The new study to be released on Monday analyzes two-years of coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs. In addition, the report will contain previously unreleased information regarding Associated Press coverage of this conflict.
If Americans Knew Executive Director Alison Weir, who will be presenting the findings, says that these reports should serve as a wake-up call to the American public. “By looking at this coverage statistically, choosing clear, objective categories, we have found an extremely useful, non-subjective tool for measuring the accuracy of media coverage on this extremely important issue. Our findings are highly disturbing. Full and fair reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the ongoing peace process is absolutely necessary if the United States is to act as an honest broker.”
Ambassador Edward Peck, former chief of mission to Iraq, will introduce the briefing, the 11th in the series of public hearings on the Middle East sponsored by the Council for the National Interest in the last year.
To reserve a seat, send an e-mail to inform@cnionline.org or call 202-863-2951.
link
I posted the whole thing because it is a press release, and I have through negligence and accident, decreed that BooMan Tribune is press.
Although I cannot claim to be as optimistic as the organization that did the study that mainstream views in the US would change regardless of what they knew, I am glad to see that someone has quantified what even the most casual viewer and reader of news has known for some time.
US media coverage of US funded atrocities against the Palestinian people are presented as acceptable, just, meet and right so to do, and a host of other laudatory nouns.
Just for starters, the frequently used phrase “a period of calm” refers to a period during which only Palestinians are killed.
While almost every victim of every suicide bombing is profiled up close and personal, complete with interviews with grieving friends and family, poignant vignettes of the deceased’s bedroom, prized possessions, photos of happy moments, etc., if the death of a Palestinian is mentioned at all, it is as an afterthought, no name, just something to the effect that 2 or 4 or whatever the number from this attack is, were “reported to have died subsequent to a routine Israeli military operation in a refugee camp.”
I think maybe once or twice since 2000 have their been any little featurettes of Palestinian victims.
While this may be perfectly acceptable to mainstream US viewers – obviously it is, since all those Palestinians are murdered courtesy of the US taxpayers – to most of the world, it seems bizarre, absurd, and jarringly as anti-Semitic as it is anti-Arab, as they bring in the “guests” to explain the “Israeli point of view” which invariably involves some wackjob with a Russian accent attempting to make some connection between Jews and Judaism and crimes against humanity.
As if Yuri Avnery were not Jewish, as if no one from Bt’Salem returned calls requesting someone to come on CNN and give the Israeli point of view.
Time permitting, there is usually some pass at having someone on to give the Palestinian point of view. That usually goes like this:
“Mr Erakat, why isn’t Palestine doing more to reduce incitement against Israel?”
“Today they killed 3 children who were playing soccer! Children! 9-10 years old! The people of Nablus have no water! The elderly people are very sick!”
“OK Mr Erakat, I’ll rephrase my question. What is the Palestinian Authority doing to stop this hostility to Israel, this support for terror?”
“They won’t let food trucks into Ramallah! Even the UN says they are starving people there. Why doesn’t the US help us?”
“Well Mr Erakat, I know our viewers would really like to know why you expect the US to stop this terrorism problem, it sounds like a Palestinian problem to me, but unfortunately we are out of time. When we come back, Former Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu will be our guest…”
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Thanks again for diary on important humanitarian issue. I was just looking for a diary to add my comment — I will contact this Dutch organization, perhaps they will contribute at Booman Tribune.
I had heard a lot of the Dutch section of these activists, through interviews on National Radio. I have deep respect for its founder, his principles and him coming forward to Let His Jewish Voice Be Heard!
European Jews for a Just Peace [EJJP] is a federation of Jewish groups from different European countries. Its principles are formulated in the Amsterdam Declaration
We, representatives of eighteen Jewish peace organizations from nine European countries, gathered together at the conference “Don’t say you didn’t know” in Amsterdam on the 19 and 20th of September 2002, call upon:
Caterpillar – A Tool of Occupation
Likud Netherlands
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
but I’m going to do it anyway because that phrase “a period of calm” drives me mad. On one of the occasions that CNN used it about a year ago, I went back over the period that they alluded to as a period of calm and documented what had been going on from a Palestinian perspective during that timeframe. There were 70 dead Palestinians, and extensive violations of human rights and international law – but according to U.S. media, none of it happened.
The thing that really bugs me is that even Israeli reporters do better than their U.S. counterparts in reporting what is going on in the Occupied Territories. There is no way that Amira Hass or Gideon Levy – among others – would be published in the mainstream press over here, yet they are published in Israel. I can’t understand how or why the U.S. media came to be “more Israeli than the Israelis” when it comes to talking about the Palestinians. It is as if we in the U.S. are uniquely incapable of empathizing with anybody who is not quite like us, or understanding complex issues in anything other than simple black versus white.
