reflectivepundit

Skilled News Management in the Midst of Tragedy

Before leaving for a speaking engagement in Japan, I want to mention an interesting article published on the web site of Columbia Journalism Review Daily on Hezbollah's clever news management in Southern Lebanon that exploits the tragedies of Qana and other places for the perennial terrorist publicity scheme. Today's terrorists are sophisticated communication and media experts who are well aware of the impact of the media--especially television--on public and elite opinion. Some members of the news media, who take part in Hezbollah's guided press tours in order to be allowed into certain areas, do at times refer to the restrictions they face, to the fact that they only see what Hezbollah wants them to see. But one wonders, whether their audiences catch on to this sort of censorship.

Misleading New York Times headline

By Brigitte L. Nacos

It is a joke that the New York Times reported today on the Bush/Blair press conference under the page one headline "Bush and Blair Push To End Mideast Fighting." The two leaders did nothing like that. You do not push a plan for a cease fire by planning to introduce a resolution "next week" at the United Nations. In his joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the President stuck to his optimistic spin, when he called the current situation "a moment of opportunity." If the  conflict is really a moment of opporturnity,why wasn't his Secretary of State returning as quickly as possible to the region but rather a day later than planned? It is wonderful that Dr. Rice, the accomplished pianist, received enthusiastic applause during an ASEAN meeting in Malaysia for playing two Brahms composition. It would have been better if Dr. Rice, the Secretary of State, had turned in a good performance on the diplomatic stage to push for what she calls a "sustainable" cease fire.

Al Qaeda's Latest Recruitment Drive

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Nobody could have doubted that Al Qaeda would try to exploit the fight between Israel and Hezbollah and the on-going clashed between the IDF and Hamas. Although Ayman al-Zawahiri's videotaped call to arms was edited by the Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera, the short version made perfectly clear that Al Qaeda's second in command aimed at uniting Sunnis and Shi'ites against Israel and her supporters and to enlist new recruits into the cause.

The Fiasco of "Budding" Democracies in the Middle East

By Brigitte Nacos

"It is time for a new Middle East. It is time to say to those that don't want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail." That's what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during her stop in Jerusalem. But her and the neo-conservative ideal of remaking the Middle East in the image of Western-style democracy, if needed by force, is paved with questionable results and prospects. Dr. Rice spoke of the need to protect Lebanon's young democracy. Well--that democracy has brought the terrorist organization Hezbollah into both the legislature and the cabinet. In the Palestinian territories, free elections put the terrorist organization Hamas in charge of the government. If free elections were held tomorrow in Saudi-Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, or elsewhere in the region, the supporters of Islamic republics a la Iran would prevail. And Iraq's prospects do not look promising either.

Journalism, Propaganda, or Terrorist Recruitment and Incitement?

By Brigitte L. Nacos

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned the Israeli bombing of the Beirut headquarters of the Lebanese TV-network Al-Manar and of one of its transmission towers near Baalbek. According to a statement posted on the IFJ web site, the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces were "a clear demonstration that Israel has a policy to silence media it does not agree with." the statement ends with the waening that "in conflict situations, unarmed journalists cannot be treated as combatants irrespective of their political affiliations." There is no doubt that journalists should not be targeted by combatants. But is there a difference between journalism, propaganda, and terrorist recruitment and incitement?

When the Hostilities Stop...

By Brigitte L. Nacos

The faces, the bodies, the ruins--what we see on the screens or in print project eerily similar scenes of death, injury, and destruction. Terrorism, counterterrorism, war--however we define what Israel and Hezbollah and Hamas are involved in these days, innocent human beings suffer. The unbearable pictures of devastation caused by bombs and rockets in Beirut and Haifa and elswwhere beg the question why no efforts are made by Washington and other influential governments to stop the blood-letting. As the New York Times reports this morning, Washington's plan is to let Israel hit Lebanese targets for another week in order to degrade Hezbollah's capabilities. If this plan is executed, many more human beings will be killed and wounded. There will be pain, anger, and hate.

Violence in the Middle East and the Power of Visuals

By Brigitte L. Nacos
Instant global communication brings day-in and day-out visuals of political violence and human suffering into our living rooms. Civilians killed or injured--most of the time not in wars between nation-states but in terrorist and counterterrorist actions. And whereas the principals in violent conflicts clash over differences, the plight of the victims is very much the same on both sides. Just look at the visuals of the latest conflicts in the Middle East: when a child is killed, a mother wounded--the sorrow is the same in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon. Yet, even the reactions to human suffering are not universal but depend on audiences' political preferences.

Shamil Basayev: Rebel, Warlord or--Terrorist?

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Initial news reports about the killing of Shamil Basayev by Russian security forces demonstrate once again that the U.S. media avoid calling a terrorist what he or she is--a terrorist. Instead, in Basayev's case, he is characterized as rebel and warlord (see AP dispatch in the Washington Post). If we recognize that terrorism is political violence deliberately committed against civilians, Basayev was by definition a terrorists--one of the most brutal of our times and just like al-Zawahiri and his idol bin Laden. Yet, whereas reporters, editors, producers, and other news personnel have no qualms to attach the t-word to America's enemies in the post-9/11 "war on terrorism," they remain otherwise reluctant to call a spade a spade or, better, a terrorist a terrorist.There are a few blog who tell it how it is--see counterterrorism blog post.

Money--the Oxygen of Terrorism (II)

As I explained in a previous post (Is Money the Oxygen of Terrorism?), it was never a secret that after 9/11 the U.S. government intensified its efforts to interrupt the flow of financial resources to terrorists by tracking bank transactions--including via SWIFT. The recent reports on the monitoring of SWIFT in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times did not provide terrorists with secret information and did not hurt efforts to dry up the flow of money to the bad guys. They knew of this long ago--from official and open sources.Yet, the discussions surrounding the SWIFT reports continue and are dominated by partisan extremists who are not interested in sorting out fact from fiction but exploit the case to score election year brownie points.

To be sure, when issues arise we always should welcome and encourage the exchange of different views--whether in person-to-person conversations or in mass-mediated public debates either in the old or new media. Unfortunately, much of today's public discourse consists of nasty, under-the-belt blows against those with opposing views.

Frank Rich's column in today's New York Times does not examine the substance of the Swift "leak," but rather the subsequent political blame game in which the Wall Street Journal's editorial page put itself into a rather peculiar role by attacking the New York Times viciously for the same SWIFT revelations that appeared the same day in the news section of the Wall Street Journal!

Thankfully, there are also voices of reason on all sides. Earlier today, for example, read with great interest a post on the counterterrorismblog by Dennis Lormel whose take on the SWIFT disclosures is different from my own--but well and professionally reasoned and worthwhile to read.

Perfect Timing in the War on Terrorism

Perfect Timing! On the first anniversary of the quadruple suicide/homicide attacks on the London transit system both terrorists and those charged with counterterrorism scored major publicity coups--the FBI, as the Washington Post reported, with the revelation that alert agents foiled an Al Qaeda plot to blow up one of the tunnels underneath the Hudson River and one of the London "martyr" bombers with a pre-taped warning of more terror attacks to come.