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<DIV><FONT size=2>Excerpts from<FONT size=3> "Retroactive terrorists and
embedded journalists" by Uri Avnery - a veteran Israeli journalist and peace
activist</FONT><BR>(source: <FONT size=3> </FONT><A
href="http://www.gush"><FONT size=3><A
href="http://www.gush-shalom.org">http://www.gush</FONT></A></FONT><FONT
size=3>-shalom.org</A><FONT size=2>)</FONT> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> # Presstitution. In the Middle Ages, armies were accompanied
by large numbers of <BR>prostitutes. In the Iraq war, the American and British
armies are accompanied by large <BR>numbers of
journalists.<BR> I coined the Hebrew equivalent of
"presstitution" when I was the editor of an Israeli <BR>newsmagazine, to denote
the journalists who turn the media into whores. Physicians are bound <BR>by the
Hippocratic oath to save life as far as possible. Journalists are bound by
professional <BR>honor to tell the truth, as they see it.
<BR> Never before have so many journalists
betrayed their duty as in this war. Their original sin <BR>was their agreement
to be "embedded" in army units. This American term sounds like being <BR>put to
bed, and that is what it amounts to in practice.<BR> A
journalist who lies down in the bed of an army unit becomes a voluntary slave.
He is <BR>attached to the commander's staff, led to the places the commander is
interested in, sees what <BR>the commander wants him or her to see, is turned
away from the places the commanders does <BR>not want him to see, hears what the
my wants him to hear and does not hear what the army <BR>does not want him to
hear. He is worse than an official army spokesman, because he pretends <BR>to be
an independent reporter.<BR> The problem is not that he
only sees a small piece of the grand mosaic of the war, but that <BR>he
transmits a mendacious view of that piece.<BR> In the
Falklands and the first Gulf wars, journalists were simply not allowed to reach
the <BR>campaign area. It seems that a bright fellow at the Pentagon had an
idea: "Why keep them <BR>out? Let's allow them in, they'll be told what to write
and broadcast and eat out of our hands <BR>like
puppies."<BR> <BR> # Shame.
Since the age of 19, I have been a journalist. I was always proud of it. On
<BR>innumerable forms I wrote "Profession:
Journalist."<BR> I am ashamed when I see a large group
of journalists from all over the world sitting in front <BR>of a many-starred
general, listening eagerly to what is called a "briefing" and not posing the
<BR>simplest relevant question. And when a courageous reporter does stand up and
ask a real <BR>question, no one protests when the general responds with banal
propaganda slogans instead of <BR>giving a real
answer.<BR> Remember the virtual surrender of the Iraqi
51st division? The "uprising" of the people of <BR>Basra that never was? The
thousand and one other lies, that have gone with the wind? Where <BR>were the
journalists when all this happened?<BR> Almost all the
journalistic reports of this war are a crooked mirror. We see in it a
<BR>manipulated, distorted and mendacious picture. Therefore, praise be to the
few who, like Peter <BR>Arnett, are ready to sacrifice their career on the altar
of truth. <BR><BR> # The bottom of the barrel. I am
ashamed of being a journalist. I am doubly ashamed of <BR>being an Israeli
journalist.<BR> In this war, all sections of the Israeli
media have sunk to a new low. No criticism at all get<BR>s <BR>published. The
opponents of the war have effectively been silenced. Even in the American
<BR>media, some voices of dissent are being heard. In Israel, this is not
possible. It would be worse <BR>than treason.<BR> The
only exception I know of is the TV reporter San Semama, who stole into Iraq, was
<BR>caught by the Americans, imprisoned in a jeep and starved for 48 hours. He
saw what was <BR>really happening. Parts of his reports were published here and
there, and then the curtain of <BR>silence came down. All the rest -
journalists, pundits, the bunch of ex-officers and so on - <BR>appear on our
screens, hour after hour, and repeat like parrots the American propaganda-line,
<BR>even when it is manifestly ridiculous.<BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>