IP: I lied , here is the LAST LAST one on this -- What you see on CNN is not what you thought -- BBC on CNN

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 23:54:22 -0400
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> CC: Eric Rosenthal <eric () creative-technology net>,
>    Shawn Liu <zabokoch () jiayo net>
>
> On Sep 19, David Farber wrote:
> >
> > >Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 13:54:11 -0400
> > >From: Eric Rosenthal <eric () creative-technology net>
> > >>
> > >>[...]
> > >>Well, THOSE IMAGES WERE SHOT BACK IN 1991!!! Those are images of
> > >>Palestinians celebrating the invasion of Kuwait! t's simply
> > >>unacceptable that a super-power of communications as CNN uses
> > >>images which do not correspond to the reality in talking about so
> > >>serious of an issue.
> > >>[...]
> > >>It's simply irresponsible to show images such as those.
>
> Hello.
>
> Quick background -- I'm just a student trying to finish my thesis
> which is one reason I cannot allow myself to be subscribed on this
> list.  A friend forwarded this message to me, and I just thought I
> should not keep quiet on this one.
>
> So, in this email I try to avoid any *opinions*, and generally stay
> out of any political discussion.  I just want to point out some facts,
> facts that I know first hand because I was in the army (in Israel) in
> 1988-1991.
>
> The CNN footage I saw included Palestinians in uniform shooting in the
> air and everyone being generally pretty happy.  Maybe these are not
> the images in question but this is, in my opinion, one case where CNN
> did not do harm because this is the way things are.
>
> Now to the facts I do *know*:
>
> 1. First of all, in 1991 there weren't enough weapons in the
>    Palestinian streets, and in fact, there were no (Palestinian)
>    people in military uniform walking around.
>
> 2. One thing that the Palestinians did not care much about is the
>    invasion of Kuwait.  Back then, the celebrations were a response to
>    Scud missiles hitting Tel-Aviv, and Americans/other forces in
>    Saudi-Arabia.  (If anyone's memory has faded, the Palestinians were
>    clearly and publicly supporters of Saddam Husein.)
>
> 3. Another point -- the Palestinian people are not too fond of
>    Americans (and again, I'm not getting into any discussion for
>    reasons for this), burning an Israeli flag along an American flag
>    is pretty common.  If anyone has any illusions that the USA has
>    become more popular lately, I can only say again that this is not
>    the reality.
>
> 4. Finally, I don't know if Eric works at there, but if the BBC does
>    have the exact same footage from 1991, then I'm sure that exposing
>    such fraud done by CNN will be juicy enough that they will most
>    likely do run a story on that.  I expect them to have many reasons
>    for exposing such a story and no reason to avoid it, and together
>    with many people looking at CNN's broadcasts, I would expect this
>    to come out by now.
>
> I don't think that it really matters whether the specific pictures
> that you saw on CNN were recent or 10 years old, because I *know* what
> the reality is.  Still, if anyone is interested, I can ask friends in
> Israel (both Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs) if this is correct, just
> to be sure of things.
>
> Actually, I was surprised to see at least three people (Americans)
> being surprised about these images -- not only that I didn't think
> this is unusual, it was pretty obvious that such celebrations would
> start in the territories.
>
> And one last clarification: I do not think that this is any reason to
> hate Palestinians and Arabs, it is simply irrelevant.  I face the
> plain reality that the feelings on the Palestinian street is one of
> not being fond of America, that nothing justifies celebrating the
> death of more than 5000 innocent people but that the Palestinian
> reaction is a reaction of masses that are not any meaningful
> indication, certainly not any cause for any reaction against people.
>
> --
>           ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:
>                   http://www.barzilay.org/                 Maze is Life!



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