American news: where patriotism and journalism go hand in hand

But the artist wired a message to his boss saying that everything was quiet in Cuba and he saw no signs of any war at all.

Hearst wired back a reply which is often quoted to symbolise the power of the American news media.

"You provide the pictures," Hearst told the artist, "and I will provide the war." 

At a UN seminar last week, one of the underlying themes was the role and responsibility of the news media in covering conflicts —be they in Afghanistan or the Middle East.

The American news media— particularly the tv networks— came under fire primarily for their heavily-slanted news reporting about the ongoing war. 

Comparing the American reporting with European reporting gives the impression that the news media were covering two different wars — whether in the West Bank and Gaza or in Afghanistan.

One of the participants posed a legitimate question for which there was no answer: why is it that there are three hours of coverage of a bombing in Jerusalem but only a headline when five Palestinian children are killed?.

Speaking of headlines, an article in the Wall Street Journal last week spotlighted a popular comedy club in West Hollywood featuring Arab-American comedians.

As part of his comedy routine, a Palestinian-American stand-up comedian would joke about the heavily-biased American news media reporting on the Middle Eastern conflict.

The headlines, he jested, would read something like this: "Israeli Injured. 100 Palestinians Dead". Or "Tank Scratched by Rock, Reprisal Warned." Or "Palestinian Attacks Bullet with Body, Aggression Condemned."

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, even the comedy show titled "Arabian Knights" has been temporarily put on hold because of the growing antagonism towards Arab-Americans in the US.

Addressing the UN seminar, Hafez al-Mirazi, the Washington Bureau Chief of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Arab television network, said 

American newsreporters and news anchors were increasingly wrapping themselves with the American flag in a public display of undisguised patriotism. 

There is a thin dividing line between objectivity in news reporting and pure, unadulterated jingoism.

Geraldo Rivera, a politically aggressive talk show host who has been despatched as a "war correspondent" to Afghanistan, has admitted he is roaming around the war-ravaged country armed with a pistol.

Although he claims he is carrying the weapon for self-protection, he says he will not hesitate to shoot Osama bin Laden if he encounters the fugitive in "enemy territory" in Afghanistan.

Rivera, described as brash and annoying, is an example of an American newsman who is not merely making the news in the battle front but also participating in the war.

Al-Mirazi argues that patriotism and journalism should be poles apart — and never the twain should meet. 

He also points out that when Al-Jazeera surreptitiously received a videotape last month of bin Laden delivering a message to the world at large, his tv network was grilled as to the origins of the tape.

An American journalist, he said, would never be asked about his sources. 

Asking Al-Jazeera to reveal its sources, he argued, was tantamount to racism.

Abdel Bari Atwan, Editor-in-Chief of the London-based Arabic language newspaper Al Quds al-Arabi, said that since September 11 Muslims were under a constant pressure in the Western world.

"We were told that Western world meant personal liberties and freedom. But in Britain, there were emergency laws that, by and large, only affected Arabs and Muslims," he complained.

If something was written, or hinted, that could be linked with any terrorist organisations, you could be locked up without a trial, he added.

"All Arabs were accused, and all were under scrutiny. 

When the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed London, the British government did not ask the Irish to pledge their loyalty to the British government. 

But Arabs in England were asked to do so," he said.