Community Views
Editor's Notebook
One-Sided Reporting
Fans The Conflict Flames
A Tragic Way
We're Filling A Void
BERL FALBAUM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
PHIL JACOBS EDITOR
PHOTO BY AP/ADEL HANA
Sometimes, in heard it.
silence, in effect, is more devas-
the public politi-
Imagine the accolades Yassir tating on Israel than what is pub-
cal arena, what Arafat would have received had lished, even though the latter
isn't talked about he proposed a comprehensive may be slanted.
is much more proposal for settlement of the
At least one can argue and re-
important than conflict.
spond to what is published; one
what is said.
• Arab journalists and politi- cannot do anything when the is-
This is especially cal commentators are arrested sues are not raised at all and, fur-
true in the news and jailed by Arafat for being crit- ther, there is an implication that
coverage of the ical of him and his corrupt gov- the other side — the Arabs — are
Middle East, and the unmistak- ernment, but even self-interest not guilty of political wrongdo-
enly one-sided approach by the — defending democracy and the ing.
media to the conflict.
First Amendment — is not
One of the major reasons for
Critics of the western media enough to motivate the media to this lopsided political coverage is
point to distortions, inaccuracies, criticize him.
that Arafat has been described
and what they consider a "liber-
• Many Arabs have been tor- by the media as the "Prince of
al bent" and bias against Israel tured by the Palestinian Au- Peace" and critical stories would
and, in many cases, they are cor- thority, and at least 12 Arabs contradict their premise. For
rect.
have died as a result of torture in years now, he has been portrayed
The reporting, for instance, on Palestinians prisons; hardly a as being prepared for peace while
Har Homa and the opening of the word has been written con- Israel is not.
"infamous" tunnel was hardly demning these deaths, while
New York Times columnist
what one might call "objective" every civil liberty violation by Is- Anthony Lewis even went so far
or accurate. Indeed, it came close rael brings an avalanche of con- —almost incredulously — as to
to being a disgrace.
demnation from the media — commend Arafat's "nonviolent"
But what is not being report- and the world.
policies. After more than 30
ed is even more indicative of the
The media, so-called objective decades of ruling over the most
media's anti-Israel political agen- human rights organizations, brutal mayhem imaginable —
da. Consider:
mayhem aimed, not just at
• The Palestinian
Israelis, but his own peo-
Authority adopts a pol-
ple as well — even Arafat
icy of murdering Arabs
must have been surprised
who sell land to Jews
by this description.
(four are killed), and
This warped political
the media greet the de-
discussion has had enor-
velopments with si-
mous and incalculable im-
lence or, at best, a
plications for Israel. It has
yawn.
created a public perception,
No screaming front
over the years, of Israeli
page headlines, such
"intransigence" and that it
as would appear had
is responsible for the stale-
Israel adopted the re-
mate in the Middle East
verse of this policy. No Palestinian protestors and an Israeli armored vehicle near
conflict.
a Jewish settlement.
moral outrage.
Given that the impres-
One can only imag-
sion has been created over
ine the condemnation which along with the United Nations, a long period, it will not be easy
would have followed had Israel which has lost all credibility to change the perception. It may
adopted such a brutal, inhu- when it comes to the Middle even be too late, but a coordinat-
mane, as well as racist policy.
East, watch benignly, apparent- ed, strategically effective effort
• Prime Minister Binyamin ly unable to bring themselves to should be launched.
Netanyahu makes public a major articulate any critical words.
That would require an un-
plan for settling the conflict — "Al-
* The developments at Har compromising commitment to
lon-plus" — and the media greet Homa and the opening the of adopting vital communications
the proposal with avoidance.
tunnel are reported as violations programs, to assure that the full
Even such a severe critic of Is- of the Oslo Accords which, of story is told.
rael as New York Times colum- course, they are not, and Arafat's
We can't force the media to
nist Thomas Friedman wrote, actual circumvention of the ac- cover that which they have cho-
when the plan was ignored: A cords (almost 30) are ignored, in- sen to ignore.
tree fell in Israel and no one cluding his continued call for the
But we must work to fill the si-
destruction of Israel.
lence. Indeed, at least given the
Bed Falbaum is a public relations
Unfortunately, the list is al- stakes involved, we have an
specialist and a freelance
most endless. The media's one- obligation to try. ❑
writer.
sidedness in this regard and the
TheDJN@aol . corn
11
What
Do You
/ Think?"
