch much of the local news for that reason. Out of one and a half hours of news in the evening, 45 minutes of it has to be weather, no exagerations. The rest is constantly repeated soundbites on local events. I can count on my hand the number of times they've indicated that there was another country besides the US. The national program isn't much better. I think the last time I heard news from home was when a former prime minister died a few months ago. You would think the all news channels would be better, but they really aren't. I'm all for recycling, but not endlessly in the news.  So I get most of my news online, hard as it is to take some days. Still depressed and angry about the destruction of ancient statuary by the Taliban in Afghanistan. No more news for today... I'm off to clear more snow. Ali
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member
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In reply to:
I wonder, however, whether you considered your statement regarding media bias in light of your own phraseology - separating a capitalised Israel from the dubeity of single inverted commas accorded to the 'palestinians'.
Hi Sunshine  - and thanks for taking the time to write such a long and thoughtful piece... we can start on the board like this and if anyone gets completely bent out of shape about it, we can go 'private' - in fact, right now, let me suggest that you approve my adding of your private email address to my "Friends & Family" list and you'll begin to get articles and comments about the 'situation' here... just send me a message to wonderworks@iname.com and I'll add you...
Now - on the comment above, first I'll say that I have been actively studying the history of this region for about 20 years (more intensely over the past three as I attended a special school to become a licensed tour guide) and though I don't doubt your interest and understanding as far as it goes... , anyone who actually gives any credibility to the notion of a legitimate nation called 'palestinian' just doesn't know real history! So, you'll understand that I used the capital "I" for the word Israel while keeping the word 'palestinian' as a non-proper noun!
The FACT is that the idea of a separate nation/people/country with that name was CREATED officially in 1964 by the Egyptian government at the Intercontinental Hotel on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem when they official created the "Palestine Liberation Organization" - it was to be primarily a 'political' organization but when Arafat and his Fatah hoodlums got hold of it, they used it as a base of support for their murderous tactics - indescriminately killing anyone who got in their way... who opposed their purpose, which was, from the beginning, to drive the Jews into the sea...
Okay - but there's another question going on here - these folks who NOW call themselves 'palestinian' - where did they come from? MOST (and I do mean that, though I actually do know a few Arabs whose families have been in this area for generations) came here well AFTER the Jews began to return in larger numbers from the middle of the 19th century (after their 2000 year exile) as they (the Arabs who came) saw economic possibilities that were simply not available to them in other parts of the quickly disintergrating Ottoman Empire. If you ask MOST of the Arabs who live here today where their families are from, the honest (but perhaps not public) reply will be Syria or east of the Jordan River [not Jordan, mind you - as it was totally created, with no basis in history, by the British in 1920 when Abdullah was "given" that land which was, of course, also called "Palestine" - if you want to talk about legitimacy in history, they simply have NONE - the Hashemites, after all, were native to the Arabian Peninsula and were forced out in war between them and the Saud Family (which is, of course, why the place is not called Saudi Arabia)... all this is basically 19th and 20th century news - not ancient by any stretch of the imagination], the area now called Iraq (also not an ancient nation nor even a reasonably designed political entity - those guys at Versailles and San Remo... what WERE they thinking?) and even perhaps Egypt or Morocco.
Ya know what - I think that's a good beginning - I can go through a world of history on this board, but let's do it another way - write me privately, give me permission to add your e-mail address to my list, and we'll carry on from there - whaddayasay???
And anyone else is welcome to do the same - there's always room on my e-mail list for a few more friends & family!
Shoshannah
One other word - I had in mind to answer some specific points in your message - I'll do that in private - otherwise, I also just wanted to mention that the name Palestine is NOT a legitimate name for this piece of land - it was given to the 'region' in 135CE by the Roman Emperor Hadrian who, by the way, hated the Jews and created the name to honor the Philistines (who were not "Arab" by any stretch of the imagination...)... prior to that, the region had been called Judea since the time of King David... well, actually just before that period. Also, Hadrian tried to change the name of the city of Jerusalem... be quick now - anyone out there know what he called it? He razed the city and built on the site a new city with a typical Roman city plan - the same design used in most of the cities & towns in the world today. Thus, the name Palestine was born - it was not used as the name of a country or a people - rather a dot on the map of the Roman Empire; the name was later kept alive over the centuries ONLY by Christian cartographers for lack of any other ideas (and they certainly did NOT want to give any credibility to the idea of a Jewish presence there, don't ya know) and of course, there were NO ARABS who lived there or had any authority there until the Muslims arrived (in the presence of Caliph Omar) in 638CE. Okay - enough for now... I'm sure you are happy to hear it!
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veteran
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OP
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
local vs. foreign news
You have hit on a sore spot with me as well. I am always complaining that at 11:00 PM the local news is likely to lead off with a 5-minute story about a family with 6 small children who have been forced to leave their house because of a gas leak, but who are perfectly OK at a relative's house. This followed by 3 minutes (still a long time on local news) about the U. of MD basketball team's success in NC, or something similar. After 2 commercials, 15 minutes into the broadcast, they would get, for about 30 seconds, to something like a war breaking out with hundreds of casualties in some unfamiliar place, like Borneo, or Burkina Fasso; then maybe 15 seconds on an avalanche somewhere killing 150 people (pictures mandatory, or no story at all).
The fact is that all this is market-driven. The finance boys, acting on the info. received from their bean counters, have learned that the average American is primarily interested in what's going on in his immediate locale, and not interested at all, no matter the gravity of the news, in what goes on in places he knows nothing about. Hence the priorities established for local news reports. The worst thing about local news is that the anchors now try to depict themselves as your friends and neighbors and the station as a sort of elder brother who is making this nightly visit by dearly beloved family members possible. Ugh! [holding nose emoticon]
But that's not the worst possible thing about TV news reporting. I hope and pray that no U.S. president will ever again be assassinated, or otherwise die in office. I could not go through another 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week obsession with reporting on that and every possible ramification to the exclusion of virtually everything else, and going over and over the same stuff until you want to scream.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
local vs. foreign newsCarefully staying out of the potential quagmire that is Israel/Palestine, I can offer a simple solution to the problem of excessively introspective news media: Move to a small country. Here in NZ, our two major fre-to-air-broadcasters give pretty decent coverage of the outside world, probably because if they did not, they would never fill their 48 minute hours. On the other issue, all I will say is that Lord Acton had it right.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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Dear Max: My deafness kept me from hearing what Lord Acton said.
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
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Sorry, Bill: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oh, is that what he said. My hearing aid batteries are getting weak, and the 2K trinkets are in my desk drawer.
Maybe that's my problem. Dear Max, forgive me for taking advantage of your good nature. You are one of my favorite people.
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