-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.jordantimes.com/Tue/opinion/opinion1.htm
}}}>Begin
Jordan Times (Opinion Section)
Editorial:
Israelis are right to fear the truth
A US-WIDE campaign by several pro-Israeli groups in the United
States has produced what the ombudsman for National Public Radio described as
unprecedented pressure to influence American media coverage of events in the
Middle East. This might come as a shock to Arab audiences who have repeatedly
seen their causes unfairly covered by many American media organisations. But
these pro-Israeli lobbies believe the majority of US news organisations nurture a pro-
Palestinian bias. The campaign aims at altering media coverage of the Arab-Israeli
conflict through various techniques ranging from boycotting newspapers to sending
protest letters and e-mails.
Pro-Israeli pressure groups have accused the New York Times, the Washington
Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune,
among others, of unfair reporting that favours Arabs.
�Is it possible that so many major American news organisations are getting this story
wrong � that some sort of national media conspiracy is at work here?� asked the
Washington Post ombudsman in an article. �That, of course, is not the case,� he
said.
It is indeed not. But the mighty pro-Israel lobby in America, and elsewhere, has been
alarmed by some factual and fair accounts of the Israeli aggression on the
Palestinians and the disastrous policies that the Israeli government is following. For
so long, Israel and its supporters have managed to deceive public opinion by
mastering the art of propaganda. The failure of the Arabs to communicate effectively
with the international public opinion and to develop modern competent tools of
dealing with the media left the scene open for Israel to spread its lies and
manipulations about its occupation of the Palestinians and the usurpation of their
rights.
The situation is changing now. News organisations the world over are becoming
more aware of the reality of what is happening in the Middle East. Satellite television
and instant coverage of events have weakened the impact of the Israeli spin doctors.
Israel and its supporters are right to be concerned that more balanced reporting and
analysis of the Middle East will inevitably expose them as the aggressors. Hence is
the all-out mobilisation to intimidate and influence Middle East media coverage.
The former executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer put it right: �What I found
was that the more insightful and human the stories were, if they portrayed Arabs
positively or Israelis negatively, then there was hell to pay.�
For Israel and its supporters, �you are with us or against us,� he explained. This new
McCarthyism will not work. The world has become too open a place and technology
too advanced for any one to hide the truth. If Israelis are worried about the image of
Israel, they need to change extremist policies and end aggressions that produce
such images rather than try to force media organisations to cover up for them. It is
time Israel and its supporters faced some hard facts: Israel's usurpation of the
legitimate rights of the Palestinians and occupation of Palestinian land are evil acts.
The problem is with these acts, not with media coverage of them.
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
End<{{{
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