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>From http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=49766
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Call for more engaging Arab presence in U.S.
Dubai |By Mildred Fernandes | 03-05-2002
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Ben Bradlee: "The Jewish lobby is extremely strong in America."
>From the thousands of county, state and regional newspapers that crowd American
doorsteps, bookstores and libraries, there are a handful that stand out: an elite media
that influences the opinions of both ordinary American citizens as well as those in
government service.
Increasingly, decision-makers around the world also read and react to these
newspapers, in a bid to reach the voice of America.
The Washington Post and the New York Times are at the forefront of that elite group,
ahead of the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and one or two others. The
reasons for this group's dominance are simple: their large circulation draws large
revenues, channelled into better and more bureaux around the nation and the world.
Economics also explains why the elite media sets the agenda for the rest of the
country: the thousands of smaller newspapers have neither the money nor the time
to cover the world and analyse it � their only option is to reproduce the coverage of
those who do: The Post, the Times et al.
When Ben Bradlee, the renowned former managing editor of The Washington Post
has addressed the 200 Arab Media Summit organised by the Dubai Press Club at
the Emirates Towers in Dubai on April 28 and 29.
His suggestions for changing the perception of Arabs in the United States and the
West carried an additional weight. Here, in effect, was the world's messenger saying
what was wrong with the message they carried, and how it could be changed.
Bradlee, the most famous editor of The Washington Post and the man behind its
legendary Watergate and Pentagon Papers coverage, was the first of the summit's
speakers to call for a sharper, more engaging Arab presence in Washington D.C.
and around America.
"The Jewish lobby is extremely strong in America," he said, speaking to Gulf News
after the summit's first session.
"One of the things I'm trying to persuade people here about is that the Arab lobby is
not. I don't see an Arab ambassador from one end of the month to the other. It's not
just the ambassadors, but the good number twos and number threes � we don't see
any of them."
"The representation of the Arab world in the U.S. was not accomplishing the task,"
Bradlee said. "There were many ambassadors from this part of the world who gave
very good parties and who were in the social columns of the newspaper, but didn't
cast much of a shadow in the corridors of power."
"One of the problems was that the absence of that Arab presence, an informed Arab
presence, was magnified because the Israelis sent their very best people to the
United States and they were extremely difficult to deal with, and they lectured you
from one end of the day to the other."
"It's not hard to meet with the media, whether it's the Post or anything else," said
Bradlee, whose paper has long been considered the 'conscience of the capital' due
to its ability to reach congressmen and women, senators, lobbyists and members of
the executive branch of the presidency. "The part of America I know doesn't include
enough Arabs," Bradlee said.
"The Arab world can send more quality people to the United States, and work with
us, we're starved for information there," he said. "Arabs need to take a more active
role there, but I think the Arabs should also listen. Not preach all the time, but
listen,
really listen, to what is going on and what the problems are."
This primacy of a handful of newspapers and a handful of opinions does not
necessarily skew coverage in any particular direction, Bradlee said. The Post's
Middle East coverage � the actual reportage � has long beenconsidered by peers in
journalism circles as more balanced than that of its closest competitor, the New York
Times.
"I have no politics at all," Bradlee said. "I just want to know what's going on,
someone
else can make up their mind whether it's good for the Jews or bad for the Jews. I
want to know the truth, and you have to work very hard to get people to tell you the
truth because they won't the first time until you pin them down."
He also pooh-poohs theories about a strong Jewish influence of the media,
suggesting instead that pro-Israeli Americans and lobbyists are simply a louder voice
in the absence of an Arab voice.
Bradlee's advice to newspaper readers all over the world is the same as that which
he has given to the hundreds of journalists in his employ: "Don't believe the first
version of what they tell you because it's probably not the truth. It certainly isn't
all of
the truth."
Thanks to the predominance of soundbite and image-driven television, truth is also a
rare commodity to come by in the United States, Bradlee said.
"Unless you dig deep in America, your attitude is going to be formed by television
and your attitude is going to consist of a series of interchangeable slides and
images," he said.
"The worst of American television even influences the rest of the world," he added.
"In previous trips to the Middle East, I've seen soap operas and stuff being screened
that I would not watch back home."
Under Bradlee's direction, The Washington Post grew into the most powerful and
popular newspaper in America, and soon began to spread its wings overseas. The
newsroom budget in 1965, for example, was $4 million � when Bradlee left the post
of managing editor, it was $65 million.
A great deal of that money went into opening and operating Post bureaux around the
world. "We had no foreign bureaux when I got there, none," Bradlee said. "Now we
have 23 people working overseas. It's very expensive, but it makes the Post a better
paper, and right now it's the jewel in our crown."
September 11 changed everything about American newspapers, Bradlee said. "As a
war correspondent, I covered the landings in Egypt, I went to Israel, I covered the
independence movement in North Africa," he said. "But I never sat from my own
bedroom before and watched the Pentagon burn from my third-floor window. I just
never had conceived of it, I couldn't believe it."
Still, Bradlee believes American attitudes towards the Arab world have changed for
the better since that day, as Americans are now more aware of the Arab world, what
it is and what it isn't.
"Not towards Afghanistan obviously, and not toward Saudi Arabia," he said, "but I
think now Americans understand a lot more, and they demand more information
about what is going on here."
"That's a good thing. Israel did well with the American public for a long time, as long
as they were able to sell their actions as part of a defensive struggle. But in my
mind,
Israel suffered enormous defeats with the present excesses, starting in Sabra and
Shattila and ending in Jenin. The (poll) arrows are going against Israel at this
moment."
Although Bradlee is no longer a hands-on editor at the paper, he continues to serve
as managing editor-at-large, meaning his opinion still carries considerable weight at
its highest levels.
He has no intentions of ever leaving his post at The Post. "I'm 80," he said. "Why
would I stop?"
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