Gaza: Of media wars and borderless journalism

Abstract

Yet again, the disconnect. Yet again, American and Arab viewers are seeing two vastly different conflicts play out on their television screens. Yet again, the media has become a weapon of war. Add Gaza to Afghanistan, Iraq, the sieges of Jenin and Ramallah, and Lebanon; another conflict that Arabs and Americans see through completely different lenses. More fodder for the stereotypes. More reason each side fails to understand the other. More reason to hate. As with the 2006 Israeli war with Hizbullah, I spent the first two weeks of this conflict on a family vacation in North America. The domestic U.S. media was, once more, reporting from behind borders built of pre-conceived notions, simplistic explanations and an Americentric view of the world. Put simply, Gaza was background noise. Yes, it generally made the front page of the newspapers and the main newscasts, but – particularly on television – the humanity, the scale and the context of the conflict were AWOL. Arabs and Israelis were at it again; now let’s get back to Obama, the economy and New Year’s Eve. And the carefully-scripted talking points of the Israeli spokespeople who dominated the airwaves made it clear that, yet again, the Arabs deserved what they were getting. Driving through Washington State, I listened to a fawning half-hour interview with an Israeli consul general on a Seattle talk show. In San Francisco, I saw another Israeli official on TV fielding marshmallows from a local anchor. On CNN, it was more of the same. And for the most part, U.S. politicians were working from those same talking points, as a montage on Comedy Central’s Daily Show made so clear. Arabs, or those presenting their perspective, were few and far between.