From MediaChannel.org's Executive Editor, Danny Schechter...
Watching Bush From Al Jazeera Land
WATCHING BUSH BE BUSH
THE ALJAZEERA FORUM GETS UNDERWAY
HONORING THE DEPARTED
Doha, Qatar: It is still February 1 in this part of the world, one anniversary in my own awakening. It is the anniversary of the 1960 student sit-in movement at the lunch counter of the Woolworth store in Greensboro North Carolina, an event that sparked the civil rights movement. For me, the shameless exploitation of Coretta Scott King’s passing by President Bush shifted attention back on the icons and celebrities of American life and away from the activists who carry on in the King tradition.
What would the Kings—Coretta or Martin-- have said about the Bush war dance in the halls of Congress with its trashing of all war critics as “defeatist?” What an insult to their memory! They would have denounced it, and at the same time identified with Cindy Sheehan’s non-violent presence and arrest for wearing a T-Shit in the halls of Congress marking the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq like her son.
CINDY’S STORY
In a letter, Cindy reports on what happened:
”My ticket was in the 5th gallery, front row, fourth seat in. The person who in a few minutes was to arrest me, helped me to my seat.
“I had just sat down and I was warm from climbing 3 flights of stairs back up from the bathroom so I unzipped my jacket. I turned to the right to take my left arm out, when the same officer saw my shirt and yelled; "Protester." He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs. I said something like "I'm going, do you have to be so rough?" By the way, his name is Mike Weight.
“The officer ran with me to the elevators yelling at everyone to move out of the way. When we got to the elevators, he cuffed me and took me outside to await a squad car. On the way out, someone behind me said, "That's Cindy Sheehan." At which point the officer who arrested me said: "Take these steps slowly." I said, "You didn't care about being careful when you were dragging me up the other steps." He said, "That's because you were protesting." Wow, I get hauled out of the People's House because I was, "Protesting."
For the full letter:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/1/31944/23746
“AMERICA’S AGENDA”
The US media reaction remained deferential to power and out of step with public opinion. (Example from Media Matters for America: “ABC graphic labels Bush address "America's Agenda" An ABC News graphic labeled a segment previewing President Bush's State of the Union address as "America's Agenda.")
The response here in Doha, at the Al Jazeera media forum that I am attending in the city of Doha in Qatar is what you expect: disgust. The worlds of Arab media and the worlds of the American pundits who treated the spectacle seriously are world’s apart.
As Chris Dickey of Newsweek who I had a beer with last night noted, the Bush language was straight out of Alice in Wonderland as in “democracy” standing for domination, ”liberation” meaning occupation, and freedom meaning a “free market” that we control. He showed me some of the letters that flooded in to the Newsweek website after his column was posted on the web. One was from Republican in Alaska who saw Bush as betraying what he stood for.
What was clear as I watched the “Democratic” response was that there barely was one with all the commentators including one-time anti-war candidate and now Party chairman Howard Dean avoiding the war as in some Kabuki dance in which no one ever says what they mean.
The performance on all sides was so disgraceful that it was barely commented on when the Forum got underway. A speech steeped in nothing new on all fronts and littered with distortions was bathed in applause and admired by some journalists because it was “delivered well.”
See The Progress Center’s Dissection:
http://www.alternet.org/story/31640/
THE REAL OPPOSITION
In fact, if there is an opposition to the Bush Agenda, it was to be found here in Doha when a forum, strangely modeled in format after the staid World Economic Forum in Davos got underway yesterday. It was panel heavy but heavy weight in the sense that it brought journalists from around the world together with Arab intellectuals, Islamic Scholars, and a group of opposition journalists from the US, Britain and several Arab states.
As for Bush, one Al Jazeera correspondent quipped that “Bush should have welcomed the victory of Hamas because it is a “faith based” initiative.” Many of the Al Jazeera crew comes from all over the Arab world including some Arab Americans and a Chinese American. Unlike other media outlets that pay lip service to diversity, Al Jazeera seems to practice it.
