FC: More on PBS purges website after complaints from Israeli groups

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03957.html

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From: RBHauptman () aol com
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 05:54:48 EDT
Subject: Re: FC: PBS purges website after complaints from Israeli groups
To: declan () well com

as a lifelong supporter of a Palestinian State all I can say, on this the
Jewish New Year, is OyVey.  (pbs stinks)

L' Shana Tovah (Happy New Year),

Rick "bar mizvahed in Brooklyn" Hauptman

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Date: Sat, 07 Sep 2002 07:08:49 -0400
From: Barry Ritholtz <ritholtz () optonline net>
Subject: Re: FC: PBS purges website after complaints from Israeli groups
To: declan () well com

Hey Declan,

The Register article is simply wrong; The "Caught in the Crossfire PBS show 
and companion website is up, and what I saw of it, barely changed. 
(<http://www.pbs.org/itvs/caughtinthecrossfire/>http://www.pbs.org/itvs/caughtinthecrossfire/) 


The problem was not about the political content -- you can agree or 
disagree with the point of view, but the brouhaha was about something else. 
The issue was the public funding of propaganda and inaccuracies: A map of 
the Middle East, with Israel omitted, is simply factually inaccurate. For 
the record, since 1948, there is and has been a country called Israel, 
legally recognized by the United Nations. It's tiny, but you can actually 
see it on most maps -- other than the one PBS had on its site.

I find it ironic that concerns regarding factual errors were so callously 
dismissed by the Register -- a journal not exactly known for its stellar 
track record with pesky little things like "facts."

The related issue had to do with the Federal funding of this show. The Wall 
Street Journal 
--
(<http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002211>http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002211) 
-- hardly a bastion of "New York Liberal Jewish sympathizers" -- questioned 
whether public tax dollars should be funding what they described as 
"anti-Israeli propaganda:"

> "The Public Broadcasting Service is commemorating the anniversary of the 
> Sept. 11 attacks by wiping Israel off the map . . . "Caught in the 
> Crossfire: Arab-Americans in Wartime" shows a map of the Middle East on 
> which Israel, Gaza and the West Bank are depicted as one contiguous entity 
> and labeled "Palestine." (The map is actually labeled "Lebanon, Yemen and 
> Palestine [1941-2002]," so it is accurate for the first seven years of 
> that 61-year period, when Palestine was under British control.)"

Other ways in which the WSJ notes the PBS website whitewashes Arab history:

> *       "The site includes a timeline with an entry for when [Ariel] 
> Sharon 'provokes al-Aqsa intifada.' In fact, Palestinian Arab officials, 
> including Mr. Arafat's justice minister and communications minister, have 
> acknowledged that the violence was planned by the Arabs weeks before Mr. 
> Sharon's visit."
>
> *       "Yasser Arafat is described as 'leader of the movement for a 
> Palestinian state' with no mention of his connections to terrorism."
>
> *       "The site makes it sound like Jordan did not participate in the 
> 1948 Arab attack on Israel."
>
> *       "The Web site lists the election of [Benjamin] Netanyahu and the 
> assassination of Yitzhak Rabin as setbacks to peace negotiations in the 
> 1990s, but makes no mention of terrorist bombings by Hamas against Israeli 
> civilians."

--
<http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002211>http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002211 


The NY Sun article 
(<http://nysun.com/sunarticle.asp?artID=169>http://nysun.com/sunarticle.asp?artID=169) 
also observed that the companion site included:
> "links to Web sites of Arab American organizations that have defended 
> groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, which the American government considers 
> terrorist organizations."

Personally, I thought the outrage over PBS wasn't about the political 
opinions expressed -- it was about the blatant usage of falsehoods and 
rewritten history to make a political point. Is it any surprise that Jews 
would find this sort of behavior outlandish, after the uncountable 
suffering and deaths from centuries of these lies, myths and falsehoods? 
(I'd write more about this, but I have to go slay some Christian children, 
what with it being the Jewish New Year and all -- its just work, work, work 
this time of year).

Speaking of cowards: I find it amusing that whoever sent the Register's 
article about PBS being a "spineless pandering coward" did so anonymously. 
Stand up on your hind legs and say what you have to; But please don't hide 
behind an anonymizer . . .

Regards,


Barry Ritholtz

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