PMWATCH -- March 11, 2002 -- I spent this weekend in Chicago at the National Arab Journalists Association conference, in which I presented my usual laundry list of complaints against the mainstream media's coverage of the Palestinian Israeli conflict. But I also got to meet a number of editors and journalists from the media, and in each case, the conversation ended basically the same way: I start by making the general statement that the media is basied, they retort that they are not and ask for specific examples, I give them an example, they try to undermine it (either by challenging the methodology or by just refusing to accept the fact), then I give them another example, they resist, then another and another, until they can't just blow off the facts. At which point -- and this is the important thing to learn -- they say the following: well, the other side complains much more vociforously than you do! How does that justify anything, I respond? They are at a loss, and just repeat that they need to take both sides of the equation into question.

In other, a total abdication of responsibility, plain cowardice.

Now, this is not the first time we have had editors and reporters come flat out and say: we will go only so far in mending our ways, because the pro-Israeli readers complain too much. Andrew Rosenthal, foreign desk editor at the New York Times, said as much in his interview with the Voice of America as did members of the editorial board at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

All of this points to the crucial importance for mobilizing and writing, every day. Rationality, patient persuasion, and facts by themselves ARE NOT ENOUGH. People have been critiquing the media for years or decades, but little that is dramatic has changed: Israeli actions are still called "retaliations", Jewish settlers involved in acts of terrorism are still called "vigilantes" or "fanatics", but never "terrorists", 90% of the photos on the front page, above the fold, depict Israeli suffering, etc.

Now, I have been told more than once by editors and reporters, off the record, that they wish they were getting more complains from pro-Palestinian voices. Why? So that -- at least that's what they say -- when the debates in the editorial board are raging, the fact that pro-Israelis are innundating them with complaints is neutralized and facts, common sense, rationality, and a sense of fairness and professional objectivity may prevail.

So: if you think that your letter is not important, think twice. Only via a massive mobilization, constant and relentless, coupled with factual and rational critiques, will we bring about a change in how the media covers this conflict. God knows the other side has been able to do that and more with just massive drives and very little more (certainly not facts or rationality).

So, please go to http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/emailfax/sendemail.asp and send in a letter or two.

Ahmed Bouzid http://www.pmwatch.org