From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (Harel Barzilai)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,talk.politics.mideast,alt.news-media
Subject: Establishment/Media Anti-Arab Bias/Racism
Date: 18 Aug 92 19:53:55 GMT
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB

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Topic 33        RE: CBS anti-Arab Remarks 
pnmideast       News of Actions for Mideast Activists    9:45 pm  Aug 17, 1992 
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From: <pnmideast@igc.org>
Subject: RE: CBS anti-Arab Remarks 

Below is the original FAIR article by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon in 
appearing in the San Francisco Examiner of August 5, 1992. To join 
ADC and send a letter of protest to CBS write to: 

CBS Evening News 
542 West 57th Street 
New York, NY  10019 
(202)975-3691 

(-Jennifer Smith, pnmideast@igc.apc.org) 

/* Written 12:56 pm  Aug 17, 1992 by wmuhanna@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu in cdp:soc.culture.ar */ 
/* ---------- "Kissinger, Ajami, and Rather displa" ---------- */ 

__________________________________________________________________________ 

                Anti-Arab Bigotry Rampant in U.S. News 
                  By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon 
                        Syndicated columnists 
_________________________________________________________________________ 

        If a former U.S. secretary of state flatly declares that "you 
can't really believe anything an Arab says," would that be big news? 
        Or are we so accustomed to anti-Arab prejudices that this 
statement by Henry Kissinger - first publicized in the article you are now 
reading - won't be considered newsworthy? 
        Time will tell. 
        We have obtained a tape recording of Kissinger's comment, made two 
months ago at a fund-raising which the New York Times termed an "Israel 
benefit." 
        Kissinger, who sits on the CBS board of directors, was joined in 
the panel discussion by two prominent CBS News employees - anchor Dan 
Rather and Middle East analyst Fouad Ajami, described by Rather that 
evening as "a very longtime CBS News consultant, one of our in-house wise 
men." 
        But neither the anchor nor the "in-house wise man" uttered a word 
of objection when - during the $250-a-plate dinner in New York City for the 
Jerusalem Foundation on June 3 - Kissinger rendered the verdict against an 
entire ethnic group. 
        Imagine if a former secretary of state had publicly declared, "You 
cannot really believe anything a Jew says." Or, "You cannot really believe 
anything a black says."  It's hard to believe the CBS anchor would have 
let such a statement pass without challenge. 
        But among the many U.S. news outlets with a routinely anti-Arab 
tone, one of the most flagrant is the CBS Evening News - where the task of 
denigrating Palestinians and other Arabs often falls to a man considered 
by many Arab-Americans to be equivalent of an Uncle Tom, the Lebanese-born 
Academic Fouad Ajami. 
        At the Jerusalem Foundation event, Ajami drew laughs by making fun 
of Bedouin Arabs.  He belittled the Palestinian cause, and repeatedly 
proclaimed that Arabs were incapable of practicing democracy. 
        Ajami explained his participation in the Israel benefit with these 
words: "I was simply drafted for this assignment by two people I can never 
say 'no' to, and Marty Peretz and Mort Zuckerman."  Ajami was expressing 
an affinity with two of the most fervent Israel-can-do-no-wrong magnates 
in the media:  Peretz of the New Republic and Zuckerman of U.S. News and 
World Report. 
        Kissinger's ethnic slur that night was in sync with tenor of the 
entire evening. 
        After Peretz introduced Rather - "the moderator, the chairman, 
really, of this evening" - as "my favorite newsman," the CBS anchor took 
turns with Kissinger and Ajami in playing to the prejudices of the 
audience.  The result was fore than 10,000 words of unmitigated praise for 
Israel, along with recurring mockery of Arabs. 
        Rather said that "many of us celebrate" 25 years of Jerusalem 
"united under Israeli rule." He didn't mention the numerous U.N. Security 
Council resolutions declaring Israel's annexation of Palestinian East 
Jerusalem illegal. 
        Why didn't Rather object to Kissinger's assertion that "you can't 
really believe anything an Arab says"? Perhaps the explanation has to do 
with the attitudes that prevail at his workplace. To watch the CBS Evening 
News is to see the Middle East through the eyes of Israel.  And in the 
world view, Palestinian people look very small and far away. 
        But they don't look that way to our associate at the media watch 
group FAIR.  Sam Husseini, who discovered the Kissinger comments on a tape 
of the Jerusalem Foundation event. Husseini, a Palestinian-American, was 
deeply offended:  "I thought we'd progressed beyond the point where it was 
acceptable to declare an entire people untrustworthy." 
        Along with asking why Rather remained silent about Kissinger's 
anti-Arab defamation, the public should also ask what he was doing on a 
dais in the first place - at an event where some of the money raised will 
help settle immigrants on Israeli-occupied territory. 
        As Rather has demonstrated in the past, a journalist claiming to be 
objective will lose credibility when he or she becomes a cheerleader in a 
foreign conflict.  That's what happened when Rather became an 
enthusiastic advocate for the Afghan rebels in the 1980s.  CBS Evening 
News, where Rather is managing editor, was shown to have aired false 
reports, phony battle footage and accounts of non-existent victories by 
ani government guerillas. 
         
        If Dan Rather is so eager to up with chronic Arab bashers, that's his 
prerogative.  But perhaps in the future his reports on the Middle East 
should be labeled "commentary." 

        And perhaps the new media of this country will tell Henry 
Kissinger that he owes Arab people an apology. 

(Copyright, 1992, Creators Syndicate Inc.)  
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