;.cNewsweek 12/13
;.l1,3,63,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
;.l2,15,75,192,2,20,25,127,15,0,
;.l3,20,75,192,2,25,127,20,0,
;.l4,25,75,192,2,127,25,0,
;.l5,30,75,192,2,127,30,0,
;.l6,12,90,192,2,18,24,127,12,1,
;.l7,17,124,192,2,34,127,17,2,
MEDIA BIAS
.h2, Media bias -- Newsweek 12/13/93      -- 
TO:    David bar-Ilan, Eye on Media, Jlem Post
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Kibbutz Haon, Jordan Valley, 15170 Israel.
       Telephone:  972-6-757572; FAX:  972-6-757554
DATE:       
RE:
REF:  Newsweek 12/13/93 (Deming/bureau) "Zionism Tranformed"
CC:   David Bedein, Israel Resource, Bet Agron; 02-247803; 257303 
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Introduction
                                                            
Ok:  I think I've made the point over the past year that Newsweek(more than TIME nowadays) expresses anti-Israel bias.
	One might ask why; and start by checking its majorstockholders.

	Note that Newsweek and TIME, although ostensibly newsmagazines, explicitly offer editorialized news:  most articles arecredited primarily to a home-office based editor, and onlysecondarily to the reporters.
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	Incidentally, that policy enables these magazines tomaintain foreign correspondents who are not subject tocriteria of responsiblity and accountability; they can alwaysclaim that they wrote an honest story but the editordistorted it.
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	For example, this article seems to have by-passed thereporters and been written in the home office on the basis ofotherwise unidentified "bureau" reports -- the implication is thatthese were all the major, reputable, bureaus; but the possibilityof including material from propagandistic Palestinian associationsis not precluded.

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(1)  Lead Photo:

	The lead photo is (pardon the pun) inflamatory; a youngsettler shown praying behind burning tires, described as "an antiPalestinian roadblock".  (That the protest was essentially asymbolic demonstration -- the roadblock lasting only, as I recallfrom the news, for a few early-morning hours, is not indicated.)
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	Often I do media analysis by noting andconceptualizing my own reactions.  I did not find thisphoto of a young man in tallit and tfillin offensive;but I'm too close to all that; to a typical gentilereader it might convey an impression of Judaism as abarbaric religion.
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	As a drop-out graduate student of analytic philosophy ina leading-edge hippy commune of the late '60's, I tried toblock outside photographers; one recognized -- often fromtheir choice of subject -- that they would somehow trivializethe project.
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	Israel must face the fact that photography is not necessarilyobjective; photo-journalism is usually tendentious.  I havecontinually tried to suggest that the Palestinian move to takeover at least a part of Israel is being fought primarily in themass media, not on the streets; and that accordingly Israel isjustified in exterting much stricter control over foreigncorrespondents and foreign-media-employed photographers.
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	(This issue of Newsweek catches that point nicely in aquote from an official in the Finland Defense Ministry:  "Thecurrent strategic doctrine of the Baltics would probably bebest described as the CNN defense.  The idea is, you resistjust long enough so the whole world can see you have beenattacked.")
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(2)  Lead interview:

	So, to our text:  we start with the oldest trick in the book:
MAD DOG SAYS:
	The writer carefully surveys all available sources until hefinds one raging lunatic, whom he quotes at length.  
	From what one hears on Israel radio English news, theSettlers' groups have been quite successful in putting forwardcreditable spokespeople who present the official line in moderatetones and without inflamatory rhetoric; the Netanyahu school ofpublic speaking.  
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Offhand, I recall that Yedidya Atlas, Aliza Herbst, and anumber of better-known figures (eg Harel) came acrosssounding perfectly reasonable.
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	So one hesitates to blame the Settlers' movement, inparticular Ofra, for letting Mr. Aharon Halamish of Ofra get intoprint expressing a wisful desire to see the Dome of the Rock blownsky high; they may have been unaware of what he said.  (One mightfollow up to find out what he said when and to whom.)

(3)  Lead segue:

	We then segue into the exposition of the article with theoldest rhetorical trick in the book:  the EVEN-HANDED BACK-STAB:
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"To be sure, not all Jewish settlers are quite so pugnaciousas Halamish.  But...[emph. added]
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(4)   Historical hypocrisy:
      "In the years following the Six Day War, Zionism wastransformed into a sense of manifest destiny ..."
COMMENT:	There's truth enough in this, as an ackward way ofcharacterizing Messianic religous Zionism; but there's an historicirony:  'manifest destiny' was a doctrine used to rationalize theextension of US domination across 3000 miles; applied to Israel,it refers to an extension of territorial control from 9 to 50miles.

(5) Uzi-envy

	Folks in the USA have a peculiar fascination with guns;writers exploit this, making ordinary, unmilitaristic gestures inIsrael look ominous:  eg, in this article, "he carries an M-16assault rifle"  and "on the couch, next to his daughter's stuffedpanda, is his Uzi machine gun"

The article concludes with another MAD DOG SAYS.





.p
Postscript:  Israel-bashing as Anti-Semitism:

	Needless to say, it would be most unfair to accuse theforeign media of anti-Semitism (formerly defined by the British,who are expert in denigrating practically everyone but their Queenand cattle, as 'hating Jews more than absolutely necessary'(recounted, JP __/___/8?).  
	One must carefully distinguish between Israel-bashing (IN)and anti-Semitisim (OUT).  Nowadays no civilized civilized personobjects to Jews, as long of course as they don't act `too Jewish'.
(which brings us back to this photo of a young man in tallit andtfillin.  One must try to persuade the settlers' movements toremind their people that they're no longer on their own land,they're on a sound-stage for international TV).
	So one cannot accuse the mass media of anti-Semitism; heck,look at all the respectful attention they give to Holocaust news 
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(as-it-is-said (USA Crackerbelt ca. 1950) 'the only goodnigger is a dead nigger').
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Nonetheless, for a lot of us hereabouts there's not muchpragmatic difference between Israel-bashing and antiSemitism; except that the former takes you on a scenic routeto the next holocaust.
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In short, I suggest that one could properly charge Newsweek withanti-Semitism.

	
	
