Myths & Facts Online

The Media

By Mitchell G. Bard

“Press coverage of Israel is proportional to its importance in world affairs.”
“Israel receives so much attention because it is the only country in the Middle East that affects U.S. interests.”
“Western media coverage of the Arab world is equal to that of Israel.”
“Media coverage of the Arab world is objective.”
“Journalists covering the Middle East are driven by the search for the truth.”
“The media lets Israel get away with more because of its alliance with the U.S.”
“Israel doesn't warrant so much attention because it is not one of America's allies.”
“Israel gets favorable coverage because American Jews control the media and have disproportionate political influence.”
“Arab officials tell Western journalists the same thing they tell their own people.”
“Journalists are well-versed in Middle East history and therefore can place current events in proper context.”
“The intifada constituted passive resistance. At its worst, it involved nothing more than children tossing stones at heavily armed soldiers.
“Media coverage of the intifada was fair and balanced.
“Israelis cannot deny the truth of pictures showing their abuses.”
“The press makes no apologies for terrorists.”
“The Palestinian Authority places no restrictions on foreign reporters.”

MYTH

“Press coverage of Israel is proportional to its importance in world affairs.”

FACT

It is hard to justify the amount of news coverage given to Israel based on that nation's importance in world affairs or American national interests. How is it that a country the size of New Jersey routinely merits top billing over seemingly more newsworthy nations like Russia, Chinaa and Great Britain?

Israel probably has the highest per capita fame quotient in the world. Americans know more about Israeli politics than that of any other foreign country. Most of Israel's leaders, for example, are more familiar in the United States than those of America's neighbors in Canada or Mexico. In addition, a high percentage of Americans are conversant on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

One reason Americans are so knowledgeable about Israel is the extent of coverage. American news organizations usually have more correspondents in Israel than in any country except Great Britain.

MYTH

“Israel receives so much attention because it is the only country in the Middle East that affects U.S. interests.”

FACT

The Middle East is important to the United States (and the Western world) primarily because of its oil resources. Events that might threaten the production and supply of oil affect vital U.S. interests. The United States also has an interest in supporting friendly regimes in the region. Attention is warranted because the Middle East is the scene of repeated conflagrations that directly or indirectly affect American interests. Events in countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Iran have required the intervention of U.S. troops, and nothing focuses the attention of the public like American lives being endangered abroad. The United States has been deeply involved in each of the Arab-Israeli wars, but has also had its own independent battles, most notably the Gulf War with Iraq.

On the other hand, Americans are not typically interested in the fratricidal wars of people in distant lands when the fighting does not appear to have any bearing on U.S. interests. This is true in Africa, Latin America and even the Balkans. Similarly, inter-Arab wars have not generated the kind of interest that Israel's problems have. However, the Israeli-Palestinian dispute — two people fighting over one land — is a particularly compelling story. It is made all the more so by the fact that it is centered in the Holy Land.

Another explanation for the disproportionate coverage Israel receives relative to Arab countries is that few correspondents have a background in Middle East history or speak the regional languages. Journalists are more familiar with the largely Western culture in Israel than the more alien Muslim societies.

 

Israel is the one Middle East country where a correspondent can find a girl friend. — S. Abdallah Schleifer1

MYTH

“Western media coverage of the Arab world is equal to that of Israel.”

FACT

The journalistic community regards the Arab/Islamic world as the "arc of silence."² The media in those countries is strictly controlled by totalitarian governments. By contrast, Israel is a democracy with one of the most freewheeling press corps in the world.

The limited access is often used as an excuse for the media's failure to cover news in the region. This was the case, for example, during the Iran-Iraq war — one of the bloodiest conflicts in the last four decades. Still, given the resourcefulness of American journalists, it is shocking that so little coverage is given to even the most authoritarian of regimes.

MYTH

“Media coverage of the Arab world is objective.”

