> > >-------------------- > >Telling it like it isn't > >-------------------- > > > >December 27 2005 > >2005: SUMMARY JUDGMENT > > > >Telling it like it isn't > >By Robert Fisk > >ROBERT FISK is Middle East correspondent for the London Independent and >the author, most recently, of "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest >of the Middle East," published last month by Knopf. > > > >December 27, 2005 > > > >I FIRST REALIZED the enormous pressures on American journalists in the >Middle East when I went some years ago to say goodbye to a colleague from >the Boston Globe. I expressed my sorrow that he was leaving a region where >he had obviously enjoyed reporting. I could save my sorrows for someone >else, he said. One of the joys of leaving was that he would no longer have >to alter the truth to suit his paper's more vociferous readers. > > > >"I used to call the Israeli Likud Party 'right wing,' " he said. "But >recently, my editors have been telling me not to use the phrase. A lot of >our readers objected." And so now, I asked? "We just don't call it 'right >wing' anymore." > > > >Ouch. I knew at once that these "readers" were viewed at his newspaper as >Israel's friends, but I also knew that the Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu >was as right wing as it had ever been. > > > >This is only the tip of the semantic iceberg that has crashed into >American journalism in the Middle East. Illegal Jewish settlements for Jews >and Jews only on Arab land are clearly "colonies," and we used to call them >that. I cannot trace the moment when we started using the word >"settlements." But I can remember the moment around two years ago when the >word "settlements" was replaced by "Jewish neighborhoods" or even, in >some cases, "outposts." > > > >Similarly, "occupied" Palestinian land was softened in many American media >reports into "disputed" Palestinian land just after then-Secretary of >State Colin Powell, in 2001, instructed U.S. embassies in the Middle East >to refer to the West Bank as "disputed" rather than "occupied" territory. > > > > >Then there is the "wall," the massive concrete obstruction whose purpose, >according to the Israeli authorities, is to prevent Palestinian suicide >bombers from killing innocent Israelis. In this, it seems to have had some >success. But it does not follow the line of Israel's 1967 border and cuts >deeply into Arab land. And all too often these days, journalists call it a >"fence" rather than a "wall." Or a "security barrier," which is what Israel >prefers them to say. For some of its length, we are told, it is not a wall >at all so we cannot call it a "wall," even though the vast snake of >concrete and steel that runs east of Jerusalem is higher than the old >Berlin Wall. > > > >The semantic effect of this journalistic obfuscation is clear. If >Palestinian land is not occupied but merely part of a legal dispute that >might be resolved in law courts or discussions over tea, then a Palestinian >child who throws a stone at an Israeli soldier in this territory is clearly >acting insanely. > > > >If a Jewish colony built illegally on Arab land is simply a nice friendly >"neighborhood," then any Palestinian who attacks it must be carrying out a >mindless terrorist act. > > > >And surely there is no reason to protest a "fence" or a "security barrier" > words that conjure up the fence around a garden or the gate arm at the >entrance to a private housing complex. > > > >For Palestinians to object violently to any of these phenomena thus marks >them as a generically vicious people. By our use of language, we condemn them. > > > >We follow these unwritten rules elsewhere in the region. American >journalists frequently used the words of U.S. officials in the early days >of the Iraqi insurgency referring to those who attacked American troops >as "rebels" or "terrorists" or "remnants" of the former regime. The >language of the second U.S. pro-consul in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, was >taken up obediently and grotesquely by American journalists. > > > >American television, meanwhile, continues to present war as a bloodless >sandpit in which the horrors of conflict the mutilated bodies of the >victims of aerial bombing, torn apart in the desert by wild dogs are kept >off the screen. Editors in New York and London make sure that viewers' >"sensitivities" don't suffer, that we don't indulge in the "pornography" of >death (which is exactly what war is) or "dishonor" the dead whom we have >just killed. > > > >Our prudish video coverage makes war easier to support, and journalists >long ago became complicit with governments in making conflict and death >more acceptable to viewers. Television journalism has thus become a lethal >adjunct to war. > > > >Back in the old days, we used to believe did we not? that journalists >should "tell it how it is." Read the great journalism of World War II and >you'll see what I mean. The Ed Murrows and Richard Dimblebys, the Howard K. >Smiths and Alan Moorheads didn't mince their words or change their >descriptions or run mealy-mouthed from the truth because listeners or >readers didn't want to know or preferred a different version. > > > >So let's call a colony a colony, let's call occupation what it is, let's >call a wall a wall. And maybe express the reality of war by showing that it >represents not, primarily, victory or defeat, but the total failure of the >human spirit. > > > > >The complete article can be viewed at: > >http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-fisk27dec27,0,7963154.story > > > >Visit latimes.com at http://www.latimes.com > >
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Clean water saves lives. Help make water safe for our children. http://us.click.yahoo.com/YNG3nB/VREMAA/E2hLAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia *************************************************************************** __________________________________________________________________________ Mohon Perhatian: 1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik) 2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari. 3. Reading only, http://dear.to/ppi 4. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
