Helen and Journalism

Media and the use of words

Helen Thomas, a long time White House journalist, retired on June 7 following 'controversial' remarks about Israel and Palestine. Thomas' response was to a question by Rabbi David Nesenoff about the seizure of the Gaza aid flotilla and the killing of nine activists on the ship by Israeli commandos.

The question was: "Any comments on Israel? We're arresting everyone today. Any comments..." But, before the questioner could finish, she looked straight at the camera and said: "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine."

"Ooooh," he replied, in shock. "Any better comments on Israel?" Now it is not clear what he meant by 'better', but could either mean something more favourable to Israel or something more spicy that would stack up popularity on youtube. Whatever his intention, Thomas took the latter path.

Laughing at his response, she continued: "Remember, these people are occupied, and it's their land. It's not German, it's not Poland..."

"Where should they go?" Nesenoff asked. "They should go home ... Poland, Germany ... and America. And everywhere else."

Robert Fisk, The Independent newspaper's Middle-East correspondent, had said once "More and more today, we journalists have become prisoners of the language of power... this isn't just about clichés - this is preposterous journalism.  There is no battle between power and the media. Through language, we have become them... Yes, when it comes to history, we journalists really do let the presidents and prime ministers take us for a ride. "

Often we are told in many anlysis features to deal with Middle-East's competing narratives. He adds "There's no justice, no injustice, just a couple of people who tell different history stories." It was Goerge W. Bush's secretary of state, Colin Powell, who told U.S. diplomats in the Middle-East to refer the occupied Palestinian land as 'Disputed land' and now it is more commonly known as 'settlements'.

When the Oslo accords were signed at the White House, it was referred to as a "moment in history". This was how the term 'peace process' came into existence, and now Tony Blair, "in an obscenity of history" as Fisk put it, is referred to as the peace envoy. Mr Arafat had called it (Oslo accords) "The peace of the brave". But I don't remember any of us pointing out that "the peace of the brave" was used originally by General de Gaulle about the end of the Algerian war. The French lost the war in Algeria. We did not spot this extraordinary irony.

Coming back to to Helen Thomas' remarks. If viewed contextualy and factualy, it is not factualy incorrect or 'controversial'. It is a known fact that Israel was created on occupied Palestine with the help of Britain, the U.S. and the UN. It also a known fact that the Palestinians have been severely oppressed under the Israelis and the West have been turning a blind eye to it all these years.

Most media organizations have left out the part where she says 'these people are occupied', and directly went to 'Germany..', and gave the whole incident a different angle. The whole picture of Palestinians as the ones sufferring was completely neglected, as we often see with Israel's PR campaign.

What might be considered controversial could be the fact that a journalist has been asked to apologize and quit over airing an opinion that is factually right. Secondly, it seriously questions the freedom of the press- has the media turned into mouthpieces for the governments?