Nadene Goldfoot
Josephus was a Jew who wrote history for his Roman captors. He wrote about the siege of Masada and how all the960 inhabitants living on top of this mountain had killed themselves rather than be taken captives by the Roman conquerors in a time between 66-73 CE. . He was writing for a Roman audience and if he did not please them, most likely he wouldn't live very long and would have died a ghastly death. Some even think he was writing for a Jewish audience. He had to slant his material just a little and still write very descriptively about what he was seeing, perhaps with some embellishments as well Today people are questioning his slant on the reporting and how accurate his report was It was interesting enough for writers to base their book from with "Antagonists" by Ernest K. Gann and "The Voices of Masada" by David Kossoff.
There are underground smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. They are used to smuggle weapons into Gaza. Not only weapons but materials are brought in to construct rockets and missiles to rain down on southern Israel. Iranian terrorist trainers enter Gaza through these tunnels.
Rugaya Izzidien wrote about these tunnels for the New York Times on May 29, 2012, but took a different slant on them, something more palatable for the readers. Arabs are the good guys and were humanized while the Israelis were demonized as the bad guys. The use of the tunnels was only said to be the artery to bring in needed supplies, like everything you can think of; food, building materials, clothes, electronics, cars, wedding supplies and writes that Gazans consider the tunnels a regular accepted route for their period in the "blockade." Then of course the reporter goes on to mention that the tunnels are targets in air strikes because they seem them as an illegal smuggling route.
The writer neglects to tell the readers some important facts that are left out, like Israel makes sure that there is the importation of thousands of all manner of goods that are brought into the Gaza Strip every day.
What we know about journalists is that they also have political sympathies and it shows up when they write, even though they are told to remain neutral and just print "the facts." the facts turn out to be opinionated facts. . Many reporters are even more far left of their audience. One person, Professor Aarebrot of Norway, is trying to make the case that a journalist can write without any slant They may be expected to, but too often it just doesn't happen. The personal views of journalists have an impact on how they report.
Even Glenn Beck has that happen to him. Being very conservative, he spoke about the shooting in Norway at a camp and said: "There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth or whatever, I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics?"
Frank Aarebrot, a scientist, retorted by calling Beck names and comparing him to Joseph Goebbles. He showed his side and that he is a Labor Party supporter. Both men could not hold back their opinions and take on the situation at all.
Dan Rather, former anchor on CBS, and 60 Minutes, canceled a scheduled appearance on the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News evidently to be able to appear on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to argue that there is no left-wing bias in the mass media. Walter Cronkite, of CBS Evening News was also considered by O'Reilly to be a very left-wing guy which he didn't hide well at all. Bernard Goldberg stresses that most journalists don't really see themselves or their work as biased and think of themselves as smart, well-meaning and educated people without prejudice.
We go along with that thought and allow them to be referred to as the Enlightened Class in the USA. Their job is to spread enlightened values to us masses. Their job is also to dispel myths and ward off evils and the conservatives who carry superstition and primitive dogma.
I note that Fox News has an afternoon program about 5 reporters, 4 conservatives and 1 of the Enlightened and they love to give him a bad time, but he dishes it out and takes what comes well. It's the grooviest program to see how people who disagree with each other can banter freely and not get all hot under the collar over some very dicey subjects. Also what's terrific is that 3 of these conservative reporters are beautiful lawyers, more like models, who are wonderful role models for young women who can see that you can be intelligent, most knowledgeable and yet sexy as well.
Then there are newspapers who will not print anything positive about Israel. Dos this not sell newspapers? Evidently not. They'd rather take the slant of the left and print only bad press about Israel. There is no balance because those of us who try to write rebuttals against a particularly nasty letter rarely ever get it published, even for those of us who do a lot of writing.
The lesson of all this is that one has to be very careful in reading the written page to find out the truth. Reporters, especially those on major media must be taken with a grain of salt until all is checked out. At one time Portland had a morning paper, the Oregonian, and an evening paper, the Journal. Each took a different political viewpoint and one had the chance to compare and contrast to come to a better evaluation of events, but it's much harder today. We should be thankful that at least a few conservative viewpoints are still existing on TV. There isn't much hope for newspapers as they are running into the red and dying out. We don't want to be at the point where we have one source for news from just Big Brother.
These are important points to keep in mind when reading about Israel. Much of the material out is slanted heavily against this little state. Dig out the truth. A source that is positive is not an evil source. They just may know something the others may not know or don't want to know.
Resource: camera, alert@camera.org the NY Times has tunnel vision on the Gaza Tunnels
frontpagemag.com/2012/06/06/is-it-nonsense-to-talk-about -a-leftist-media-bias/print
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/masada.html
Josephus was a Jew who wrote history for his Roman captors. He wrote about the siege of Masada and how all the960 inhabitants living on top of this mountain had killed themselves rather than be taken captives by the Roman conquerors in a time between 66-73 CE. . He was writing for a Roman audience and if he did not please them, most likely he wouldn't live very long and would have died a ghastly death. Some even think he was writing for a Jewish audience. He had to slant his material just a little and still write very descriptively about what he was seeing, perhaps with some embellishments as well Today people are questioning his slant on the reporting and how accurate his report was It was interesting enough for writers to base their book from with "Antagonists" by Ernest K. Gann and "The Voices of Masada" by David Kossoff.
