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32
Friday, October 11, 1985
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BY BERL FALBAUM
Special to The Jewish News
Public opinion is influenced in
political issues as much by what
the media decides to highlight as
by what they decide to omit.
This is a principle which does
not receive much attention since
reaction to media coverage gener-
ally and understandably centers
around the news which is reported
or misreported.
In the coverage of the Middle
East, while the lack of coverage of
important events may not be the
result of obvious censorship but
rather more subtle news judg-
ments, the results are the same:
The public is receiving unbal-
anced, unfair, if not biased, ac-
counts.
Consider the following news
stories as they relate to the Mid-
dle East and the concerns of Jews
generally:
Lebanon: Since the withdrawal
of Israeli defense forces, Lebanon
has all but disappeared from the
front pages of this country's
newspapers and the nightly tele-
vision news.
The killing has increased; re-
cent massacres at Sabra and
Shatilla were even worse than
those in 1982 for which Israel had
some indirect responsibility yet
there has been no media outcry.
Not only have the news pages
been silent but the nation's edito-
rial pages, which so poignantly
appealed for humanitarianism,
hardly utter a critical word about
any of the parties involved in the
ongoing civil war.
In a sense, the media are pick-
ing up where they left off: They
ignored seven years of civil war in
Lebanon and started major cover-
age of the story only when Israel
entered the picture to assure some
safety for its northern borders.
Recent PLO terrorism received
what might be called "pseudo-
coverage" but the Middle East
was back on the front pages when
Israel "retaliated" with its raid on
PLO headquarters in Tunisia.
Overnight, the headlines which
had been silent blared that the
"Middle East Boils Again."
Once Again, the same
hadkneyed analysis, hardly re-
written from those which ap-
peared after the last crisis, into-
ned about how the Israeli action
threatened the peace process and
the media never stopped to ask
themselves: What peace process?
Nor have they asked them-
selves why PLO terrorism against
innocent civilians, such as the
cruise ship in Egypt, is not treated
the same as the "peace process."
Jesse Jackson: During recent
weeks, the man who made front
page news with is "Hymie" re-
marks and who complained about
being tired of hearing of the
Holocaust, apparently has had a
change of heart.
After visiting death camps and
engaging in discussion with
Simon Wiesenthen, he told a re-
porter that he now understands
the "unique" nature of the
Holocaust.
However belated his conver-
sion, it certainly is welcome along
with comments that he supports
the historic alliance between
blacks and Jews and believes the
two groups should work together
toward common objectives.
Yet, this story received very lit-
tle attention. Coming from a man
who ran for President, whose
statements intensified the fric-
tion between Jews and blacks and
severely impaired the relation-
ship between the two, the story
appeared to deserve much more
coverage. It certainly is "news-
worthy" when a man of Mr.
Jackson's stature has such a
dramatic change of heart and a
higher profile on the story would
have been a welcome salve to
sooth needless political sores suf-
fered by Jews and blacks.
Louis Farrakhan: The Black
Muslim minister; whose anti-
Semitic statements not only gave
him national coverage but caused
some of Mr. Jackson's problems,
continues his tirade against Jews
throughout the country and now
apparently is being given
"routine" coverage, implying re-
spectability.
The Washington Post covered
one of his speeches but never men-
tioned his anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Somewhat after the fact, the
Post's editorial page criticized Mr.
Farrakhan, earning the paper a
The public is
receiving .
unbalanced, unfair,
if not biased,
accounts.
"dart" from the respected Colum-
bia Journalism Review for the
Post's puzzling news stories and
belated editorial "correction."
Meanwhile, the New York
Times reported that Farrakhan
drew 15,000 people for a speech in
Los Angeles and apparently was
one of the few papers to cover the
story.
The story included a report of a
"deal" made by Los Angeles
Mayor Tom Bradley not to
criticize Farrakhan before the
speech if the Black Muslim minis-
ter would temper his rhetoric. So
much for principle. The deal is
reminiscent of Democratic
Presidential candidate Walter
Mondale being unable to muster
the courage to support a resolu-
tion on anti-Semitism.
There is no room for com-
promise in condemning outright
bigotry and hatred, but again, the
media generally were silent on
this issue.
Hostages: After his unex-
plained release in Lebanon, the
Rev. Benjamin Weir said the Mus-
lim extremists who kidnapped
him 16 months ago are.ready to
kidnap other Americans and to
execute the six remaining Ameri-
can hostages if their demands for
the release of 17 terrorists held in
Kuwait were not met. •
If one expected consistency
from the media, the public should
expect massive coverage out of
Kuwait if it was going to meet
these deinands.