Why we blame the media
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February 16, 2011
Journalist Charles Silberman, who died last week, became a cause celebre in 1985 with a book, A Certain People, that dared to suggest that, on balance, American Jews have it pretty good. Jewish critics panned the book for being overly optimistic. As the Times pointed out in his obituary, he once told a reporter that “it takes guts to bring good news to the Jewish community.”
I thought of Silberman Sunday night, when I sat on a panel on “Israel in the Media” at the Glen Rock Jewish Center. Such programs have become a Jewish ritual unto themselves — I think of Purim, but instead of reading from the Megilla, we panelists recite the various crimes of The New York Times and the BBC, and instead of booing Haman, the congregation hisses at mentions of “Thomas Friedman” and “Christiane Amanpour.”
I heard a lot of that anger and frustration Sunday. The strongest challenge was aimed at Shani Rozanes, a press officer at the Consulate General of Israel, who explained the ways Israel is attempting, with some success, to change its “brand” among journalists. No sooner had she finished than a man in the audience insisted that Israel was doing a “terrible” job in terms of hasbara, or public relations. Israel is engaged in a battle of good vs. evil, he insisted, and instead of emphasizing that, its representatives are wasting their time boasting about their beaches and high-tech sector.
I tried pointing out that — the media’s myriad flaws notwithstanding — a vast majority of Americans take Israel’s side in the conflict.
(Indeed, a Feb. 11 Gallup poll found that 68 percent of Americans rated Israel favorably, the same as in 2010. The Israel Project released its own poll Monday, with 55 percent of respondents describing themselves as a “supporter of Israel,” and only 6 percent pro-Palestinian.)
Our audience was skeptical: “The media never reports about Iran.” “No reporter ever asks about how Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction.” A third audience member suggested the press is treating the Muslim Brotherhood with the same naivete that they once treated Nazism.
After the event, I Googled “Iran nuclear threat” and found links to over 1,000 articles in January and February alone, including in most major outlets. Similarly, I found a raft of articles describing Hamas as an organization bent on destroying Israel, from the Wall Street Journal and FoxNews.com (perhaps no surprise) to The New York Times and Dan Rather’s show on HDNet.
What accounts for the huge gap between the actual performance of the media and the way in which many American Jews view their coverage of the Middle East? The armchair psychologist in me suggests that it’s a proxy war: Deeply pained by criticism of Israel, frustrated by the grinding sameness of the Mideast story, and perhaps feeling guilty over Israel’s distant sacrifices in their struggle for survival, American Jews invent an enemy close at hand.
The modern media revolution also increases this sense of mistrust. Technology has infinitely magnified the ease by which news can be created, broadcast, and accessed. This is a blessing in some ways, challenging the ability of a few major networks or conglomerates to control the pipeline.
But that also allows us to see only what we want to see. Fox News Channel vanquished CNN by jettisoning even the pretense of objectivity. MSNBC and a host of Web portals followed suit. Now we expect news outlets to reflect what we already believe, and when they don’t, we charge bias.
The cable news effect can also be seen in the triumph of opinion over reporting. Cable networks must fill their hours with talking heads, interpreting the day’s events through the filter of their own ideologies. The jury is still out on whether Egypt will become Turkey or Iran, but you can count on a dovish pundit to assert the former and a hawk to assert the latter. Weighing evidence is for losers.
Finally, the Web offers a platform for fringe ideas and a way for outliers to find one another. That’s great if you are talking about accordion players, not so good when you are talking about anti-Semites. Not a day goes by that I don’t stumble upon a link to an egregious anti-Israel screed. Maybe the mainstream media avoid this sewer, but the Web’s infinite reach may make it hard to tell the difference.
Nevertheless, despite the kinds of distortions that keep the folks at CAMERA busy, the American media basically tell a Mideast story most of us can live with. They may not take Israel’s side the way we’d like, but nearly all the major outlets suggest that peace depends on meeting the legitimate claims of both sides to the conflict. That’s pretty much what you’ll find in most of the Israeli media. And it’s a whole lot better than what you’ll read in the European press or in the BDS blogs, where peace depends on Jews admitting their “historic mistake” and setting the clock back to 1947.
That sort of thinking remains on the margins, at least for the moment. Because that could change, I’d be the last person to say we should stop monitoring the media for anti-Israel bias. I’m willing to accept the good news, but I understand the passions of Jewish readers who can’t trust the people who bring it to them.
Andrew Silow-Carroll is Editor-in-Chief of the New Jersey Jewish News. Between columns you can read his writing at the JustASC blog.
Comments
Bob Schultz
February 16, 2011
“Fox News Channel vanquished CNN by jettisoning even the pretense of objectivity.”
Although you fail to make a distinction between reportage and commentary, I believe that most people understand the difference. I remind your readers that a few months back, you stated that it was a “shanda” that JCC fitness center televisions were tuned to FNC simply because of your perception of an FNC pro-Israel stance. (Could it be that FNC is the only news outlet without an anti-Israel bias?) Ok, we all know you hate Fox News!
FNC newscasts throughout the day report the news and make an effort to feature guests with varying opinions on unfolding events.
