Making Changes in the US Media

By Mitchel Kaidy

What country imprisons native-born residents without lodging charges, closes down newspapers for criticizing government policies, makes its citizens carry apartheid-like identification passes, perpetuates discrimination as a matter of public policy, regularly invades its neighbor states, and is regularly accused by Amnesty International of "serious human rights violations?"

The answers are South Africa, and Israel.

When South Africa commits these acts, however, the American media scrupulously report them and indignantly condemn them. In response, the American public vibrates with sympathy for the victims of South African oppression. Since Israel's founding in 1948, however, the only time most American journalists have demonstrated indignation with Israel or sympathy for its Arab victims was briefly during Israel's invasion of Lebanon and seige of Beirut in 1982.

How to account for the American media's apparent distinction between South Africa's policies, which have brought death to hundreds or perhaps even thousands, and Israel's policies, which have brought death to tens of thousands of Palestinians, Lebanese, and other Arabs?

Skillful Israeli propaganda? American guilt feelings? Media manipulation by American Jews? Incompetent media work by Arab states? Yes, to differing degrees, to every one of these.

The groundwork, however, was laid by the Nazi Holocaust which engulfed European Jewry. That decade of horror from the mid-thirties to mid-forties etched permanently into American consciousness the image of the dispossessed and brutalized Jewish people desperately seeking a homeland.

Even though after 1947 it was the Jews in the Holy Land who were dispossessing and brutalizing the indigenous Palestinians, the image remained unchanged. The deaths of Jews at the hands of Palestinian terrorists were reported with pity and indignation, but the deaths of thousands of Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis have gone barely reported and virtually unnoticed.

So ingrained has the image become that media professionals still assume, despite 40 years of evidence to the contrary, that Israel is a consistently peaceloving and non-discriminatory nation, while the Arab states are not. If the US is to play a positive role in any Middle East peace settlement, however, Americans must adopt an even-handed Middle East policy in which issues are judged on their merits. The Palestinians and other Arabs, therefore, must somehow set in motion a massive turnaround in American perceptions of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This can only be accomplished through the American mass media—both print and broadcast.

How can Arab-Americans and other concerned citizens help launch a public counter-information program that stands a chance of balancing American perceptions of the Palestinians and other Arabs?

In a recent article in this publication, former Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey of California suggested the creation of a Palestinian news agency in America. But the problem in the US goes far beyond that. Effective national communication and political action requires a well-organized local community. McCloskey noted that, generally speaking, Arab-Americans don't encourage their children to study journalism. I would further observe that most Arab-Americans prefer business and trade over writing, film-making, and political careers that could sharply define Middle East issues and motivate many Americans.

By and large, Arab-Americans are hard-working, family-oriented, patriotic citizens who have broken with the language, culture, and even identification with the ancestral homelands. Unlike Jewish-Americans, whose sense of identity is religiously and culturally buttressed, Arab-Americans are not united by religion, and are certainly not schooled in their "Arabness." Dr. Alixa Nall's landmark book, Becoming American, a study of turn-of-the-century Arab immigrants to the US, relates that when Arabic-language newspapers in the US began publishing articles about Arab culture, they lost readers.

In earlier articles for The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs I have presented techniques for dealing with both print and broadcast media. It is important that informed and sympathetic professional journalists write frequent articles and letters-to-the-editor on how the media present important issues. Arab-Americans, therefore, must react promptly to both unfavorable and favorable Middle East news developments.

On the broadcast front, there is an obvious need for articulate spokespeople. Pete McCloskey's suggestion of a Palestinian spokeswoman is a sound one for image reasons. But here too broadcast professionals are required to make it work. If Ronald Reagan, a professional actor, must be coached before making even the most casual public appearance, so should every Arab spokesperson, ambassador, and academician be coached on what questions to anticipate as well as how to issue stereotype-breaking replies to leading questions.

One issue Arab-Americans and Arab diplomats must address is the serious imbalance in television programming which allows opinion programs to continue to label themselves "news," and thereby escape the reach of the Federal Communications Commission's Fairness Doctrine. That doctrine requires that contrasting views be presented on controversial issues of public importance. Such popular television programs as "Meet the Press," "Face the Nation," and "Nightline" consist almost entirely of opinions—most often controversial opinions. The producers of these programs are legally required to present all sides of an issue over the long run. Enforcing the Fairness Doctrine is a critical issue, not only for Middle East peace activists, but for anyone seeking a just and fair presentation of an issue of public importance.

Arab-Americans seeking a Middle East peace with justice, peace-minded American Jews, and peace-seeking Israelis can tap into a great reservoir of credibility by issuing joint statements, seeking balanced and truly informative news coverage, and filing lawsuits. Some of the most productive news conferences with which I have been associated were carried out in cooperation with peace-oriented Israelis.

More attention should be paid to compiling and sharing fists of articulate Americans who contribute thoughtful and unbaised letters and articles on the Middle East to American newspapers. When such a piece appears in a smalltown newspaper, it's often possible to get the writer's mailing address from the phone book. Otherwise it can be done by sending $1 to the Postmaster of that community and asking for the address under the Freedom of Information Act. We Arab-Americans should reach out to these people, and we should acquaint them with publications like The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, where they may be able to place future articles.

American Zionist groups are highly motivated and well-organized, important reasons why they are so effective. Important public relations opportunities await those on our side seeking to break prevailing Middle East stereotypes, who seek and participate in church and peace groups as well as political and service clubs, and who understand what makes news and how to project it.

American journalism is a highly-specialized, tightly-controlled profession, based on fair play but vulnerable to abuse. To understand what motivates its practitioners, Arab-Americans and other Americans who share their concerns must read and watch the media to learn what makes news and why. In this pursuit, a journalism course or textbook would surely help.

In America today, Arab-Americans confront a campaign of unbridled racist denigration carried out through a relentless tide of films, books, articles, and broadcasts depicting all Arabs as semi-civilized terrorists to whom all manner of evil is ascribed.

Events have proved that media information and images vitally affect people. In the Arab-American community, lives have been lost, terror generated, and economic well-being threatened by media images originating abroad and manipulated in this country by media professionals who, to put it bluntly, wish us ill. Arab-Americans—and all Americans concerned with fair play—must fight back, using the mass media.

Mitchell Kaidy is a veteran of 20 years in the print and broadcast media. He was a founding member of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee and currently is chairman of the media and communications committee of the National Association of Arab-Americans.