MEDIA: Tabloid Christmas distortions

Today’s Daily Telegraph takes its readers on an 11-paragraph journey to the Palestinian town of Beyt Lahm, the name meaning literally “house of lamb”. Entitled “Jesus’ birthplace under siege”, the editorial refers to the dwindling Palestinian population, not to mention a severe reduction in tourism.

The article speaks of

... reports of religious persecution, in the form of murders, beatings and land grabs ...

And who caused all this trouble?

The DT points the finger in one direction. Subsequent paragraphs speak of ...

... [t]he sense of a creeping Islamic fundamentalism.

This is evidenced by a ...

... mosque on one side of Manger Square … directly opposite the Greek Orthodox
and Roman Catholic churches.

And for how many centuries has this mosque been standing there?

Then there are references to shops selling Christian souvenirs having

... their shutters painted a sun-bleached green – the colour of Islam.

Try telling that to Shia Muslims in the Indian sub-Continent who regard black as the colour of their faith.

Finally, the editorial refers to

... a baubled Christmas tree in reception and a card showing the direction of Mecca in the rooms.

Hotels across the Middle East and Asia carry such cards. This is no more a sign of creeping fundamentalism than Gideons bibles in hotel rooms across the world (including nominally Muslim countries) is a sign of creeping Christian extremism. Observant Christians read the Bible. Observant Muslims pray to Mecca at various times. So what?

In the simpleton tabloid world of the Tele, can all world conflicts (including ones that don’t quite exist) only be explained as a giant crusade? And how does the Tele explain the fact that Bethlehemites (Christian and Muslim) themselves prefer to point to another entity as the cause of their suffering?

Was it Muslims who have been building a concrete wall separating Rachel’s tomb from the rest of the town, leading to the closure of 70-80 businesses?

Of course, no one can deny that a minority of crazy Muslims were burning churches in response to a recent speech by the Pope. Still, the last time Bethlehem’s mayor met with the Pope, it was to discuss the giant wall.

So who could have come up with such a distorted view of Bethlehem? The answer might be found here.

Words © 2006 Irfan Yusuf


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The power of the distorted headline …

Same story. Two different headlines. Two different newspapers. Two different attitudes.

AAP Newswire carried a story about a special request to members of the community by the NSW Police’s Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad commander Detective Superintendent Ken McKay.

The request concerned a spate of shootings in Auburn. AAP Newswire made a slight error, referring to Auburn as a “south-western Sydney suburb”. In fact, Auburn is hardly a suburb or two away from Parramatta, and is regarded as being in the geographical heart of Sydney.

The story appeared on the website of the Sydney Morning Herald under the headline of “Mid-East community urged to help police”.

The story also appeared on the Sunday Telegraph’s website. And the headline? “Community urged to give up shooters”.

Nowhere in the story did anyone made any request of any community to give up anyone. The sole request reported in the story was:

We are urging the Middle Eastern community, particularly those families living in the Auburn area, to continue to provide us with valuable information which will help us to put a stop to these incidents.

The request was for information. The request was NOT for a community to give up people it is allegedly hiding. Nor does the request suggest the community knew who was responsible. All the police requested was “valuable information” that that could help them protect Auburn communities.

The Telegraph headline was written in a provocative manner, suggesting that Middle Eastern communities knew who was doing the shooting, and that these communities were hiding the culprits from police. In other words, the newspaper was suggesting that these communities were involved in the crimes.

How else does one explain the headline? Can Tim Blair or any other senior editor at the Tele explain the headline?

The same headline also appeared on the article reproduced on the website of The Australian. How do the editors of The Oz explain this? Is this yet another example of what certain Oz columnists describe as the perennial struggle between “conservative Islam and Western modernity”?

Some may say that this is just one headline of one story. Yet this is just one headline out of a long series of headlines. One needs only to read analyses such as those of Peter Manning to realise how destructive such choice headlines are.

Or maybe the News Limited people follow Hitler’s saying: “The grosser the lie, the more readily people believe it”!

© Irfan Yusuf 2006