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by Peter A. Belmont / 2009-01-25
© 2009 Peter Belmont
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The major US media are controlled by Israel-firsters who distort news and opinion to cause public opinion to favor Israel (at least in the short-term). And, where federal action is taken abruptly in emergencies, such action is inevitably based on these distortions and are thus unhelpful and contrary to the US national interest.
The alternative media need to foster a special “newspaper of record” blog which will collect in one place factual articles and analytic articles that paint the true story of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
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The major US media’s (“MUM”) coverage of anything regarding Israel and Palestine is always slanted and distorted, both the news and the political commentary, so as to encourage public support for the most right-wing and extreme Israeli actions and proposals.
Thus, in the recent Gaza war and the run-up to it, the MUM pretended that the war was started when Hamas broke a 6-month truce by firing volleys of rockets from Gaza into Israel, whereas in fact—as the media knew or should have known—the Israelis broke the truce far earlier both by maintaining a siege (near shutoff of food, medicine, fuel, electricity, and water into Gaza) and by later assassinating several Hamas leaders. These Israeli actions were not minor provocations, nor were they accidental. They were calculated to bring about a major response from Hamas, and this response when it came was used by Israel (and thereupon by the major US media) as an excuse for a devastating attack by Israel on Gaza.
When the MUM hid the Israeli truce-breaking and its enormous provocative nature from the US, it hid it not only from the public, but from Congress and Administration as well.
And here is the rub.
A Congressperson motivated to be fair (or even pro-Palestinian) is trapped in any emergency when the MUM shows only the Israeli “take” (or, to be more accurate, the Israeli propaganda) on the situation, because—in the short-term—the Congressperson must vote and have that vote interpreted in the context of a tsunami of one-sided propaganda out of the MUM. (This technique was, of course, also used by GWB to push the Iraq-war-resolution.)
By the time the true story has been put about, usually in a very small way in the BLOGs and comedy-news shows, the damage has been done.
Unless the alternative media can somehow “trump” the MUM, the war of truth against propaganda will always be lost.
Perhaps President Obama can help in specific cases, by giving fireside chats in which the MUM is explicitly excoriated for its bias and distortions. If the truth is explained from the White House, there is always a possibility that the media will change its stripes. But that is not the only possibility, and “speaking truth to power” by confronting the MUM would be a risky thing to do.
While print newspapers may soon die out, the electronic counterparts are apparently going strong and are just as committed to propaganda as they were in print.
In other words, the situation isn’t going to change any time soon.
One thing which might help would be the creation of a single alternative “newspaper of record” blog, at least for facts and perhaps also for analysis and opinion, which all the alternative press could turn to (and link to) so that Google searches would point to the true facts. Perhaps Juan Cole’s “Informed Comment” already does this.
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