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Alert to Parents!
"Special Occasions
Require
Special Dresses"
• EVENING WEAR
• SPORTS WEAR
• ACCESSORIES
When we ask you to please
recognize the signs of cystic
fibrosis and other lung-
damaging diseases, we're not
trying to alarm you.
Look at it this way. If your
child does NOT have C F or
another serious lung-damaging
disease, he has nothing to lose
by checking with a doctor, or
taking a simple diagnostic test.
If your child DOES have
C F, or another condition that
could damage his lungs, he has
a lot to lose by not having the
chance for early diagnosis and
prompt effective medical care.
So, when you look at it like
that... we hope you'll look at
this and learn the following:
SIGNS OF LUNG-DAMAGING
DISEASE
I. Recurrent wheezing
2. Persistent coughing/excessive
mucus
3. Pneumonia more than once
4. Excessive appetite/poor weight gain
5. Clubbing (enlargement of fingertips)
Cystic fibrosis signs also may include:
salty taste of the skin; persistent, bulky
diarrhea; nasal polyps.
cr-
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
29325 14 Mile • Corner of Middlebelt
Broadway Plaza • 727-4483
106
FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1988
he coverage must
be representative. We
suggest that the main
failure of the media . . . was
that the totality of its
coverage was not as represen-
tative as it should have been
to be accurate. We believe
that to live up to their own
professed standards, the
media simply must exercise a
higher degree of care and a
greater level of sophistication
than they have yet shown in
this area . . ."
This statement could have
been made by a member of
the Jewish community
discussing the coverage in the
Middle East of the Gaza and
West Bank disturbances.
But it isn't; it is part of the
conclusion reached by the
Kerner Commission which in-
vestigated the causes for the
urban crisis in the U.S. in the
late 1960s. And part of its
analysis included the media.
The commission — 20 years
later — recently reviewed the
state of race relations in this
country and reported that lit-
tle had changed between
blacks and whites. It might
have added that the media
have remained the same as
well.
Consider this 1960s obser-
vation by the comission: "We
found that the disorders, as
serious as they were, were less
destructive, less widespread,
and less a black-white con-
frontation than most people
believed!'
This also has been a com-
plaint of Israelis, and Jews
who have visited Israel dur-
ing the last few months.
While centering on the con-
frontations between "stone-
throwing teenagers" and
"armed" Israeli soldiers, the
media have distorted daily
life, giving an exaggerated
picture to the world.
The commission continued:
"We are deeply concerned
that millions . . . who must
rely on the mass media .. .
formed incorrect impressions
and judgments about what
went on in many American
cities. The overall effect was,
we believe, an exaggeration of
both mood and event!"
Similarly, the world
believes that Israelis and
Arabs alike have all but
abandoned the routines of
their daily lives. By omission,
the media distort; by lack of
balance, they sensationalize.
It is, of course, understan-
dable that the Gaza riots
T
ALL JEWELRY ALWAYS 20% OFF
Portrait
of the Great American Investor
Kerner's Lessons
Are Still Not Applied
Fighting Children's Lung Diseases
I his space contributed as a public set, ice.
would be the focal point of
coverage but simultaneously
the media should report how
the disturbances have af-
fected — if at all — the coun-
try as a whole. And all of
Israel is not ablaze. Indeed,
thousands of Arabs from the
Gaza Strip continue working
daily in Israel.
Kerner: "The media —
especially television — also
have failed to present and
analyze to a sufficient extent
the basic reasons for the
disorders."
In Israel, a new Kerner
Commission report might add
that the media have failed to
explain how Israel came to
"occupy" the territories, that
it has an obligation to main-
tain order or the fact that
there are no Arab countries
with which to negotiate.
As in Israel, where the
media center on conflict, the
Kerner Commission reported
20 years ago that news peple
exploit confrontation rather
than report the underlying
causes of the riots. The com-
mission found evidence of
"coaxing" 1960s rioters and
there are indications that this
has occurred in Israel as well,
if not directly than indirectly
by the presence of camera
crews. Some newsmen, then
as now, have "done things for
the sake of the story that
could have contributed to ten-
sion."
The commission reported a
lack of understanding bet-
ween reporters and police. In
Israel, the army has had sub-
santial difficulty with "con-
trolling" the media in riot-
torn areas.
Almost plaintively, the com-
mission asked for "wisdom,
sensitivity and expertise .. .
and compassion," the same
request being made today by
Jews throughout the world.
No one is suggesting that
Israel be immune from
criticism; no one is sug-
gesting that the crisis is not
serious nor that somehow the
media should ignore the
violence and human rights
abuses. Nor is the only
democracy in the Middle East
suggesting that the press be
censored or muted.
"Freedom of the press is not
the issue," the commission
wrote 20 years ago. It is not
the issue today in Israel.
While the technology of the
media has witnessed
dramatic change, the
substance of news reports in
confrontational events such
as those in Israel, remain
very primitive.