The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy
In this meticulously researched and readable volume, journalist Gutmann focuses on media coverage of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict, known as the second intifada. How, she asks, did Israel come to be so uniformly vilified in the press? Israel's lack of media savvy is partially to blame. But Gutmann believes the larger issue lies with news outlets' desire to oversimplify and argues it's a misconception that news outlets "can tell you what you need to know about this conflict, or indeed about any serious, complex event." She cites an Associated Press photograph that allegedly depicted an Israeli soldier brutalizing a Palestinian on the Temple Mount, but was actually of an American Jew who had been attacked, and the "soldier" was an Israeli police officer coming to his aid. The subsequent correction got very little attention, and Gutmann compares it to "a Freudian slip that revealed something deeper: the prejudice and assumptions that governed most editors' thinking about the conflict." Gutmann doesn't offer easy answers, insisting news consumers start questioning what they're told to get a more accurate representation of the conflict's complexities. While Gutmann's tone can be self-righteous, her deconstructions of photos and video clips are admirably detailed. The book will be an eye-opener for those wishing to delve deeper into media representation of some of the most visible news events of our time.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.