I spent time with old friends from South African media as well the likes of Amy Goodman whose team broadcast Democracy Now from the Al Jazeera studio; with Dahr Jamail who covered the war in Iraq through the eyes of Iraqis, Guerilla News Network’s Stephan Marshall just back from a triumph for a new film at Sundance and many others.
And I also hung out with some of my media inspirations like Dan Gimor, the former San Jose Mercury columnist who has become a leading advocate for citizen journalism; Oh Yeon Ho, the head of South Korea’s Oh My News which on the strength of citizen journalism became the 6th most influential media company in that country; Hugh Miles whose book on Al Jazeera (Which he started writing while working for Sky News in Britain comes out in paperback in the US this week; Andreas Izarra who heads Telesur in Venezuela; Martin Bell who left the BBC after proclaiming “the journalism of attachment” to become an MP in Britain and Abdul Bari Atwan, the fiery editor of the Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper who is just publishing a history of Al Qaeda.
“WE DON'T WANT TO BEAUTIFY THE TRUTH”
Said Emnan Ayad of Al Jazeera who welcomed the delegates saying we are all here out of a thirst for media freedom, to enhance the rights of journalists, and to think about how we work and what we want. “We don’t want to beautify the truth.” she said. The focus was on how media can be used to build bridges and promote understanding, not inflame divisions and fear.
Amen
WadahKanfar, the head of the Al Jazeera channel followed by speaking of the need to create an awareness of the threats to press freedom and the need to serve the cause of truth. He noted that 140 colleagues died following the call of duty. He called for the release of US journalist Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor who has been kidnapped in Iraq.
Truth is not a big word in professional American media circles.
It is here.
I was impressed when Islamic Scholar Mouir Shafik, author of 60 books commented that the margin of freedom is greater for journalists now in the Middle East than in America. He called for support for US journalists who are trying to report honestly on the world but few outlets and little access to mainstream media outlets like Al Jazeera.” I find that there are is a large spectrum of views which I cannot see in big channels in the west,” and the media does not reflect the public opinion in the US . This was an amazing insight from a region that often bashes the Western press without noting that it is often captive to major interests.
I can’t do justice to all the speakers and arguments. I was impressed that a representative from Google was here and made made a halfhearted defense of his company’s censoring Chinese views on the mainland. There were other debates including one between bloggers who were challenged by Bertrand Pecquerie of the World Editors Forum in Paris.
I have to cut this short because the second day of the talk fest is about to begin. Al Jazeera is waiting for a response from its Freedom of Information request in Britain that demands to know about the reported threat by President Bush (in Tony Blair's presence) to bomb Al Jazeera's headquarters. So far there have been official denials and a refusal to discuss the issue
LET US REMEMBER
My old friend Stu Albert, one of the original band of Yippies, associate of Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, and an activist and inspiration who died in Portland. My love to his running mate Judy Gumbo:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1138677918136310
Also a word for video artist/visionary Nam Jun Paik who was a global arts figure and used media to show us new possibilities of global cultural exchange. He also left us this week.
And of course, I join in saluting Mrs. Coretta Scott King who I was with on many occasions, on civil rights marches, at CNN when she did commentaries there, at the first King Birthday event at the Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, during Nelson Mandela’s visit to put a wreath on Kr. King’s memorial at the King Center and again in 1994 in South Africa when she danced behind Madiba as the election results came into the ballroom at Johannesburg’s Carleton Hotel
OUR MEDIA WORLD
From Diane’s news clips via Jeff Blankfort;
”When Robert Fisk was speaking in California recently, he came upon a copy of the Los Angeles Times, which he kept with him, to point out what Western journalism had become. In one article, which he quoted to his audience, he found, in speaking about Iraq, a dozen references to: "officials say" or "say officials." He suggested afterwards that the paper change its name to "Officials Say."
“It is in that spirit that I forward the link to this article in the London Telegraph. It even has it in the headlines”
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