Journalistic Fraud In The Middle East

Pretty critical piece by Nirs Rosen on how poor the reporting is in The Middle East.

He makes some fairly convincing points.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201151882929682601.html

"Too often, you consumers of mainstream media are victims of a fraud. You think you can trust the articles you read - why wouldn't you? You think you can sift through the ideological bias and just get the facts. But you don't know the ingredients that go into the product you buy. It is important to understand how knowledge about current events in the Middle East is produced before relying on it. Even when there are no apparent ideological biases, such as those one often sees when it comes to reporting about Israel, there are fundamental problems at the epistemological and methodological level. These create distortions, falsehoods and justify the narrative of those with power."

 

That quote, on some level, applies to virtually everthing anyone anywhere covers.

 

I'm sure that he means we can't trust any article except for his. Let's not forget the last time he was in the news.

 

Is that from some guy's Media 101 paper? Bet he gets at least a B.

 

Grade inflation?

 

Epistemological?

I think that my wife might have had one of those when your son was born.

 

Freudian slip?

 

Dang it!

I laid off my online copy editor, thinking I could save a buck or two for the shareholders.

 

preachy. condescending. academic.

 

This plays into my theory that, no matter where you're from, you always think coverage of your hometown is never quite on the mark when it comes to any controversial issue, even if it's by your small hometown newspaper. I think it all comes down to the reader's own biases more so than those of the outsider or, in this case, the reporter who didn't spend his or her whole life there.

I tried hard to read that article, but I couldn't make it past being called "you consumers of mainstream media."