"The Only Way to Combat Falsehood is to Tell the Truth": YouTube and Diplomacy

Today in class, we had to come up with different ways of campaigning and politically advertising using new and old media. One method that I suggested to my group was an idea that people could submit questions and the candidate could address these issues in a YouTube video that would be posted on the candidate's Facebook page, blog, and website. This idea actually wasn't so original; I had gotten the idea from the "World View" project, which encourages people to post videos with questions to specific world leaders and selected video questions are asked in an interview with this leader. I had not heard about this project, which began in January, until recently when I found out that they were going to interview Prime Minister Netanyahu. However, the organization has already interviewed President Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and Speaker of the House John Boehner. Today, the interview with Bibi Netanyahu was put on YouTube, and although it is long for a YouTube clip, it is very interesting and definitely worth watching.

This project definitely brings up new questions and shows the evolution of media. It is a good way of campaigning (or in this case, practicing diplomacy) because the people feel like you are talking directly to them, and answering their questions makes them feel important and satisfied. It is a more personal approach and it kind of reminds me of FDR's fireside chats in that it is the president or prime minister directly addressing the people and telling them what they need to know to be satisfied.

Although I've only watched Netanyahu's interview so far, I think it is a very interesting and innovative program. I did not appreciate the tone of the interviewer, but I think Netanyahu did a good job despite her aggressiveness. Although he was a bit repetitive, his message was clear: Palestinians need to recognize Israel in order to achieve peace, and that Arabs have a lot of freedom in Israel. It was important to educate people of facts they did not know, as Netanyahu himself says, "the only way to combat falsehood is to tell the truth."

This is what "new media" allows for: the politician himself to tell the people in plain words what "the story is." It is not being reported through a bias newspaper or television reporter, rather it is straight from his mouth to your ears.

The Art of Word Choosing

In 2000, after a picture of an Israeli soldier was wrongly captioned, painting Israel in a very negative light, the website Honestreporting.com was created. According to their website, Honest Reporting aims to "monitor the media, expose cases of bias, promote balance, and effect change to ensure Israel is represented fairly and accurately." Although I agree with their views and opinions, I wonder if they can really claim honesty and accuracy when they are outright pro-Israel. Maybe they can claim it, but does the general public believe it?

Recently, Honest Reporting called out Reuters for "redefining" terrorism. The Reuters report on the terrorist attack in Israel on Wednesday afternoon claimed that a terrorist attack is "Israel's term for a Palestinian strike." A STRIKE?! This is a criminal act! Israel knows strikes; its workers go on strike all the time. In fact, right now there is a social worker strike. Social workers are refusing to work until they get better employment conditions. Despite this, the social workers strike has allowed social workers to do their job twice since the strike began over 3 weeks ago: after the Itamar attack and now, after the bus stop bombing.

A strike definitely does not accurately describe what Terrorism is, and a bomb planted near a busy bus stop is nothing short of an attack.

Like we spoke about in class, and came up with CNN's report on the Itamar attack as well, the words writers/editors use are carefully chosen to evoke certain images and emotions in the reader and this influences the reader's opinion on the matter. Clearly, Reuters chose this word on purpose. We need to continue fighting media bias and call for accurate claims and descriptions of events like these. I wonder if there are similar organizations to HonestReporting that call out these articles and reports that unfairly portray one side of the situation. I guess this is what many bloggers try to do. It is our responsibility, as individuals, to call for factual accuracy and fair portrayal of all people and nations.

News or Citizens: Which One Do We Value More?

Four NY Times reporters are missing in Libya. Read the full story here.

This is not the first time reporters have gone missing or have been harmed, as the article linked above mentions. However, it is important to address some of the issues and questions that arise from this situation.

If it is the Libyan government who has taken them, presumably it is because they are trying to control the media and what is said about the revolution. How much can a government control? It's one thing if the government controls the media in their own country, but to kidnap citizens of a different country and try to control media in other countries? In addition, it doesn't really seem feasible. Even if they got these four reporters, there are hundreds more from around the world!

Another point I'd like to raise is the value of embedded journalism and war correspondents. We Americans like our news, and we like it from reliable sources (ignoring the bias issue). But how much is too much? How much is it worth to compromise safety and well-being of journalists. Obviously, these reporters do know what they are getting themselves into and that they are risking their lives to do their jobs, but is it worth the price?

Searching for Scandal

This article talks about the CEO of NPR, Vivian Schiller's resingation. After James O'Keefe posted a video of one exec badmouthing the tea party and saying that NPR should stop getting federal funding, Schiller resigned. The article mentions that O'Keefe had previously pleaded guilty to tampering with phones in the office of Senator Mary Landrieu. Now he had people go undercover and act like members of a fake Muslim group. They began a conversation with the NPR exec, eventually getting him to speak badly about the tea party and and media bias, and unlucky for him, they recorded it.

It seems to me that O'Keefe is fishing for scandal. He's digging and searching, almost trying to provoke people to say things or to catch them saying things that can get them into trouble. It may seem like watchdog journalism, but it seems to me like he's trying, in a sense, to create scandal.

It is also interesting to note that this article on foxnews.com had this story as their headline all day Wednesday, while CNN only had an article lower down on their page that linked to Entertainment Weekly. Even so, the article in Entertainment Weekly didn't say much about the details of her resignation. In class we talk about how each news source basically covers the same thing, but here they do not. CNN barely covered is and FoxNews had it as a headline all day. It is very interesting to note their difference in reporting and deciding what is important.

A Rabbi's Open Letter to the Egyptian People

Here is a great example of a phenomenon that we discussed earlier this semester: social communities that are formed online. This article tells the story of how Rabbi Donniel Hartman wrote and open letter to the people of Egypt and published it on his organization's website. The letter received many responses, from Jews and Muslims around the world. Through the internet, and specifically as a result of this letter, a social solidarity group has been formed, bridging the gap between Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Arabs, and a new hope for peace in the future.

The full letter and the responses to it can be seen here:
http://www.hartman.org.il/Opinion_C_View_Eng.asp?Article_Id=629