FACT

When journalists are allowed to pierce the veil of secrecy, the price of access to dictators and terrorists is often steep. Reporters are sometimes intimidated or blackmailed. In Lebanon during the 1980s, for example, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had reporters doing their bidding as the price for obtaining interviews and protection. This is not just the case for Western journalists. During the “al-Aksa intifada” Israeli journalists were warned against going to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and some received telephone threats after publishing articles critical of the PA leadership.³

An Associated Press cameraman filmed Palestinians at a rally in Nablus celebrating the terror attacks in the United States September 11, 2001. The cameraman was subsequently summoned to a Palestinian Authority security office and told that the material must not be aired. Yasser Arafat's Tanzim also called to threaten his life if he aired the film. An AP still photographer was also at the site of the rally. He was warned not to take pictures and complied. Ahmed Abdel Rahman, Arafat's Cabinet secretary, told AP the Palestinian Authority "cannot guarantee the life" of the cameraman if the footage was broadcast. AP caved in to the blackmail and refused to release the footage. More than a week later, the Palestinian Authority returned a videotape it confiscated from AP showing a Palestinian rally in the Gaza Strip in which some demonstrators carried posters supporting Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden. Two separate parts of the six-minute tape involving "key elements" were erased by the Palestinians, according to an AP official.

In addition, Israel Radio reported Septermber 14, 2001, that the Palestinian Authority seized the footage filmed by cameraman from various international and even Arab news agencies covering celebrations held in cities across the West Bank and Gaza by Hamas of the attacks against America. The celebrants waived photographs of wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. The very same news programs and networks that broadcast the photo opportunities produced by the Palestinian Authority (Arafat donating blood, Palestinian students in moment of silence, posters supporting America) failed to broadcast the news that the PA is using terror and intimidation to discourage the airing of unfavorable reports.⁴

When asked to comment on what many viewers regard as CNN's bias against Israel, Reese Schonfeld, the network's first president explained, "When I see them on the air I see them being very careful about Arab sensibilities." Schonfeld suggested the coverage is slanted because CNN doesn't want to risk the special accesss it has in the Arab world.⁵

In Arab countries, journalists are usually escorted to see what the dictator wants them to see or they are followed. Citizens are warned by security agencies, sometimes directly, sometimes more subtly, that they should be careful what they say to visitors.

In the case of coverage of the PA, the Western media relies heavily on Palestinian assistants to escort correspondents in the territories. In addition, Palestinians often provide the news that is sent out around the world. “By my own estimate,” Ehud Ya'ari wrote, “over 95 percent of the TV pictures going out on satellite every evening to the various foreign and Israeli channels are supplied by Palestinian film crews. The two principle agencies in the video news market, APTN and Reuters TV, run a whole network of Palestinian stringers, freelancers and fixers all over the territories to provide instant footage of the events. These crews obviously identify emotionally and politically with the intifada and, in the ‘best’ case, they simply don't dare film anything that could embarrass the Palestinian Authority. So the cameras are angled to show a tainted view of the Israeli army's actions, never focus on the Palestinian gunmen and diligently produce a very specific kind of close-up of the situation on the ground.”⁶

A particularly egregious incident occurred in October 2000 when two non-combatant Israeli reservists were lynched in Ramallah by a Palestinian mob. According to reporters on the scene, the Palestinian police tried to prevent foreign journalists from filming the incident. One Italian television crew managed to film parts of the attack and these shocking images ultimately made headlines around the world. A competing Italian news agency took a different tack, placing an advertisement in the PA's main newspaper, Al Hayat-Al-Jadidah, explaining that it had nothing to do with filming the incident:

My dear friends in Palestine. We congratulate you and think that it is our duty to put you in the picture (of the events) of what happened on October 12 in Ramallah. One of the private television stations which competes with us (and not the official Italian television station RTI) filmed the events; that station filmed the events. Afterwards Israeli Television broadcast the pictures, as taken from one of the Italian stations, and thus the public impression was created as if we (RTI) took these pictures.

We emphasize to all of you that the events did not happen this way, because we always respect (will continue to respect) the journalistic procedures with the Palestinian Authority for (journalistic) work in Palestine and we are credible in our precise work.

