Media

August 22, 2006

News Release

Contact:
Mary Whitlow
703-525-0770
mwhitlow@potomacinstitute.org
/www.PotomacInstitute.org

Arlington , VA -- “Is the media part of the problem or the solution?” queried Professor Yonah Alexander in his introduction at an International Center for Terrorism Studies (ICTS) luncheon seminar titled, “The Middle East Crisis and the Media.” On Monday, August 21 four former and current journalists spoke in front of a live audience and a C-SPAN crew at the Potomac Institute about one of the more pervasive issues associated with the Middle East crisis.

Professor Marvin Kalb, a former award-winning reporter for CBS and NBC News, a chief Diplomatic Correspondent, Moscow Bureau Chief, and host of Meet the Press, covered the Middle East as a reporter riding on Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s shuttle. “The media plays a central role in formulation of Middle East policy and has enormous power to influence public opinion,” he stated. The technological communications revolution has had a sweeping effect on media and the methods of journalism. Everything is live which means that the reporter doesn’t necessarily have the opportunity to fact check, creating distrust among the audience.

The explosion of the media has not just impacted the West, but the Middle East as well. It has been an incredibly effective took for terrorist to spread information and propaganda. Al Jazeera is the number one means of communication and is the purveyor of the basic information of the day. The message and storyline of Al Jazeera is also consistent and simple: Arabs are victimized and the rest of the world is against them, especially the United States, and Israel does not belong in the Middle East. Professor Kalb also said that truth is hard to find in the Middle East – Israel is open to reporters who can go wherever they want, while Hezbollah is a closed society and offers no insight into itself. This restriction forces a one-dimensional view of Hezbollah while advertently or inadvertently promoting Israel as the victim of Islamic regimes.

Dr. Ford Rowan currently works at the National Defense University and has worked at NBC, PBS, and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Dr. Rowan reiterated Professor Kalb’s statements that live media “is where the action is. The idea of dramatic, timely stories trumps the care that is needed to make sure they’re accurate.” He also remarked that we believe in the West that we ought to speak the truth, but the U.S. Government does not always tell the truth, which undercuts accuracy and integrity in the media. Reporters must be vigilant about objectivity “because everyone wants to use the media and it’s almost impossible to cover a story in some places without being manipulated.”

Mr. Claude Salhani, International Editor for United Press International, Editor of Middle East Times and Pulitzer Prize nominee for his coverage of the Marine Beirut barracks bombings, spoke about Hezbollah’s strategy to garner support for its cause. Mr. Salhani also posed the question, “How does one decide to become a terrorist?” This question must be addressed from the root, but posited that someone will be inclined to commit terrorist acts once they have reached total desperation. This desperation has caused terrorists to lash out at the United States with violence. “Bombs are all they [the terrorists] have left,” he said. “It’s the only way to make the United States listen.”

The final panelist to speak was Professor David Aikman, Writer in Residence at Patrick Henry College and formerly with Time Magazine. He stated that journalists have not yet realized that “we’re in a completely new world and the larger issue is that civilization itself is under attack.” There is a common notion that wars fought in the Middle East are fought to eliminate terrorism, but there has been a geometrical increase in terrorism regardless. As a possible result of the increase in terrorism, the recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon was not given the same media attention as in the past. “The perception of conflict by many journalists was ‘same old, same old’” said Professor Aikman. This perception is the same as Professor Kalb and Dr. Rowan spoke of – when news is redundant and has lost it’s novelty it is given little attention or goes unreported, especially by large media outlets.

While conflict continues to erupt in the Middle East, and around the world, the media will disseminate the news using various outlets and telling different versions and the following question remains, Is the media part of the problem, or the solution?

The International Center for Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies were
co-sponsors of this event.

The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is an independent, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit public policy research institute. The Institute identifies and aggressively shepherds discussion on key science and technology issues facing our society. From these discussions and forums, we develop meaningful science and technology policy options and ensure their implementation at the intersection of business and government.

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