;.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,
TO:   David bar Ilan, Eye on Media, Jlem Post 
      David Bedein, Israel Resource, Bet Agron, 37 Hillel, JLEM
      FAX:  02-259239
FROM:  STEVE AMDUR, KIBBUTZ HAON, D.N. EMEK HAYARDAN, 15170 ISRAEL
       Telephone:  972-6-757572;  FAX:  972-6-757554  
       Messsges:   972-6-757511
DATE:  5/14/93
RE:    Media Bias:  Newsweek 5/17/93, TIME 5/17/93
                    Guardian Weekly May 9
REF:   
------------------------------------------------------------------

As constant in these notes, underlining and GRATUITIOUS CAPS aremy added emphasis.

A FEW FOLKS SHOULD START SENDING LETTERS-TO-THE-EDITOR TO TIME ANDNEWSWEEK.  Maybe Joe Lerner?  And some Sabra women.
                 
Newsweek 5/17/93 has nothing to say about Israel.  Did we cease toexist?

TIME 5/17/93:
New nation discovered:   p14:  
"Steps toward peace:  "Crowds in CISJORDANIA welcome home thefirtst 15 Palestinians permitted by Israel to return from exile."

l2
You can't go back to Constantinople; cause Jericho's now inCISJORDANIA. 
l3
Pantagonia was first discvoered by the Marx Brothers inDuck Soup, if memory serves.  
Cisjordan, "the land of broken promises" was, if memoryserves, invented by the British about 75 years ago whenthey started running out of oil and Xmas presents.
That it has now been rediscovered by TIME suggests thatsome unnameable entity is about to be asked to give itaway.  What the heck, they sell orange juice in theManahat Mall.  Who needs Zionism when we have VCR's?
l1

We're now getting good press!  TIME speaks of "Israel's newlyrelaxed posture" (most sensible in jailhouse rape) and"unprecedented flexiblity"
l2
Like Peres said, if you've got good policies, PR takes careof itself.  Until we run out of things to give away, they'lltalk nice about us.

Like Lenny Bruce said, nowadays if you ask for a high-pricedhooker, they send you in an ad man.  On loan to the ForeignMinistry
.p
l1
MEDIABIAS, GUARDIAN WEEKLY, MAY 7, 1993

l1
Guardian Weekly, May 8, 1993
p9:  "Another Bloody day in Gaza", EYEWITNESS by Derek Brown
Cf. my Mediabias memo on Newsweek, May 10, pp24-25

Cf. also bar Ilan, Eye on Media, JP May 7, 1993, suggesting thatDerek Brown is out to make his mark in Israel, quickly, bydisregarding most of the criteria of a bona fide reporter.

I suggest that analysis of the following article can show thatDerek Brown has here ignored the basic criteria of honest,accurate reporting:  tell WHEN, WHERE, WHO SAID WHAT, and HOW YOUKNOW.
One could then argue that there are minimal criteria for continuedaccredidation of reporters; those might be drafted by the IDFSpokesman's office in conjunction with the Foreign PressAssociation.

Photo:  Same photo as in Newsweek, BUT CROPPED (albeit honestly)TO ELIMINATE MOST OF THE FEATURES I NOTED AS PROBLEMATIC IN THEPHOTO AS PUBLISHED IN NEWSWEEK)
Photo caption:  "KHALED ELHAIEL, AGED 20, shortly before he wasshot dead in Gaza last week." [my emphasis, to note informationnot given in the Newsweek article.]
I had estimated the youth's age at 14.     

HAS THE IDENTITY OF THE YOUTH IN THE PHOTO BEEN CONFIRMED?

HAS THIS INCIDENT BEEN CHECKED BY THE IDF SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE?

HAS THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE INCIDENT WAS STAGED, INSTIGATED, ORCATALYZED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER BEEN INVESTIGATED?

Credited, as in Newsweek, to Maya Vidon, no mention of AFP.

Surprisingly, there is no mention of the captioned incident(Khaled Elthaiel, aged 20, shot dead in Gaza, lst week in May 93(?).  Nor was there any mention at all in the Newsweek May 10article (which gave neither the youth's name nor age.)

Brown argues, as an eyewitness, that Israeli snipers are, ineffect, firing deliberately, consistently, and without threat tolife or (in some cases) even active provocation, at Palestiniancivilians, including children.

Such a charge, by the representative of one of the world's mostliterate and more reputable English-language journals can't bedisregarded; if it's confirmed, a public acknowlegement by the IDFspokesman's office of disciplinary action is called for; if it canbe shown to be incorrect, or if the the reporter can be shown tohave misrepresented a Palestinian statement as first-handobservation, the reporter should be expelled. 

"There was neither sight nor sound of any disturbance.  No mob, noteargas, no barricades, no army patrols, no yelling, no extrarubble in the streets.  Just the sharp crack of high velocityfire, single bullets at a time, fired at five to 10 minuteintervals.  And every five to 10 minutes, the casualites wweredragged or carried into the United Nations health centre in theheart of this tatty, terrible place."
I DON'T FIND EITHER A DATE NOR explicit IDENTIFICATION OF THEREFUGEE CAMP IN THIS ARTICLE, apparently it is "Bureij camp".