We thank you for your trust, and you can be sure that this is not our way of acting (note: meaning we do not work like the other television stations). We do not (and will not) do such a thing.

Please accept our blessings.

Signed
Ricardo Christiano
Representative of the official Italian station in Palestine⁷

If a news organization strays from the pro-Palestinian line, it comes under immediate attack. In November 2000, for example, the Palestinian Journalist's Union complained that the Associated Press was presenting a false impression of the "al-Aksa intifada." The Union called AP's coverage a conscious crime against the Palestinian people and said it served the Israeli position. The Union threatened to adopt all necessary measures against AP staffers as well as against AP bureaus located in the PA if the agency continued to harm Palestinian interests.⁸

On September 11, 2001, the day terrorists attacked New York City and Washington, D.C. in deadly suicide bombings, Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate. Armed Palestinians reportedly trapped foreign photojournalists inside a hotel in Nablus to prevent them from covering the festivities. At least one photographer who managed to film the celebrations was told his life would be in danger if the pictures were published.⁹

MYTH

“Journalists covering the Middle East are driven by the search for the truth.”

FACT

It will come as no surprise to learn that journalists in the Middle East share an interest in sensationalism with their colleagues covering domestic issues. The most egregious examples come from television reporters whose emphasis on visuals over substance encourages facile treatment of the issues. For example, when NBC's correspondent in Israel was asked why reporters turned up at Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank they knew were being staged, he said, “We play along because we need the pictures.”¹⁰ The networks can't get newsworthy pictures from countries like Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran or Libya.

MYTH

“The media lets Israel get away with more because of its alliance with the U.S.”

FACT

Americans tend to have a double-standard about the Jews, expecting more from them than other peoples. This is in part due to the Jews' own high expectations and goal of being a "light unto the nations." Thus, when Israelis do something bad, it often attracts attention, whereas Arabs are usually held to a lower standard. For example, when Israel expelled four Palestinians, it generated banner headlines, but when Kuwait deported hundreds of thousands, it was a nonevent. Similarly, the death of one Palestinian in the West Bank received far more coverage than thousands of Arabs killed in Algeria. Rightly or wrongly, the attitude of the public and press is that Jews should behave differently.

MYTH

“Israel doesn't warrant so much attention because it is not one of America's allies.”

FACT

Israel enjoys a unique relationship with the United States dating back to the early part of the century when the Congress endorsed the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. Harry Truman is generally considered the midwife in the birth of the new state, and U.S. economic, diplomatic, and military support has been crucial to Israel's development and survival.

Americans feel a kinship to Israelis because of the values we share — democracy, love of freedom, a commitment to education — that translates into a broad range of people to people and government to government relationships. The public is fascinated by this People of the Book, who wandered from country to country through the centuries, suffered great persecution, returned to their homeland, built a thriving high-tech society, and have fought and defeated enemies with overwhelming superiority. Americans admire the pioneering spirit of the Jews who first settled in Palestine and created kibbutzim, in part because it mirrors their own history. They also like underdogs, which the Jews continue to be even as Israel has grown to be a military power.

As Israel has grown more militarily powerful, it has also become a strategic ally that enjoys the special status of Major Non-NATO Ally.

MYTH

“Israel gets favorable coverage because American Jews control the media and have disproportionate political influence.”

FACT

If Jews controlled the media, it's not likely you'd hear Jews complaining so much about the anti-Israel bias of the press. It is true that the amount of attention Israel receives is related to the fact that the largest Jewish population in the world is in the United States and that Israel greatly concerns American Jews. Large numbers of Jews do hold significant positions in the media (though they by no means "control" the press as anti-Semites maintain), and the Jewish population is concentrated in major media markets like New York and Los Angeles, so it is not surprising the spotlight would be directed at Israel.

Politically, Jews wield disproportionate power in the United States and use it to advocate policies that strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship; however, there is no evidence this has translated into favorable press coverage for Israel. It is possible to argue that pro-Arab forces, such as the petrochemical industry, have as much or more influence on the media and encourage an anti-Israel bias.

