18 Friday, July 30, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
American News Media and Israel: Growing Danger
By PETER E. GOODMAN
Director, Americans
for a Safe Israel
A phenomenon that has
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been apparent to many ob-
servers was brought into
sharp relief after the Israeli
incursion into Lebanon last
month: the media is at war
with Israel, and truth and
objectivity have little place
in this war.
For much of the media,
especially network TV, the
motto seems to have be-
come, "lets not confuse our
viewers with facts." Thus,
NBC is able to announce
that Israel has broken its
pledge to negotiate with the
PLO should it recognize Is-
rael (no such pledge or
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recognition have ever been
given), the PLO's stand in
Beirut is compared to the
Warsaw Ghetto and Helen
Thomas of UPI compares
the Israeli action to the
Soviet invasion of Af-
ghanistan.
The PLO and Syrians at-
tempting to destroy the
Jewish state for decades
while killing, wounding and
displacing hundreds of
thousands of Lebanese have
become innocent, peaceful
victims.
The Washington Post
accuses Israel of exces-
sive brutality, of "lord-
ing" it over Syria, of de-
stroying the Palestinians
and obstructing justice
for the Palestinians in the
West Bank. For every ar-
ticle supporting Israel on
the op-ed pages of the
Post or the New York
Times, a half-dozen or
more appear attacking
Israel and its policies,
often using language re-
served only for the vilest
mass murderers.
ABC's "Nightline" pre-
sents a panegyric to the
PLO, citing past examples
of U.S.-PLO "cooperation,"
including PLO efforts to
negotiate the Iranian hos-
tage situation. Since there
is ample evidence that the
PLO was involved in the
embassy takeover, trained
the Iranian 'students' and
often calls the U.S. a bigger
enemy than Israel, ABC's
Orwellian and mendacious
newscasting reaches new
lows.
ABC, NBC and CBS run
picture aftet picture of refu-
gees and dead Bodies. They
announce as fact grossly-
exaggerated and false casu-
alty figures given to them
by the PLO. (In the area
where the media reported
600,000 refugees, there
were only 500,000 inhabi-
tants, the overwhelming
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majority of whom stayed in
their homes).
While pictures of rubble
are dramatic, it is hardly an
excuse for ignoring the sa-
lient factors of the war:
• That thousands of
refugees are streaming
back to southern Leba-
non after being driven
from their homes by the
PLO;
• That civilian casual-
ties are due to the PLO's
placing arms and men in
built up areas, thus inviting
civilian losses;
• That the Israeli army
deliberately increased its
own losses in order to spare
civilians;
• That the PLO held civi-
lian populations hostage by
seizing their children and
often killing them. (Israeli
soldiers report finding de-
capitated children and chil-
dren with bullets .through
their heads.)
• That there has been a
seven-year war against the
Lebanese by the PLO and
Syrians, with 100,000 re-
ported killed;
• That the PLO and
Syrians have massacred
countless thousands of
Christian and Moslem
(In
the
Lebanese
Nabatiye area, populated
predominantly by Shiite
Moslems, out of a popula-
tion of 70,000 some 7,000
Lebanese were killed by
the PLO and another
35,00 made homeless, ac-
cording to the Jerusalem
Post);
• That Israel is being
hailed as a liberator by both
Christian and Moslem
Lebanese;
• That the Israelis found
enough Soviet weapons to
arm hundreds of thousands
of men, the implications of
which are staggering;
• That PLO documents
captured by Israel added
more proof of the PLO-
Soviet terror connection,
PLO plans to wipe out Is-
raeli towns and deliberate
PLO tactics of using civi-
lians as cover.
Some of this information
appeared in the print
media, though not in the
proportion it deserved. The
electronic media has almost
totally ignored it.
When . Rep. Charles
Wilson of Texas, the first
congressman to visit
Lebanon since the recent
round of fighting began,
held a news converence
and related that the
Lebanese are calling the
Israelis liberators, none
of the networks and al-
most none of the News-
papers carried this most
significant story. If he
had announced that the
Israelis were oppressors,
the story would have
been flashed all over the
world.
Similarly, when Dory
Chamoun, son of the former
president of Lebanon.
