Media Bias
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Counterpunch:
Hollywood Isn't Fair to Jews Either
[Excerpt from full
Commentary]When
African American filmmakers are upset about perceived inequities in
Hollywood, they can blame the Jews. When a Christian (Nikos Kazantzakis)
writes a sacrilegious novel about Jesus and a second Christian (Martin
Scorsese) converts the book into a film, fundamentalists on the
periphery still find an angle to blame the Jews.[¶] They are lucky.[¶] Whom
shall the Jews blame for
Hollywood's decades-long denigration of Jewish
women and mockery of Jewish tradition? The Christians? The Japanese? The
Mongolians? [¶]There
has never been, not in the movies and not on television, so much as a
single subplot focusing on a traditionally observant, yet culturally
contemporary, Jewish family engaging modern American society,
synthesizing their ancient traditions with the challenges of today. When
the hundreds of thousands -- perhaps millions -- of Americans who
respect Jewish tradition watch "The Cosby Show" or "Amen," "A Different
World" or "227," we are truly envious of our African American neighbors.
[¶]
Not only do they get better treatment from
Hollywood than
do we. They even have a scapegoat. Whom shall we blame? . . . .
A Day Like Any Other
[Excerpt from full
Commentary] Sunday, May 5, seemed a day like any other. The
world was concerned about violence in the Middle East. Secretary of
State Colin Powell opined on talk shows that Israel must negotiate new
agreements with Palestine Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
. . .
[¶] In Colombia, an
internecine civil war continued on that Sunday. That war is not 19
months old, not 38 months old. Rather, it is 38 years old, and 3,500
civilians are murdered in its crossfire every year. On that Sunday —
while the world fretted about a group of Arafat-backed gunmen hiding in
the Church of the Nativity — a group of terrified mothers, young
children, and babies fled desperately from terrorists to the sanctuary
of a Catholic church in Bojaya, some 58 miles south of Quibdo, capital
of the Colombian state of Choco. . . . No one spoke out
or noticed as FARC rebels pounded the holy shrine, firing homemade
mortars into the church, murdering at least 40 civilians. In all, 108
non-combatants were slain in Colombia that day. According to Colombian
President Andres Pastrana, "What happened here was genocide on the part
of the FARC." [¶] [In Nigeria . .
, a disagreement arose in the city of Noj,
some 200 miles northeast of the capital in Abuja — between the Yorubas
of Eto-Baba in the south and the Beroms and Hausas of the north — over
where to conduct the balloting. Soon, the vying factions of President
Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling People's Democratic Party flooded the streets
to resolve the question with knives and machetes. At least 20 civilians
were slain, many charred beyond recognition, . . . .
A Land Without a Name
[Excerpt from full
Commentary]
It is instructive that the Arab world does not even have a name for the
land. Think about it. "Palestine" is a name that the ancient Romans gave
the Land of Israel after that now-vanished empire destroyed the last
breaths of Jewish freedom in the Holy Land in 135. The Romans renamed
the cities and the land to excise all memory of the stubborn Jewish
patriots who had defied the empire from within the Holy Land. So,
Jerusalem became Aelonia Capitolina. Shechem became Naples. (Naples
later became Nablus.) And the country itself was renamed "Palestine" for
the Biblical people who preceded the Jews — the Philistines.
. . .
[¶]
The
Arabs have names for countries like Syria, Egypt, Oman, Qatar, Iraq,
Libya, and Kuwait. They even have two countries named Yemen. But through
all of recorded time they never have had a name for the land of Judea
and Samaria. "The West Bank"? Such a name describes Jersey City, lying
on that bank of the Hudson. Santa Monica, perhaps, is a more elegant
bank, east of the Pacific. And we may note Louisville, reposing on the
south bank of the majestic Ohio River. These are cities, not countries.
. . .
[¶]
To this
day, the logo of each and every Palestinian "activist" group, groups
ranging from Hamas to Islamic Jihad to the Democratic Front for the
Liberation of Palestine to Fatah, all depict the map of a "Palestine"
that is identical to pre-1967 Israel — no "West Bank." . . . .
They're not Stupid, Stupid
[Excerpt from full Commentary]
In his
latest ad hominem-based syndicated article, the resident radical-Left
opinion writer at the Los Angeles Times, Robert Scheer, mocked
the intelligence of Attorney General John Ashcroft. In a vertical
screed, Scheer wrote the following: Ashcroft is "not the sharpest [tool]
in the shed." He "managed to lose a Senate race to a dead man." He "was
not picked for his smarts." He is a "Keystone Kop in charge of law
enforcement." And, in the most telling comment, "Perhaps it is just too
difficult for a stern, God-fearing fundamentalist like the attorney
general to fully anticipate the dark side of religion's wrath.".
. . [¶]
Scheer's writing
reflects the polemic arrogance monopolized by a Left that is convinced
its ranks are just too smart for conservatives to fathom and that
conservatives are just too troglodytic to be liberal. .
. . [¶]
By contrast, we were
told that Jimmy Carter was not merely a peanut farmer but really a
particularly brilliant man, studious and capable of grasping every
detail of his office, and we were reminded constantly that Bill Clinton
was a Rhodes scholar out of Yale. . . .
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