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Just a little background to "HonestReporting" the outfit that
brought us the gem of an article quoted below... From their own
website:<br><br>
<i>Our History<br><br>
It was Yom Kippur, 2000. The Intifada had just broken out and a huge wave
of terror had suddenly descended upon Israel. The media in Europe was
twisting the story to brand Israel as a bad guy! Jews in the UK were in
shock and felt under attack. A few idealists decided enough was
enough.... <br><br>
</i>Can't think of a statement from the article that isn't problematic or
insulting to the intelligence of someone who hasn't had a full frontal
lobotomy.<br><br>
Regards<br><br>
Amer Khayyat<br><br>
<br>
At 02:59 03/05/2007, Marc Haddad wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<a href="http://honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Harvard_Report_Examines_Media_Coverage_of_Lebanon_War.asp" eudora="autourl">
http://honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Harvard_Report_Examines_Media_Coverage_of_Lebanon_War.asp</a>
<br><br>
Harvard Report Examines Media Coverage of Lebanon War<br><br>
An academic report concludes Hezbollah succeeded at using the media as a
weapon<br>
against Israel.<br><br>
Back at the beginning of March 2007, HonestReporting's Backspin blog
drew<br>
attention to a research paper published by Harvard University, which
examined<br>
media coverage of the 2006 Lebanon War. The conclusion: Hezbollah
succeeded at<br>
using the media as a weapon against Israel. Perhaps unsurprisingly,
the<br>
mainstream media, having allowed themselves to be cynically manipulated
by the<br>
Hezbollah propaganda machine, failed to report the findings of the
Harvard<br>
study.<br><br>
While the initial lack of publicity was disappointing, a number of blogs
have<br>
recently revisited the study, generating a surge in internet-led
interest. This<br>
prompted the Jerusalem Post to report:<br><br>
"An open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness,"
Marvin Kalb and<br>
Dr. Carol Saivetz of the Shorenstein Center of Harvard University
concluded in<br>
their research paper, "The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media
as a Weapon<br>
in Asymmetrical Conflict." "A closed sect, Hizbullah, can
retain almost total<br>
control of the daily message of journalism and propaganda,"
manipulating its<br>
image to the world, the February 28 paper found.<br><br>
"In strictly military terms, Israel did not lose to Hizbullah in
this war, but<br>
it clearly did not win. In the war of information, news and propaganda,
the<br>
battlefield central to Hizbullah's strategy, Israel lost this war,"
Kalb and<br>
Saivetz concluded.<br><br>
Hizbullah was able to exploit skillfully the technological innovations
wrought<br>
by the internet and the demands of the 24/7 news cycle, and constructed
the<br>
narrative story line for the "first really 'live' war in
history" where "the<br>
camera and the computer" were "weapons of war," they
argued.<br><br>
For Hizbullah, the Second Lebanon War was a "crucial battle in a
broader,<br>
ongoing war, linking religious fundamentalism to Arab nationalism."
Its chosen<br>
field of battle was the media and its strategic aim was to win the hearts
and<br>
minds of the Arab world.<br><br>
Citing US and Australian military experts, Kalb and Saivetz stated
Hizbullah<br>
believed the "historic struggle between Western modernity and
Islamic<br>
fundamentalism will ultimately be resolved" on the "information
battlefield."<br>
Hizbullah's media strategy was crafted to achieve this end, they
said.<br><br>
In the Second Lebanon War, Hizbullah limited access to Western
reporters,<br>
"orchestrated" events and manipulated journalists with threats
of expulsion if<br>
they violated its reporting rules. And the press largely complied with
the<br>
restrictions that were "reminiscent of the Soviet era," Kalb
and Saivetz found.<br><br>
In one example cited by the paper, on a tour of a Shi'ite neighborhood of
Beirut<br>
damaged by IAF air strikes, Hizbullah warned reporters not to
"wander off on<br>
their own or speak to residents" and to photograph only approved
sights. If the<br>
press violated these rules, "cameras would be confiscated, film or
tape<br>
destroyed, and offending reporters would never be allowed access to
Hizbullah<br>
officials or Hizbullah-controlled areas."<br><br>
"At one point, apparently on cue, a Hizbullah minder signaled for
ambulances to<br>
rev up their engines, set off their sirens and drive noisily down the
street.<br>
The scene was orchestrated, designed to provide a photo op, and reporters
went<br>
along for the ride."<br><br>
"So far as we know" Kalb and Saivetz stated, all of the
reporters on the tour<br>
only CNN's Anderson Cooper reported on the "attempt to create and
control a<br>
story." The rest of the press "followed the Hizbullah
script."<br><br>
Read the full JPost article here. The full Harvard publication (in pdf
format)<br>
can be found on HonestReporting's Media Bias Research page.<br><br>
HonestReporting addressed many of the mainstream media's failings during
the<br>
Lebanon War, including doctored photography, the reporting of staged
incidents<br>
as fact, and biased or inaccurate journalism. This comprehensive
Harvard<br>
publication should be read by all media organizations that value
high<br>
journalistic standards.<br><br>
We hope that this report will finally get the attention that it deserves
and ask<br>
our subscribers to help multiply its reach. Please not only take the time
to<br>
read the Harvard report, but also forward it to your local or national
news<br>
outlets so that the media may learn the valuable lessons that it
contains.<br>
Contact details for many media outlets can be found here.<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Lebanon-Articles mailing list<br>
Lebanon-Articles@mit.edu<br>
<a href="http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/lebanon-articles" eudora="autourl">
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/lebanon-articles</a></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<dl>
<dd><font size=2 color="#000080">'Amer M.A. Khayyat</font>
<dd><font size=2 color="#808080"><i>UK Account Manager</i>
<dd>Schlumberger Wireline</font><font size=2> </font>
<dd><font size=2 color="#808080">DYT, Aberdeen, Scotland
<dd>Tel: +44 1224 728 218
<dd>Mob: +44 7717 346 852
<dd>Fax: +44 1224 728 150 <br><br></font>
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