dc--it's not an israeli bias in the american press--it's narrower than that---what you typically get is the position of the israeli right fobbed off as representing the whole of israel--which is self-evidently does not. if you compare what you watch or read in the states with haaretz, which i read pretty regularly, the narrowness if obvious. and it is only from the right viewpoint that there is no particular distinction between the views of the israeli left and those of the range of palestinian groups.
in the international press, i see a much wider range of positions on the israel/palestine conflict than i ever see in the states. some outlets are more obviously pro-palestinian, most are less so--but in the diversity of political viewpoints from the region there emerges a sympathy for the palestinians as an oppressed people. this is different from support for fatah or hamas or anyone else. and this sympathy is shared across a wide political spectrum, which includes significant segments of the israeli population.
it's just like that.
i see the narrowness of the american press viewpoints on israeli politics, both domestic politics and with reference to those to do with occupation, an indication of the extent to which the american press willingly and willfully echoes the politics of the american state.
if we find that the obama administration breaks with the policies of the republicans on israel--which they undoubtedly will, even as i don't have a sense of how or in what direction--and if cnn suddenly starts modulating it's (collective) editorial viewpoint, which passes off as news, that'll prove the point.
i maintain that we are collectively extremely poorly served by television infotainment in general, and by the cable "news" outlets in particular.
which does none of us any good.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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