25 February, 1998
Charlie Reese's Mid-East quiz
By Eqbal Ahmad
THE American media is ablaze again with the pundits spouting fire on paper and in the air. As though journalism is the jingoists' avocation. As usual The New York Times leads the pack. 'All the news that's fit to print' declares the logo of the American newspaper of record. So the lying starts from the beginning.
The Times violates a fundamental principle of liberal journalism - balance in reporting and commentary. Take any central issue in which its owners and managers have a vested interest, and their bias will leap out at you. During the cold war it suppressed important details concerning U.S. interventions in Iran, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Congo, Indonesia, and Cuba, to name but a few countries. And for as long as I have been reading it, which is forty years, its bias in Israel's favour and its prejudices against the Arabs have become progressively worse.
It is difficult to say why its coverage and commentary on the Middle East have become over time more brazenly biased and one-sided. But the evidence that it has, is quite clear. Take for example its regular columnists. Four of them write on foreign affairs with some regularity. Abe Rosenthal, formerly the Managing Editor of the Times and now a columnist, is a right- wing Zionist. William Safire, also a three-time weekly coumnist, is a right- wing Zionist too, and a long-time Likudist to whom Benjamin Netanyahu has been a hero of sorts. The third, Thomas F. Friedman, is a liberal Zionist and, as such, a supporter of the Israeli Labour Party. He was the Times Middle East correspondent for some years, and is one of those Middle East "experts" who also serve as frequent 'on the air pundits'.
That leaves Anthony Lewis, the house liberal of the New York Times who alone expresses concern over such Israeli practices as torture of Palestinian prisoners, demolition of homes, or murder of prisoners of war. His criticisms are often couched in terms of how such acts hurt Israel's good reputation. Some years ago, as Mr Lewis began to express his disillusionment with some frequency, paid adverisements appeared denouncing him. Since then he has commented on the Middle East less frequently and more cautiously.
Early in the 1970s, the Times began to invite outsiders to write on its op-ed page, with about one such contributor appearing daily. Charlotte Curtis, editor of the page, regarded this innovation as a means of introducing some variety and balance of opinion and analysis. So itfollowed that among those who were invited to contribute were people with differing points of view.
Among them were Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Richard Barnet; in addition, a few dissenting intellectuals, including me, served stints as regular 'guest columnists.' Occasionally at least, views contrary to those held by the corporate, American or allied establishments were published in the Times. A number of dailies, including the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, followed its example. Early in the 1980s even this small window began to close; by mid-eighties it had shut tight. For more than a decade now, the American intellectual best known to the world, Noam Chomsky, is effectively banned from the New York Times and nearly all other establishment publications. Edward Said's views, the most eloquent, measured, and informed Arab voice in the West, are all but banished from the US media.
Similarly, it has been nearly 10 years since I had a call from the editorial offices of the New York Times or the Washington Post. It is not an exaggeration to say that as far as the US media, especially the New York Times, is concerned, we are all embargoed writers. But how long can truth be suppressed?
These comments are written less in anger than in hope. From cyber-space comes a "quiz" written by Charlie Reese, a journalist guerilla who like all maquisards shoots from less obvious, unexpected places. His "Pop Quiz on the Middle East" appeared in the Orlando Sentinel of February 8, 1998. The following are excerpts:
"Just so you can keep up with the perpetual crisis in the Middle East, I have a little quiz for you.
Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?
Answer: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections?
A: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions?
A: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire?
A: Israel.
Q: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies
(a practice sometimes called exporting terrorism)?
A: Israel.
Q: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military officers admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute its soldiers who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East created 762,000 refugees and refuses to allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to pay compensation to people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it confiscated?
A: Israel.
Q: In what country in the Middle East was a high-ranking United Nations diplomat assassinated?
A: Israel.
Q: In what country in the Middle East did the man who ordered the assassination of a high-ranking UN diplomat become prime minister?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a US ship in international waters, killing 33 and wounding 177 American sailors?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East employed a spy, Jonathan Pollard, to steal classified US government documents and then gave some of them to the Soviet Union?
A: Israel.
Q: What country at first denied any official connection to Pollard, then voted to make him a citizen and has continuously demanded that the American president grant Pollard a full pardon?
A: Israel.
Q: What country on Planet Earth has the second most powerful lobby in the United States, according to a recent Fortune magazine survey of Washington insiders?
A: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council resolutions and has been protected from 29 more by US vetoes?
A: Israel.
Q: What country is the United States threatening to bomb because "U.N. Security Council resolutions must be obeyed?"
A: Iraq."
End Note:
Dear Charlie, Congratulations! You have blown your chances of ever becoming a columnist of the New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Newsweek or commentator at CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN. You ain't ever gonna be a media bigwig. Forget it Man, keep going, and God be with you.