A traditional reporter tells the reader WHEN and WHERE.
And also HOW he KNOWS,


Describes two gunshot injuries:  1st to a man about 25 years old,no name, two bullet wounds in his thigh;  2nd to a boy apr. 10years old, named Ibrahim Mansour, "with a great hole in his hip""his wound was simply dressed".  Report Palestinians saying thatone man was shot when coming out of his house, another whengetting into his car.  "All of them, without exception, talked ofIsraeli snipers.  'They are on the roof, shooting when they like. They do this every day.'

"The sound of the shots told its own story:  single rounds meansingle targets.  The soliders must have seen that they were aimingat children, and yet they fired to hit, not to warn."
l2
Textual criticism:  the reporter implies that he did not seean incident, and heard only the sound of single shots.  Fromthis he infers that soldiers saw children, and aimed at firedat them, without firing warning shots.
l2
Ok, let's slow down for a minue.
On simple textual criticism, this can't be quite right.
They do not all, without exception, say the quoted words.

A traditional reporter tells the reader WHO SAID WHAT.
l1
Reports a gunshot wound from a bullet that passed through theabdomen of Ramzi Mansour.

No further injuries are detailed; although the implication is thatthere were many more.

Discusses an interview with a voluneer named "Khalid", who tellsthe reporter tat his other "died after being beaten by thepolice", that a sister "lost a baby after being beaten whilepregnant", that he and two of his brother have been in prison
and that one wanted brother is in Libya. 

"The shootings were so casual, so startling unconnected with anyrisk to the soldiers, that it seemed worht another look at Bureijcamp just to make sure.  But the Israeli army does not exactlywelcome investigation.  When we returned, in a car with a largepress sign on the windscreen, a soldier in a sandbagged positionon top of an unfinished building, slowly and deliberately aimedhis rifle at us, peering through a telescopic sight."

l2
The implication is that the reporter had not identifiedhimself as such while reporting the previous events.   It isnot clear who "we" are:  Baker & the credited photographer? An unacknowleged Palestinian liason?  A driver?  Anapolitical driver.

Supposedly the reporter had no reaction to having a rifleaimed at him, and made no complaint to the IDF.  That's notimplausible, but it is suspect.  And how close would one haveto be to notice the telescopic sight?  To far for anyexchange of words?

l1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Guardian Comment, p12:  "OUR JERUSALEM CORRESPONDNET was observingthe brutality of the Israeli army as it enforced the SIEGE ofGaza."

l2
Mr. Derek Brown represents the Guardian.
Maybe a problem, but also a symptom.
Personalizeing political conflicts may be expedient, but mayyield only minimal redress.

THE SIEGE OF GAZA
Like I say, the Guardian is, like, one of the most literateof English-languge journals.
The IDF maintains the occupation of Gaza, enforces thepartial closure of the occupied territories, and attempts tomaintain minimal law-and-order.  It has not, however, laidsiege to the territory since capturing it in 1967,
(That was Troy.  An understandable slip.  And a rhetoricallyuseful one.)
l1

"Sealing off the occupied territories may conjure up the fantsythat this could be a permanent solution.  But international opinonwould not tolerate the human misery which this will create (intruth it is already intolerable)..."

l2
That ain't a prediction, it's a declaration of media war.

I hope somebody tells the Labour crowd that the Palestinianswould be most angry if Israel gives them a mini-state andthen expects them to stay in it.  One hestitates to tellthem; they want so much to be able to pretend that theterritories don't exist.  The true peace process.  Peace ofmind at last.  A proper dream for aged warriors.

I gather that England rather expects proper negotiations toeventuate in at least an invitation to resume the Mandate.
L1

"events in South Africa, where the two main parties stand inroughly similar relationship..." 
l3
Would you believe northern Ireland?
l2
White domination of the Union of South Africa was a classiccase of economic imperialism maintained by political andpolice power.  Israel's occupation of the Gaza territory, aneconomic liability,  occured in response to its use as a basefor military terrorist attacks against Israel.

South African society was blatantly racist; the Israelipeople and government can fairly be charged withdiscrimination and prejudice against Palestinians; but notwith racism per se; the people of Jewish Israel would seem tobe about as racially non-discriminatory as any.

One must not underestimate the extent to which foreignsympathy for the Palestinians is motivated by theirperception as not merely an economic and political minoritybut as a racial minority.
l3
A friend once remarked that Afro-Americans seethemselves, in some sense, as descendents of Hagar. (This may be intended as no more than a metaphor, but itdoes have some force.  And the importance of the USAAfro-American community in setting the tone forattitudes toward Israel ought not be underestimated; itis well worth attempting to earn their goodwill.
l1
The upshot of this editorial is a call to "Britain and Europe" (inorder of significance) to put more pressure on Israel to promisethe PLO a mini-state.  
-----------------------------------------------------------------

An article on Hamas by Partrice Claude, translated from Le Monde4/29/93 romanticizes violence, but with no identifiable politicalbias.  Most French.


 












 

