Split Vision: The Portrayal of Arabs in the American Media

Edited by Edmund Ghareeb, Washington, D.C.: American-Arab Affairs Council, 1983, 402 pp. $12.95

Reviewed by Richard H. Curtiss

Why has Israel, which has emerged from five major wars with its territory vastly enlarged, retained the image in the U.S. of an embattled democracy striving to protect the heritage of its peace-loving citizenry? Why are the Palestinians, who lost their homes and lands in 1948 and who since have been harassed almost everywhere they have settled, perceived not as victims but as conspiratorial, irrational troublemakers?

Edmund Ghareeb's book, which is in fact three books in one, sheds light on both questions. Its first 150 pages contain interviews with 11 seasoned American journalists. Those interviews first appeared in the Autumn 1975/Winter 1976 edition of the Journal of Palestine Studies. Then, with the addition of useful articles examining bias on U.S. editorial pages and in political cartoons, they became the first edition of this book, published under the same title by the Institute of Middle Eastern and African Affairs in Washington, D.C. in 1977.

The Reason Why

In the original interviews Dr. Ghareeb, an American journalist who also serves as press advisor to the UAE Embassy in Washington, sought opinions from the journalists concerning unfair portrayal of the Arabs in leading U.S. media.

Among their answers:

"It must be understood that the U.S. helped form Israel, that there are several million Jewish Americans who amount to a political bloc on this issue, and that talented, earnest supporters have been highly successful in advancing the Israeli cause." (Nick Thimmesch, L.A. Times)

"Whenever journalists or writers have attempted to write objectively, they have been attacked vehemently, doggedly and persistently by Zionist groups in this country." (Lawrence Mosher, National Journal)

"The Zionist bias in the American press is probably due much less to Jewish ownership than it is to other factors, chief among them being a sizable Jewish readership for most large American newspapers." (Harold Piety, The Journal Herald, Dayton, Ohio)

"There is definitely anti-Arab bias in America." (Peter Jennings, ABC)

"If there is still a bias, it is not an anti-Arab bias but a pro-Israel bias." (Ronald Koven, Washington Post)

The second and totally new part of Dr. Ghareeb's book consists of his 1982 interviews with six American journalists prior to and during the invasion of Lebanon. The questions assume that the press has come a long way in sophistication about the Mideast in the five years since the earlier interviews. Some of the answers, however, have a familiar ring:

"I think most of us (journalists) are simply captives of our cultural assumptions." (Anthony Lewis, N.Y. Times)

"Arabs have to take some of the blame themselves for it. But there is no question that their image is stereotyped." (Jim Lehrer, PBS)

"(The American media) do have the responsibility to correct the unfair coverage of the Arabs, coverage that has been more unfair than that given any other group of people on the face of the earth." (John Cooley, ABC)

The third and final section of the book consists of articles by U.S. authorities on media stereotyping of the Arabs and its results. In one, entitled "Canadian Mass Media and the Middle East," Thomas Naylor of McGill University describes North American media coverage of the Middle East as "nothing short of scandalous."

Lobby Power

Dr. Ghareeb's own restrained summations lead to the same conclusion:

"In most areas of domestic and foreign policy the media attempts to represent all viewpoints; however, where the Middle East is concerned, this policy has not been followed with any rigor...

"Many American journalists carry into their work a strong subconscious tendency to ascribe virtue to Israel and malevolence to the Arabs...Their support is bolstered by the ever-watchful Israeli lobby...

"Arab failure to present their case before the world community is not a reflection of any weakness of the Arab argument. Surely the American media, which prides itself on its ability to uncover and present the facts to the public, has an obligation to cover the Arabs and the Middle East in a fair and balanced manner."

The author's painstaking research makes this highly readable book useful for journalists and partisans of both sides alike. If enough take its conclusions to heart, perhaps a future edition will be able to report that more than a minority of the U.S. media is seriously assuming its obligation to report Mideast events fairly, and that the American public has at last realized that stereotyping makes good soap opera, but poor public policy.

Richard H. Curtiss, a retired foreign service officer, is the author of A Changing Image: American Perceptions of the Arab-Israeli Dispute.