Gazastan

It is time to name Gaza what it really is: Another lost strip of land filled with terrorists and criminals that are running the show, paying lip service to actually being governed—in part, because those “governing” Gaza are also, for the most part, thieves and murderers. For instance, did you know that the Durmush clan is the “group” that is holding kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Jones? Did you know that they are also holding Gilad Shalit? Did you further know that they are the ones responsible for kidnapping the two Fox reporters, for whom a million-dollar ransom was paid? And one last item of import: The media are covering up kidnappings, and they no longer are covering Gaza.

The foreign press corps has abandoned the Gaza Strip in the five weeks since the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston, leading to a significant decrease in coverage.

[…] The official number of journalists kidnapped for any period of time has been 22, but it is probably much higher since many of those abducted and swiftly released prefer not to publicize their abduction so as not to jeopardize their future coverage of Gaza.

Most abductions have been resolved discreetly, usually with the intervention of the PA or one of the main armed organizations, but now some of the smaller groups, with suspected ties to al-Qaida, are trying to emulate the kidnapping of foreigners in Baghdad.

In the meantime, the foreign press are boycotting Gaza, which leaves only Palestinian stringers covering the news. And Palestinian stringers have an agenda.

In the absence of the foreign reporters, the news still getting out of Gaza is coming almost exclusively from Palestinian stringers. Some of the major organizations that in the past preferred to rely as little as possible on stringers have signed them on and equipped them with additional recording equipment. But using only stringer-produced material is problematic.

“The people who use the stringers have to sift their material very carefully,” says Jay Bushinsky, a veteran member of the Foreign Press Association. “You have to be naive to believe that in a place like Gaza you can be a fair-minded reporter. They have a mission and they don’t give anything detrimental to their leadership.”

So what else is the foreign press association doing to help things along? This is precious: They managed to condemn the NUJ boycott from both sides of their mouths.

In its meeting on Tuesday, the FPA also condemned the decision by Britain’s National Union of Journalists to boycott Israeli goods. In its statement, the FPA said the boycott “runs counter to the core journalistic values which we are here to uphold and defend, namely objectivity and balance” and that it “may prejudice our membership’s already difficult task here in striving to interact effectively with all sectors of Israeli and Palestinian society.”

The Foreign Press Association also criticized the boycott resolution for failing to mention the plight of Johnston.

But then the NUJ couldn’t get their quid pro quo!

Can we please stop even trying to pretend that journalists are objective? Can we just slap labels on them like we have on food? “Warning: This newspaper contains left-leaning and anti-Israeli opinions masquerading as objective news pieces.” Or “Warning: This article contains conservative, pro-Israel opinions.”

I’d be happy with warning labels. At least then we could stop pretending that the media strive for objectivity.