Do you think paying for High Holi-
day tickets is the way synagogues
should support themselves?
To respond: "So, What Do You Think?"
27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034
I felt awful
Saturday night
upon learning
about
the
Princess
Di
tragedy.
And on Sun-
day a friend sug-
gested that it
wasn't a very
good day for the business ofjour-
nalism.
The business ofjournalism?
No, I felt awful Saturday night
that someone lost their life. I
think the deficit reflects us all,
not "the business ofjournalism."
That's the easy way out. Be-
fore we self-righteously blame
paparazzi photographers, as low-
er-rung on society's civility lev-
el as they are, let's remember one
thing. They are fulfilling a de-
mand created not by the news-
papers or their advertisers.
Someone is reacting these publi-
cations. Someone is placing an
order that creates a white-hot
competition. Now, I know none
of "us" ever admit to reading one
of these publications. We are not
among the millions who do, are
we?
Please.
The fact of the
matter is, our lives
have often become
so filled with arti-
ficial ingredients
that we now need
a crisis to keep us
on our mental
edge. We can
check off these
events. There was
the Jim and Tam-
my Faye Baker scandal of years
past. There was the Branch Da-
vidians. Even in Israel during
the Jewish Federation's Miracle
Mission, a cab driver held up the
morning paper, and there in He-
brew it spoke to me about Waco
and David Koresh. Where were
you the day O.J. tried to get away
in his Bronco? Where were you
the day of his not-guilty verdict?
Did you care about Princess Di's
divorce from Prince Charles?
This is not about the "business
of journalism." It's about the
"business of us." Our lives have
become so empty that we live
them vicariously through the
love affairs, scandals and con-
troversies of people we call
"celebrities."
I hate the word "celebrity." We
journalists do dig for stories.
Hopefully we do so with ethics
and objectivity in mind. That's
not to say that I haven't made
mistakes in the past, and will
continue to make them. I believe
this craft, just like any other, has
its pluses and minuses.
During a story that broke here
early in the spring, we had Israeli
newspaper reporters using our
office one afternoon. The story
was about the FBI questioning
Southfield resident David Tenen-
baum, an employee at the War-
ren tank factory. One Israeli
reporter told me that he was go-
ing to wait until Mr. Tenenbaum
left his home to walk to shul for
Shabbat. At that time, he'd take
his photograph. The reporter
would hide behind some bush-
es to photograph his subject. He
offered me the photograph.
I asked him never to ask me a
question such as that one again.
I also told him not to associate
The Jewish News with this prac-
tice. We weren't interested and
never will be.
Subsequently, we were given
a photograph of Mr. Tenenbaum
by his attorney to run in The
Jewish News. The only require-
ment was that it only run here
in Detroit. We not only turned
down our sister papers' request
for use of this photograph, but
we were reprimanded by the
publisher of another Jewish
newspaper for not sharing it with
everyone.
No way.
The biggest plus we can re-
mind all of our friends and neigh-
bors about is that
the scandals, the af-
fairs, the addictions
and the controver-
sies of these famous
people will not im-
prove our lives or
change anything
about our own exis-
tence. These celebri-
ties are people with
their own set of chal-
lenges. Do we all live such per-
fect lives that we are spending
enough time with our loved ones?
I doubt it.
We are uplifted by the Stan-
ley Cup. But we don't have time
to talk to our children about their
day. We know the names of the
people in the British royal fam-
ily, yet we don't know the name
of Moses' mother.
We rush to watch television
shows that catch celebrities go-
ing into drug rehab, yet we can't
take two hours a week to go to
temple or synagogue.
You know who is watching us
watch all of this stuff? You've got
it, those "sponges" that absorb
everything: our children.
Why should they care? We
don't.
Please. Step back a moment.
Try and improve your under-
standing of who you are and
what is really important in your
life. Di's life was important, but
so is yours. You, your family,
your community. Take that en-
ergy and fill the many vacancies
we have in our community
through volunteering, learning,
synagogue and temple work. 111
Living
vicariously
through
celebrities?