16-Jul-06: In defence of the foreign media

Coverage by the media of the Hamas/Hizbollah attacks on Israel and Israel's military response deserves a a good deal of criticism. Much of it, like much of the coverage of the first six years of this Arafat War, has been superficial, partisan, dangerously misleading and worse.

But professional incompetence and charlatanism is not the exclusive province of foreign reporters and editors. (Nor is it limited to the journalism industry. There are just as many incompetent paediatricians, town-planners and social workers.)

Here's a fine example of Haaretz - Israel's most influential newspaper - at its most all-knowing.

What is more frightening: a Syrian Scud missile with a chemical warhead that can hit Tel Aviv and kill thousands of people with poison gas, or a Palestinian Qassam missile full of primitive explosives, which hits Sderot and sometimes Ashkelon, and causes a small amount of damage? The destructive power of the Syrian missile is far greater, and yet few, if any, Israelis think about its existence... Nasrallah hates Israel and Zionism no less than do the Hamas leaders, Shalit's kidnappers and the Qassam squads. But as opposed to them - he has authority and responsibility, and therefore his behavior is rational and reasonably predictable. Under the present conditions, that's the best possible situation. Hezbollah is doing a better job of maintaining quiet in the Galilee than did the pro-Israeli South Lebanese Army. (Source: Aluf Benn writing in Haaretz less than two weeks ago.)

There's no reason to assume that the journalists at Haaretz deserve the "we're beyond criticism" tone the paper routinely takes. There's no reason to take any journalist or any news-source at face value, any time, anywhere. The main difference between them and the rest of us is that they decide and control which ideas appear in their particular market-place of ideas. And at a time like this when politicians all over the world who ought to know better are complaining of a "disproportionate" Israeli response, disinformation and inaccuracy costs lives.

Thank goodness for the people (IMRA who first publicized this Haaretz 'achievement', CAMERA, Melanie Phillips, Backspin/Honest Reporting et al) routinely critiquing some of the agenda-driven nonsense put out by the puffed-up shapers of public opinion and bringing them to account.

And thank goodness for the blogosphere.