MYTH

“Arab officials tell Western journalists the same thing they tell their own people.”

FACT

Arab officials often express their views differently in English than they do in Arabic. They express their true feelings and positions to their constituents in their native language. For external consumption, however, Arab officials have learned to speak in moderate tones and often relate very different views when speaking in English to Western audiences. Long ago, Arab propagandists became more sophisticated about how to make their case. They now routinely appear on American television news broadcasts and are quoted in the print media and come across as reasonable people with legitimate grievances. What many of these same people say in Arabic, however, is often far less moderate and reasonable. Since Israelis can readily translate what is said in Arabic they are well aware of the views of their enemies. Americans and other English-speakers, however, can easily be fooled by the slick presentation of an Arab propagandist.

To give just one example, Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat is frequently quoted by the Western media. After the brutal murder of two Israeli teenagers on May 9, 2001, he was asked for a reaction. The Washington Post reported his response:

Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian official, said in English at a news conference that “killing civilians is a crime, whether on the Palestinian or the Israeli side.” The comment was not reported in Arabic-language Palestinian media.¹²

The unusual aspect of this story was that the Post reported the fact that Erekat's comment was ignored by the Palestinian press.

MYTH

“Journalists are well-versed in Middle East history and therefore can place current events in proper context.”

FACT

One cause of misunderstanding about the Middle East and bias in media reporting is the ignorance of journalists about the region. Few reporters speak Hebrew or Arabic, so they have little or no access to primary resources. They frequently regurgitate stories they read in English language publications from the region rather than report independently. When they do attempt to place events in historical context, they often get the facts wrong and create an inaccurate or misleading impression. To cite one example, during a recitation of the history of the holy sites in Jerusalem, CNN's Garrick Utley reported that Jews could pray at the Western Wall during Jordan's rule from 1948 to 1967.¹³ In fact, Jews were prevented from visiting their holiest shrine. This is a critical historical point that helps explain Israel's position toward Jerusalem.

MYTH

“The intifada constituted passive resistance. At its worst, it involved nothing more than children tossing stones at heavily armed soldiers.”

FACT

The intifada was violent from the start. During the first four years of the uprising, more than 3,600 Molotov cocktail attacks, 100 hand grenade attacks and 600 assaults with guns or explosives were reported by the Israel Defense Forces. The violence was directed at soldiers and civilians alike. During this period, 16 Israeli civilians and 11 soldiers were killed by Palestinians in the territories; more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and 1,700 Israeli soldiers were injured.¹⁴

During an August 1988 visit to Bethlehem, U.S. journalist Sidney Zion was nearly struck by a rock while riding in a taxicab. "It's a good thing the rock missed me," he said. "I didn't see it coming, and wouldn't have lived to see the next second had the driver been going a kilometer faster. Fortunately, nobody was in that seat, but it was clear that the Arabs weren't aiming at dead air."

Zion — who had been writing about the Middle East for more than 20 years — said that American media reports had led him to believe that "the rock-throwers were aiming at the Israeli Army, not at taxicabs. Did you ever see anything else on TV? Did you read anything to the contrary in the newspapers? Kids were tossing stones at soldiers, that's all."

"It simply didn't occur to me that American journalists would suppress news of a life-and-death danger. It was only later that I discovered that what happened to us was hardly uncommon," Zion wrote. "On any given day in the West Bank, Israeli civilians are getting brain-damaged from these nice little Arab youngsters and their pebbles."¹⁵

MYTH

“Media coverage of the intifada was fair and balanced.”

