re Allin's 5986 Even that, it seems to me, is highly questionable. I admit I'm on less firm ground here. I'm not a TV watcher, but I did watch CNN and NBC closely for a couple of hours or so on September 11th. My comments have to be taken as applying to the "real time" coverage; I can't speak about subsequent regurgitation. Anyway, when I saw the "celebration in Palestine" footage on that morning: (a) It confirmed what I had read half an hour earlier at the Washington Post's website, in a brief from their Israel correspondent. (b) The clip was very short. (c) The clip was bracketed by a report that Arafat had condemned the attacks. ______________ I think the clip had been shown for hours on (e.g.) Fox before this was reported. _____________________ (d) The news anchors went out of their way to say they had no evidence this was representative of the reaction of Palestinians in general. __________ don't remember this being said on fox or nbc in the immediate aftermath of the bombing. jennings at abc seemed to have been careful throughout. but the reporting did indeed change on all the networks over the course of the day. we don't get cnn however. had been looking at fox, nbc, cbs, abc. __________ Far from encouraging viewers to conclude that all Palestinians were delighted at the deaths of Americans, they seemed concerned to forestall that conclusion. __________ yes indeed this has been the message since. ___________ I remember the last point clearly, because when I first read of jubilation in Nablus at washingtonpost.com it was immediately clear to me that this was potentially very bad news for Arabs (and, as Rakesh says, anyone with a brown skin) in the US. So when the item came up on TV I was watching closely to see how they'd handle it. As it happens, I was quite favorably impressed. ____________ as i tried to say earlier, i am worried about our being shunned by those who do not even intend to do so. despite the many appreciated official pronouncements, i am worried about what happens at a 'preconscious' level, of the way in which people position their bodies vis a vis us, and the possible policy consequences (re: e.g. immigration law). there is no question that the situation would be much worse if not for the official pronouncements which have been reported. what is compounding the problem however is what seems to me a systematic under- reporting of the harrassment to which people have been subject. perhaps this has been covered to your satisfaction? i gave the example of the stabbing in sf last friday night. three arab men were forced off a plane yesterday or today by passengers who refused to fly with them--we'll see what kind of attention this gets. i heard on the pacifica network that there is a columbia prof of journalism (indian surname) doing an on-going analysis of this under-reporting. ______________ Amidst all the reports of shock and outrage, and the messages of solidarity, pouring in from around the world, a report of celebration was certainly newsworthy, but I don't think it was overplayed. __________ again: no one was interviewed--not the celebrators or the on-lookers (who did not even enter in the picture). so it seems to me to have been a pernicious use of imagery. we don't know what these kids were thinking, what they were happy about, why they were happy, etc. Maybe they were celebrating the hit on the pentagon, not the world trade center. maybe they didn't even know what the latter was. who knows? seems to be irresponsible journalism to me. but there are many worse examples of journalistic abuse. Rakesh N Bhandari.
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