There are underground smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. They are used to smuggle weapons into Gaza. Not only weapons but materials are brought in to construct rockets and missiles to rain down on southern Israel. Iranian terrorist trainers enter Gaza through these tunnels.
Rugaya Izzidien wrote about these tunnels for the New York Times on May 29, 2012, but took a different slant on them, something more palatable for the readers. Arabs are the good guys and were humanized while the Israelis were demonized as the bad guys. The use of the tunnels was only said to be the artery to bring in needed supplies, like everything you can think of; food, building materials, clothes, electronics, cars, wedding supplies and writes that Gazans consider the tunnels a regular accepted route for their period in the "blockade." Then of course the reporter goes on to mention that the tunnels are targets in air strikes because they seem them as an illegal smuggling route.
The writer neglects to tell the readers some important facts that are left out, like Israel makes sure that there is the importation of thousands of all manner of goods that are brought into the Gaza Strip every day.
What we know about journalists is that they also have political sympathies and it shows up when they write, even though they are told to remain neutral and just print "the facts." the facts turn out to be opinionated facts. . Many reporters are even more far left of their audience. One person, Professor Aarebrot of Norway, is trying to make the case that a journalist can write without any slant They may be expected to, but too often it just doesn't happen. The personal views of journalists have an impact on how they report.
Even Glenn Beck has that happen to him. Being very conservative, he spoke about the shooting in Norway at a camp and said: "There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth or whatever, I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics?"
Frank Aarebrot, a scientist, retorted by calling Beck names and comparing him to Joseph Goebbles. He showed his side and that he is a Labor Party supporter. Both men could not hold back their opinions and take on the situation at all.
Dan Rather, former anchor on CBS, and 60 Minutes, canceled a scheduled appearance on the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News evidently to be able to appear on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to argue that there is no left-wing bias in the mass media. Walter Cronkite, of CBS Evening News was also considered by O'Reilly to be a very left-wing guy which he didn't hide well at all. Bernard Goldberg stresses that most journalists don't really see themselves or their work as biased and think of themselves as smart, well-meaning and educated people without prejudice.
We go along with that thought and allow them to be referred to as the Enlightened Class in the USA. Their job is to spread enlightened values to us masses. Their job is also to dispel myths and ward off evils and the conservatives who carry superstition and primitive dogma.
I note that Fox News has an afternoon program about 5 reporters, 4 conservatives and 1 of the Enlightened and they love to give him a bad time, but he dishes it out and takes what comes well. It's the grooviest program to see how people who disagree with each other can banter freely and not get all hot under the collar over some very dicey subjects. Also what's terrific is that 3 of these conservative reporters are beautiful lawyers, more like models, who are wonderful role models for young women who can see that you can be intelligent, most knowledgeable and yet sexy as well.
Then there are newspapers who will not print anything positive about Israel. Dos this not sell newspapers? Evidently not. They'd rather take the slant of the left and print only bad press about Israel. There is no balance because those of us who try to write rebuttals against a particularly nasty letter rarely ever get it published, even for those of us who do a lot of writing.
The lesson of all this is that one has to be very careful in reading the written page to find out the truth. Reporters, especially those on major media must be taken with a grain of salt until all is checked out. At one time Portland had a morning paper, the Oregonian, and an evening paper, the Journal. Each took a different political viewpoint and one had the chance to compare and contrast to come to a better evaluation of events, but it's much harder today. We should be thankful that at least a few conservative viewpoints are still existing on TV. There isn't much hope for newspapers as they are running into the red and dying out. We don't want to be at the point where we have one source for news from just Big Brother.
These are important points to keep in mind when reading about Israel. Much of the material out is slanted heavily against this little state. Dig out the truth. A source that is positive is not an evil source. They just may know something the others may not know or don't want to know.
Resource: camera, alert@camera.org the NY Times has tunnel vision on the Gaza Tunnels
frontpagemag.com/2012/06/06/is-it-nonsense-to-talk-about -a-leftist-media-bias/print
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/masada.html
WOW! this is real? Really there is tunnel between Israel and Palestine? What are the other things passing by the tunnel. I have no idea about it. Now, for your help I think this video goo.gl/BYMCd will really make you feel grateful!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Saif, I appreciate the video and do feel thankful for all the sundry of things that we receive.
ReplyDeleteThere never has been a state/country of Palestine. It's just the name of an area that the Romans gave to the conquered Judah. There isn't one yet. You're referring to the Gaza Strip, run by the terrorists Hamas. Yes, there's only about 2 miles between Gaza and Israel.