Camille Chamoun, told a
news conference in New
York that military action
was the only way to free
Lebanon of the PLO and
Syria, the media generally
ignored this significant
statement. But almost wing intellectuals to whom
every person who attacks Israel (and America) is the
Israel, whether it be the imperialist enemy. George
wife of the Saudi Arabian Will recently wrote in News
ambassador or an obscure week that the anti-Israel
Reform rabbi, is given head- hatred on the left is "thick
and rank enough to be sliced
line coverage.
This biased selectivity and sold as Limburger
should cone as no surprise to cheese." However, when it
anyone. For years, the comes to Israel, there are
Washington Post and most also many conservative
of the media has censured journalists equally a--
from the news the repeated biased as their colleagu'
statements by PLO leaders on their left.
While these reasons are
that in conformity with
their charter they would ac- certainly contributing fac-
cept no solution short of Is- tors, they do not add up to a
rael's liquidation. Instead, whole. There is a missing
the Post and others have factor. A clue to this factor
promoted the fiction that a was provided by Elie Wiesel
West Bank Palestinian when he wrote after the
state (which the PLO rejects Six-Day War that the image
as a solution) would provide of Israel had changed.
The Jew was no longer
the Arab-Israel solution.
However, the scope of the down on his knees. The
imbalance and distortions victim suddenly became
during the recent round of the victor, and this the
fighting in Lebanon has world was not prepared
to accept. "A Jew trium-
been disquieting.
There have been a lot of phant over death." wrote
explanations offered re- Wiesel. "An intolerable
garding the nature of the thought."
media's bias. Some of these
Accepting the Jew only as
suggested reasons include:
a victim is a form of anti-
• Arab money buys Semitism. When a double
think standard is applied to the
businessmen,
tanks, leading PR and ad Jewish nation, it raises
agencies and much of the anti-Semitism from the per-
government and thereby sonal to the national level
some journalists, news- as Commentary editor
papers, radio and TV sta- Norman Podhoretz pointed
tions; ,
out.
• Journalists in Lebanon
It is not only non-Jews
who have criticized the Sy- who refuse to accept the Jew
rians have been shot. Fear as victor; this phenomenon
can encourage built-in prej- applies equally to Jewish
udices and discourage objec- journalists such as Anthony
tivity. (One wonders why Lewis of the New York
ABC has produced only Times and Richard Cohen of
anti-Israel material — the Washington Post,
"20/20," "Fortress Israel" — Jewish intellectuals such as
since being visited by a Norman Glazer and
delegation from the Arab- Seymour Mart i n Lipset and
American
University that minority of Jewish
Graduates, the American- "leaders" such as Philip
Arab Anti-Discrimination Klutznik and Arthur
Committee and the Pales- Hertzberg.
tine Congress.)
These people spend an in-
• Israel is an open society ordinate amount of time
where all kinds of criticism worrying about Israel's
of the Israeli government "soul," and less time about
are available to journalists, the powerful forces seeking
and criticizing the Israeli to deligitimize and elimi-
government does not im- nate the Jewish state. They
pede future access to news refuse to accept, as Will
and interviews. This is not wrote, that Israel cannot
true in the Arab countries always be an Athens but
where only official govern- must sometimes act like
ment statements can be ob- Sparta in order to survive.
tained and journalists do
I would suggest that
not want to offend their
newscasters,
journalists,
hosts and endanger their
editorial and op-ed
positions.
This, however, does not writers examine their
explain why the networks motives as they continue
become so irate when Israel to provide to the Ameri-
applies some minor censor- can public falsehoods,
ship, and there is not a peep tendentious omissions,
out of them when the Sy- double standards, half-
rians close off Hamah truths, careful selectivity -
(25,000 killed), and the and bias against the stal
British do not allow any of Israel.
foreign journalists into the
Falklands.
Paris March
Nor does it explain why
these journalists sud- for Solidarity
PARIS (JTA) — Some
denly lose their ability to
discriminate between 2,000 Moroccan and Pales-
fact and fiction and ig- tinian students held a
nore important facts Palestinian solidarity
which would support the march in downtown Casab-
lanca last week, according
Israeli position.
• Israel's information to Le Monde. The paper said
service needs improvement. police dispersed the demon-
True, but this does not ex- strators who chanted
plain the media's tendenti- against the Arab "de-
featists" who, they said, are
ous selectivity.
• The disproportionate prepared to give in to Israeli
power in the media of left demands.