The Seattle Times editorial page demonstrates at least two of Lozowick's Eight Rules by Which the Media Operates: Rule #3 (don't bother to learn the local language) and Rule #6 (foreign journalists believe they know more than the locals).
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the Times' ecstatic editorial praising the four retired Shin Bet chiefs who gave an interview in the Israeli criticizing Sharon's policies toward the Palestinians. I got a copy of the original Hebrew article, courtesy of Gil Shterzer.
As I suspected, the Times not only missed the mark with their analysis, but they also misreported a number of important details of the interview. For example, the Times indicated that the retired Shin Bet chiefs were calling for an end to assassination of leading militants. In fact, the only discussion of assassinations was the call to carry out the assassinations more discreetly. Similarly, not all the retired chiefs were in favor of dealing with Arafat, and the criticism of the fence had more to do with the specific details of the fence and not of the fence as such. But most importantly, the Times overstimated the significance of the Shin Bet chief's' interview, which seems to have had little traction with the Israeli public -- in spite of the Times prediction that
Predictably, the loudest opponents will be those farthest from the conflict, the most adamant for the fight to continue, and the least tolerant of fresh views.You'd think that if the Seattle Times really wanted to inform its readers about the meaning of the Shin Bet chiefs interview within the larger context of Israel's internal debate over its security policy, it would welcome contributions from, say, Israeli commentators, such a Hebrew University political science professor? You'd think that, but you'd be wrong! My father e-mailed the Times his comments about their editorial and received no response. Perhaps they thought he was "too close to the conflict" to know what he was talking about, or something like that.
My father's submission follows
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 03, 2003 11:15 AM