FACT

Candid members of the media admitted that coverage of the intifada was skewed. According to Steven Emerson, a CNN correspondent, U.S. reporters have acquiesced to Palestinian control over what gets filmed. An Israeli cameraman who worked for several U.S. networks told Emerson that "if we aim the camera at the wrong scene, we'll be dead." In other instances, the networks handed out dozens of video cameras to Palestinians so that they could provide footage of strikes, riots and funerals. "There is absolutely no way to ensure the authenticity of what is filmed, nor is there any way to stop the cameras from being used as a tool to mobilize a demonstration," he wrote.¹⁶

Although nearly one-third of all Palestinians murdered in 1989 were killed by their Arab brethren, only 12 of the more than 150 stories filed by U.S. networks from the West Bank that year dealt with the internecine warfare. "While Palestinian political terror on the West Bank fails to make the news," Emerson wrote, "utter fabrications about Israeli brutality are reported uncritically."

For example, in early 1988, reporters were called to el-Mokassed Hospital in Jerusalem to film a dying Palestinian boy. His Palestinian doctor showed him hooked to life-support tubes, and claimed the child had been savagely beaten by Israeli troops. On February 8, 1988, ABC's Peter Jennings introduced the report by saying UN officials "say that the Israelis have beaten another Palestinian to death in the territories." NBC and CBS also gave the claims wide publicity.

But the story wasn't true. According to the child's autopsy and medical records, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He had been sick for more than a year. Overall, the U.S. networks, Emerson wrote, "have been complicit in a massive deception about the West Bank conflict."

NBC's Tel Aviv bureau chief Martin Fletcher acknowledged that the intifada posed a fairness problem. He noted the Palestinians manipulated the Western media by casting themselves as "David" against the Israeli "Goliath," a metaphor used by Fletcher himself in a 1988 report.

"The whole uprising was media-oriented, and, without a doubt, kept going because of the media," he said. Fletcher openly admitted accepting invitations from young Palestinians to film violent attacks against Jewish residents of the West Bank.

"It's really a matter of manipulation of the media. And the question is: How much do we play that game? [We do it] in the same way that we turn up at all those Bush or Reagan photo opportunities. We play along because we need the pictures."¹⁷

MYTH

“Israelis cannot deny the truth of pictures showing their abuses.”

FACT

A picture may be worth thousand words, but sometimes the picture and the words used to describe it are distorted and misleading. There is no question that photographers and television camera crews seek the most dramatic pictures they can find, most often showing brutal Israeli Goliaths mistreating the suffering Palestinian Davids, but the context is often missing.

In one classic example, the Associated Press circulated the accompanying photo around the world. The dramatic image was in the New York Times¹⁹ and spurred international outrage because the caption, supplied by AP, said, “An Israeli policeman and a Palestinian on the Temple Mount.” Taken at a time when Palestinians were rioting following Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the al-Aksa mosque, the picture appeared to be a vivid case of Israeli brutality. It turned out, however, the caption was inaccurate and the photo actually showed an incident that might have conveyed almost the exact opposite impression had it been reported correctly.

In fact, the victim was not a Palestinian beaten by an Israeli soldier, it was a policeman protecting an American Jewish student, Tuvia Grossman, who had been riding in a taxi when it was stoned by Palestinians. Grossman was pulled out of the taxi, beaten and stabbed. He broke free and fled toward the Israeli policeman. At that point a photographer snapped the picture.

Besides getting the victim wrong, AP also inaccurately reported that the photograph was taken on the Temple Mount. The incident did take place in Jerusalem.

When AP was alerted to the errors, it issued a series of corrections, several of which still did not get the story straight. As is usually the case when the media makes a mistake, the damage was already done. Many outlets that had used the photo did not print clarifications. Others issued corrections that did not receive anywhere near the prominence of the initial story.

Another example of how photos can be both dramatic and misleading is the Reuters photo shown below showing a young Palestinian being arrested by Israeli police on April 6, 2001. The boy is obviously frightened and has wet his pants. Once again the photo attracted worldwide publicity and reinforced the media image of Israelis as brutal occupiers who abuse innocent children.

In this instance it is the context that is misleading. Another Reuters photographer took the picture shown below just before the first one was taken. It shows the same boy participating in a riot against Israeli soldiers. Few media outlets published this photo.

