Posted on 02/21/2005 5:19:35 PM PST by white trash redneck
The departure of CNN news executive Eason Jordan came swiftly after reports of his apparent claim at a forum in Switzerland that journalists in Iraq had been deliberately killed by American soldiers. Offering no evidence to support the charge, Jordan resigned under a hail of criticism.
In just months, CBS ousted senior executives held responsible for airing a disastrously flawed segment on President Bush's Air National Guard service. So, too, the New York Times and USA Today acted within months against serial falsifiers Jayson Blair and Jack Kelley, firing senior executives as well as the individual perpetrators, and instituting measures to guard against future infractions.
Far different has been the response of the influential France 2 Television network, in an infamous and unresolved case of gross misconduct by its journalists. Charles Enderlin, Israel-based correspondent for the network, and his Palestinian cameraman, Talal Abu-Rahma, are directly responsible for the calumny spread worldwide against Israel starting September 30, 2000 in the Muhammad al-Dura affair.
Enderlin's voice-over told France 2 viewers that they were seeing footage shot by Abu-Rahma at Gaza's Netzarim junction earlier that day. As images unfolded of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura cowering against his father, Enderlin stated the two are "the target of fire coming from the Israeli position. The child signals, but... there's a new burst of gunfire... The child is dead and the father is wounded."
France 2 then promptly gave the video – barely 55 seconds in length – free of charge to other media outlets. The image of the boy ostensibly shot dead by Israeli guns raced around the world.
Coming as it did in the first days of the Palestinian uprising, the dramatic scenes playing continuously on television stoked the violence.
In Arab nations, al-Dura was quickly mythologized as an emblem of alleged Israeli cruelty, with streets, parks, stamps and newborns named after him. Videos recreated the event, some with calls for young people to seek "martyrdom" and paradise with al-Dura.
Not everything is known about the chaotic events at Netzarim and the circumstances of the al-Dura case, but certain things are.
First, the footage contains no evidence at all that Israeli soldiers shot al-Dura. Neither in the 55 seconds broadcast around the globe nor in the 27 remaining minutes filmed by Abu-Rahma are there any soldiers in view. It is not logistically possible that the Israeli soldiers present that day, barricaded inside a building across the intersection, could have shot the boy and his father, huddled behind a concrete barrel blocking the line of fire. As James Fallows wrote in an investigation of the case for The Atlantic Monthly (June 2003): "Whatever happened to him, he was not shot by the Israeli soldiers..."
A recent column in the French newspaper Le Figaro (January 25, 2005) reiterated this, and emphasized what others have said - that a review of the terrain where the incident occurred incriminates Palestinian, not Israeli, bullets.
Second, the footage does not contain visual evidence that al-Dura died. Though he collapses, the tape ends abruptly with the boy inert; a further frame, omitted by Enderlin from the broadcast, shows al-Dura raising his head and arm. But this is the last image.
To explain the odd, truncated footage, Enderlin repeatedly claimed he omitted the "agony of the child" - his dying - because it was unbearable to witness.
However, when several French journalists prevailed on France 2 to let them view the unreleased 27 minutes, they found no "agony of the child" - no excruciating scenes of a suffering al-Dura.
Enderlin lied, and his lie heightened the sense of a brutal act committed by Israel.
Third, numerous analysts have noted that in footage taken of the crowds at Netzarim there are clearly instances of Palestinians staging events. The French journalists who viewed the France 2 footage saw this as well, including repeated instances of Palestinians faking injuries followed by the immediate arrival of ambulances to carry away the pseudo-wounded. While no video evidence proved the al-Dura incident was staged, the prevalence of such activity at the time is relevant to any inquiry.
Enderlin has replied to criticism by retorting the case may never be resolved, but for him the "image [as he conveyed it] corresponded to the reality of the situation."
Enderlin states that in his view Israel was using excessive force against Palestinians, and clearly in his mind a journalist can distort and embellish the facts to fit his political opinions.
Four and a half years later, France 2 has yet to issue any statement correcting its reprehensible and unethical al-Dura story, or to take action against Enderlin, Abu-Rahma or others with a hand in the matter.
This should concern everyone who appreciates the enormous damage caused by reckless and ideologically-driven journalism.
First, James Fallows wrote an article in the June 2003 Atlantic Monthly showing how the IDF could not have shot the boy, given the location of the soldiers. Any gunshot wounds would have been from palesterrorist weapons.
Now, it seems that the boy never died, and may never have been shot.
In the eyes of the French, any distortion of the truth, and even outright lying, is appropriate if it can be used against Israel.
So what else is new?
I read that piece in the Atlantic...it was very convincing. Is there evidence, beyond the moving head and arm on the tape, that the boy is still alive?
I ask that only because I wouldn't put it past the Palestinians to shoot their own kids if it will further their "cause."
They blow them up, so why not a bullet, they're much cheaper.
HA! HA! I am loving it....the journalists of the MSM are resigning and getting fired..Ok, you don't want to deal with your fabricated news stories or lies, keep firing your reporters. You're going to run out of them. Don't think you're going to get a "Do-Over" from the American public on your stupid news coverage.
Just keep pretending ...just let these "news stories" drop off the edge of the Earth. Each time you do one of your phony news stories followed by "OOps..."...buries you deeper in the quicksand of lack of believability. Go bloggers! Bloggers rule! Go Freeprs!
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Charles Enderlin Charles Enderlin is the Jerusalem Bureau Chief of France 2. Shattered Dreams was an immediate bestseller when it was published in France (Le Reve Brise, Fayard, Paris 2002), and became the basis for a television documentary that was aired in its American version by Frontline on PBS and in its international version by TV stations all over the world. |
Perhaps little Mo' Dura is still alive somewhere.
Hopefully we'll see a little more blogging get started there to question their pompous press donkeys.
That isn't happening as much now - certainly the U.S. MSM are in a state of tremor following the Eason thing. But swelled and arrogant as they are, those guys are pikers compared to celebrity journalists in European countries with state-run media. The latter are little tin gods and will not appreciate being kicked over. I hope to have as much fun hearing them bleat as I am hearing ABCCBSPMSNBCPBSCNN the last couple of weeks. Ah, the bouquet of a fine whine...
"I wouldn't put it past the Palestinians to shoot their own kids if it will further their "cause."
Yes, they even take retarded young people and fit them with explosive belts, since they are unable to explain what is happening to them. The Iraqi young man was too retarded even to articulate to anyone what he was being trained for over a several week perido (Down syndrom); the Israeli Arab kid had a near miss with death and told he outfitted him to become a "hero." There are no words to decribe this corps of evil - evil to the core.
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