One of the most powerful things I’ve ever heard in the news about the middle east conflict was the simple act of naming the Palestinian victims on Flashpoints Radio-one of my top ten news sources. It hadn’t truly hit me that with the lack of human details, when the media bothers to cover these deaths at all, that the feeling is as if these deaths don’t count. I know it’s obvious once it’s said but still, giving people the respect of a name, a face, an age,a family, it all brings the situation home with a great deal of force.
Contrast that with mainstream news and it’s like night and day.
they are not considered human.
Killing Arabs is not a crime in the US
but still covers the Israeli side more extensively… although Canada isn’t directly funding one side over the other either.
Glad to see the study is getting coverage.
One of the reasons it is difficult to get full reporting from the Occupied Territories and Israel is that if a reported tries to give balanced reporting, they are vilified in the Israeli press and harassed by the Israeli Defence Forces.
BBC reporters face this problem constantly and are often stopped from crossing checkpoints. Freelancers and peace campaigners recording things like the destruction of homes are sometimes shot at and killed. A Briton was killed last year and the person identified deliberately aiming at his gun for half a minute was cleared of causing his death or even negiligently firing his weapon recently.
Pictures that do get out are often taken by Palestinian “stringers” who have been given DV cameras.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/new_web/archive_updates_july.htm
This is a link I’ve found interesting.
The numbers themselves of people killed in the Palestine/Israel conflict(stupid word for so much killing)is rather telling.
From Sept. 29,2000 only to May 2, 2005:
Palestinians Killed–3,612
Israeli’s Killed——–964
http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/resources/mrates.asp
This is link to above figures and also a good site to keep handy.
How often does the US media point out that the West Bank and Gaza are rightfully Israel’s territory,
from the agreed-upon 1922 League of Nations partition plan that assigned all of British Palestine west of the Jordan to the Jews and east of the Jordan to the Arabs, to the rejection by the Arab nations of the 1948 UN partition plan which would have stripped the land from Israel, to the PLO’s founding documents which reject any Palestinian claim to the West Bank or Gaza as they were seen by the Palestinians as rightfully Jordanian and Egyptian land, to Israel’s military seizure in 1967 of this land that had been taken from Israel by military force in the first place, to the mutual failure of either side to abide by their part of those post-’67 UN resolutions which demand Israel’s withdrawl, to Israel’s treaties with Jordan and Egypt in which the latter nations withdraw their claim to the territory, to the PLO’s failure to abide by the treaty in which it was given control over only small parts of the land? How often is it pointed out that Fatah is considered “moderate” for only wanting to kill all the Jews and steal their land eventually, while the opposition groups want to kill all the Jews and steal their land right now?
The media’s reporting is biased in favour of being uninformative and based on press releases with no historical perspective. All Israeli settlements are condemned without considering whether the land is historically Arab and seized by Israel since ’67 or historically Jewish and seized by Jordan in ’48 and resettled after ’67. Israeli atrocities are just as underreported as unlawful attacks on Israeli forces, although Israel puts out a press release whenever they charge a soldier with war crimes. No one cares to report what either side’s obligations in a peace plan are unless they’re taking one side over the other. Arab access to natural resources in any peace plan is not discussed because no one has a pretty map or table of numbers of it, nor the responsibility of the PA to quit teaching genocide in schoolbooks, but they can show a map with a road connecting Gaza and the West Bank. All of it is lucky to get far more press than similarly violent situations in Africa, Asia, and South America.
The disparity in reporting of Israeli and PA deaths is easy to explain. Most Israeli civilians are killed in situations where it is clear and inarguable that civilians were intentionally targeted, which makes the story more shocking and attractive to the media. Most PA civilains are killed in situations that can be explained away as accidents by the Israeli military, whether they were or not. It’s relatively rare for Israeli military forces to be killed since they’re better armed and covered, so they can put out a press release and it gets picked up.
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– Welcome – Great contribution in a balanced and informative way – kudos.
I read some of your diaries at dKos, shows the same thoughtful style. At nuke-free zone are you warrior?
1947 UN Partition Plan
GB and US were reluctant to let Stalin participate pre D-day planning and to invite him in the post-war deliberations on the division of Europe. The magnitude and strength of the Soviet armed forces dictated the decision finally reached. The Baltic states were annexed by Stalin, against the wishes of the West.