MYTH

“The press makes no apologies for terrorists.”

FACT

On the contrary, the media routinely accepts and repeats the platitudes of terrorists and their spokespersons with regard to their agendas. The press gullibly treats claims that attacks against innocent civilians are acts of "freedom fighters." In recent years some news organizations have developed a resistance to the term "terrorist" and replaced it with euphemisms like "militant" because they don't want to be seen as taking sides or making judgments about the perpetrators.

For example, after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a pizza restaurant in downtown Jerusalem on August 9, 2001, killing 15 people, the attacker was described as a "militant" (Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, NBC Nightly News) and "suicide bomber" (New York Times, USA Today). ABC News did not use the word "terrorist." By contrast, every media outlet called the attack on the United States September 11, 2001, a terrorist attack.

Clifford May of the Middle East Information Network pointed out the absurdity of the media coverage: "No newspaper would write, 'Militants struck the World Trade Center yesterday,' or say, 'They may think of themselves as feedom fighters, and who are we to judge, we're newspeople."

The notion that one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist simply is not true. Terrorism is possible to define. Here's how the FBI defines the word:

"Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."²⁰

If the media judged events using this simple definition, journalists would have no difficulty using the word "terrorist."

MYTH

“The Palestinian Authority places no restrictions on foreign reporters.”

FACT

A case study of the Palestinian Authority's idea of freedom of the press occurred following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. An Associated Press cameraman filmed Palestinians at a rally in Nablus celebrating the terror attacks and was subsequently summoned to a Palestinian Authority security office and told that the material must not be aired. Yasser Arafat's Tanzim also called to threaten his life if he aired the film. An AP still photographer was also at the site of the rally. He was warned not to take pictures and complied.

Several Palestinian Authority officials told AP in Jerusalem not to broadcast the videotape. Ahmed Abdel Rahman, Arafat's Cabinet secretary, said the Palestinian Authority "cannot guarantee the life" of the cameraman if the footage was broadcast.

The cameraman requested that the material not be aired and, AP caved in to the blackmail and refused to release the footage.

AP Bureau Chief Dan Perry protested and sought assurances from the PA that "you will protect our journalists from threats and attempts at intimidation and that no harm would come to our freelance cameraman from distribution of the film."

More than a week later, the Palestinian Authority returned a videotape it confiscated from AP showing a Palestinian rally in the Gaza Strip in which some demonstrators carried posters supporting Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden. Two separate parts of the six-minute tape involving "key elements" were erased by the Palestinians, according to an AP official.

The Foreign Press Association in Israel expressed "deep concern over the harassment of journalists by the Palestinian Authority as police forces and armed gunmen tried to prevent photo and video coverage of Tuesday's rally in Nablus where hundreds of Palestinians celebrated the terror attacks in New York and Washington." The FPA also condemned the threats against videographers and "the attitude of Palestinian officials who made no effort to counter the threats, control the situation, or to guarantee the safety of the journalists and the freedom of the press."

Israel Radio reported Septermber 14, 2001, that the Palestinian Authority seized the footage filmed that day by cameraman from various international and even Arab news agencies covering celebrations held in cities across the West Bank and Gaza by Hamas of the attacks against America. The celebrants waived photographs of wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden.²¹

In October 2001, after the United States launched attacks against Afghanistan, Palestinians supporting Osama bin Laden staged rallies in the Gaza Strip that were ruthlessly suppresed by Palestinian police. The PA took measures to prevent any media coverage of the rallies or the subsequent riots. The Paris-based Reporters Without Frontiers issued a scathing protest to the PA. "We fear the Palestinian Authority takes advantage of the focus of international media on the American riposte to restrain more and more the right to free information," said Robert Menard, general secretary of the journalists' organization. The group also protested Palestinian orders not to broadcast calls for general strikes, nationalistic activities, demonstrations or other news without permission from the PA. The aim of the press blackout was expressed by an anonymous Palestinian official, "We don't want anything which could undermine our image."²²

Notes

See also: Israel
The Arab World

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