The Center for Media and Public Affairs and the Project for Excellence in Journalism (funded by a left leaning organization, Pew Research) found that compared against other cable and broadcast news outlets, FNC provided the most balanced campaign coverage of the 2008 political campaign and election.
Also in 2008, Pew determined that among the cable news networks, FNC had the most balanced audience:
* FNC: 39% Republican, 33% Democratic, 22% Independent
* CNN: 18% Republican, 51% Democratic, 23% Independent
* MSNBC: 18% Republican, 45% Democratic, 27% Independent
On the flip-side of FNC, O’Reilly, Hannity, et al, do not report news, but rather give their point of view. Whether or not you like their style or opinions, FNC commentators have on guests who disagree, debate and offer their own points of view. While CNN occasionally features guests with opposing views, it is almost unheard of for MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and former host Keith Olbermann to do so. These MSNBC shows provide an echo chamber of the host’s leftist talking points of the day. While MSNBC hosts Dylan Ratigan and Chris Matthews will have on guests who disagree, it is not uncommon for these hosts to become unhinged and disparage their guests.
Perhaps more insidious is the treatment of news by CNN and the broadcast networks. Each claims to be offering straight reportage of the facts, but bias seems to creep into any “report” that is political in nature or relates to the Middle East. Bias can come in the form of what is or is not reported, as sure as it comes in the form of slant. Who can ever forget:
* Former CNN reporter Peter Arnett’s fraudulent reports of the bombing of an Iraqi “baby milk factory” in Gulf War I or his “Operation Tailwind” report.
* Former CNN executive Eason Jordan admitting that CNN knew of Saddam Hussein’s human rights abuses but spiked such stories to curry favor with the Iraqi government.
* Former CBS anchor Dan Rather’s “fake but accurate” forgeries of George W. Bush’s National Guard documents, or his gushing interview with Hillary & Bill Clinton when he stated that he hoped he and Connie Chung could be as great as the Clintons.
* Former NBC Today host (and current CBS anchor) Katie Couric’s on-air statement during Gulf War II that “hopefully” Saddam Hussein and his sons escaped the US bombing of the palace where they were believed to be.
* Current NBC Today host Meredith Viera participating with her husband, Richard Cohen, in anti-war demonstrations led by ANSWER in New York City.
I have not even introduced examples from the print media (read NY Times), because that would require too much space. I only ask that you examine your own biases before painting FNC with a broad brush.
Baxter Law
February 19, 2011
American support for Israel is a mile wide and an inch deep. Al Gore’s choice of Joe Lieberman as his VP cost the ticket the entire South including W. Virginia and Arkansas. Barack Obama, friend of Rashid Khalidi was elected President. A theatrical documentary based on The Goldstone Report will be debuting at the Sarasota Film Festival this April and no one should be surprised if it gets nominated for an Academy Award. All the hasbara in the world can’t cover up Israel’s atrocities. Not anymore. Not one TV reporter on any channel in America has ever criticized Israel. John Chancellor and Peter Jennings did it a little bit but they’re dead. Rachel Maddow has never said the word “Israel”. Fear of the Jewish Lobby keeps everyone in line. Will that change? No. But, despite that the American are waking up. Our govt.‘s support for Israel puts all our lives in jeopardy. As bin Laden himself said of 9\11: “If I hate freedom so much - why didn’t I attack Sweden.” 40% of all JEWS know that Israel is Evil.
Bob Schultz
February 19, 2011
TThe quoted sentences below are attributable to Baxter Law and my comments are directed toward him/her/it, not ASC:
“Not one TV reporter on any channel in America has ever criticized Israel.”
I suppose you are unfamiliar with the work of Christiane Amanpour. Actually, it is not the job of a “reporter” to criticize anyone or anything. Reporters are supposed to report facts. Criticism should be left to commentators. (By the way, “Rachel Maddow” is a commentator, not a reporter.) Anti-Israel commentators appear frequently on every “channel in America.” The problem is not with commentary, but rather with biased coverage of events. The death of Mohammed Dura and the Jenin “massacre” immediately come to mind. American news coverage slanted reportage of these events to lead viewers/readers that Israel had committed atrocities. Independent foreign investigations discredited those reports and disproved Israeli culpability in both cases. Further back, US media blamed Ariel Sharon for the massacres at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. Unfortunately, Christian Arab Phalangists were responsible for these killings in retaliation for atrocities committed by Lebanese Muslims against Lebanese Christians.
“Our govt.‘s support for Israel puts all our lives in jeopardy.”
I suppose that if Israel did not exist, the world would join hands with the US and sing Kumbayah. Rubbish! Did you happen to notice that during the attack of CBS reporter Lara Logan (a South-African Blonde), the Muslim crowd yelled Jew, Jew, Jew, not Israeli, Israeli, Israeli? Islamists hate Jews, Christians, Israel because it is inhabited by Jews, and the US because it is inhabited by infidels of all stripes. I guess you are unaware of the manner in which Coptic Christians are treated in Egypt. The Arab Christian population of Lebanon, which used to be a majority, has shrunk considerably because of emigration based upon fear. Please do not forget the treatment of the Kurds and the Armenians by Muslim Arabs.
“40% of all JEWS know that Israel is Evil.”
I do not think you got this from Gallup, Pew or some other reputable source? Did you read this in “Stormfront” or did you just fantasize it?