Just like the Yalta decision on a division of Europe, so was the 1947 UN Partition Plan a power play by the victors and in the case of GB in Palestine, to avoid further embarrassment as the Commonwealth Empire was crumbling globally and more important issues were on the table. It laid the seeds for more bloodshed in the future. This can also be said of a lot of post-WWII US foreign policy decisions, they were short-sighted, lacked historic knowledge, focused on economic empire building, not recognizing legitimate rights of minorities or whole populations in the region.
The Middle-East, would not have become the powder keg of today, wasn’t it for the Arab tribes unknowingly sitting on the major world oil resources, for which they could only be grateful to Allah. It restored a balance of power in the region, as was seen in the 1973 period with economic control over the West by an oil boycott.
This fact of the oil resources, in the Cold War period with the Soviets backing the Arab countries, further aggravated by the overthrow of the Shah of Persia in 1979, led to a very lengthy stand-off to reach a final Peace Deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Especially the Bush | Cheney hunger for oil and military upper hand in the area, led to a stand-still, after Clinton’s effort to reach a settlement fell short in 2000-01. With Sharon’s Likud election victory in February 2001, the peace activists knew their flags could be folded for another decade.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
does not have a history of popularity with the local populations, and the Levant is no exception.
Leopold had the same problem in Congo.
A view from Israel here.
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PNA’s consultant Edward G. Abington described this a “huge slap in the face” to President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of his upcoming visit to the United States. An excellent tactic by Israel, Sharon, and the US regime to undermine any legitimacy for PNA President Abbas.
Instead of $200 million for the PNA, as President Bush had requested, the Congress measure earmarks $150 million for Palestinians, to be channeled through US aid agencies, non-government organizations and philanthropic group.
Another $50 million would go to Israel for construction of a crossing facility enabling Palestinians to get from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and to build terminals for people and goods at Israeli military checkpoints surrounding occupied Palestinian areas.
Abbas and Sharon declared a truce to end more than four years of bloodshed on Feb. 8 at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik. Abbas persuaded militant Palestinian groups to honour the ceasefire.
Israel pledged to hand over five West Bank towns to Palestinian control and free 900 prisoners. However, Israel stopped the process after two towns and 500 prisoners, charging that the Palestinians were not fulfilling their obligations – stopping all violence and disarming militants in towns under their control.
Sharm El-Sheik Summit – Interview June 2003
USAID a Christian movement for Democracy in EURASIA ahead of US Armed Forces?
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
The names and numbers of the Palestinians killed in any event, or other matters going on?
Maybe we can write our own news stories, although I would suggest that they be neither “pro-Palestinian” nor “pro-Israel” as those tend to get discounted by all sides (unless written by major media) but a Just the facts, ma’am type thing. Or man. With any factual background on settlements or water situations and so on included, as needed.
They may not get wide distribution at first, but they would serve to inform at least the readers here (and wherever else they were posted, which could be any number of places).
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The so-called Quartet agreed that opportunity was at hand, to end years of violence but that concrete steps must be taken by both the Israelis and the Palestinians.
“We will intensify our effort and we will expect the parties to intensify their efforts as well,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. Both parties should adhere to the agreements ratified at Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt. The Quartet will support the parties in the Gaza troop withdrawal and the removal of four settlements from the West-Bank, Rice said in CNN interview.
(AP/CBS) Agreements Ratified at Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt.
GAZA
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that he will delay a pullout from Gaza for a month, until mid-August, after an annual religious mourning period. In an interview with Israel TV in advance of Israel’s independence day this week, Sharon said the evacuation of settlers from the 21 Gaza settlements would be delayed until after a religious mourning period, which ends Aug. 14.
The original date for starting the removal of settlers from Gaza was July 25.
WEST-BANK
Palestinian militants and police exchanged gunfire in two West Bank towns, defying Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ attempts to crack down on lawlessness and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid footing. However, Palestinian officials said they have made great strides in their plan to get militants off the streets without confrontations.
In the towns of Jericho and Tulkarem, handed to Palestinian control in March, all gunmen once wanted by Israel — a total of more than 200 — have joined the Palestinian security forces, said legislator Abdel Fattah Hemayel, who is in charge of finding jobs for the West Bank fugitives.
Israeli officials said the plan to absorb the gunmen into the security forces is not enough. They said the Palestinians must keep a promise to confiscate weapons. Hemayel said the gunmen’s weapons are now under control of their commanders, and that they can no longer use them at will.
In the West Bank town of Tulkarem, a major mission awaited the 150 new recruits. Local security chiefs said they were mobilizing some 400 officers, including the former gunmen, to arrest the leader of a gang of car thieves and arms dealers. Before dawn Monday, the criminals had shot up the local police station.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité