[Mb-civic] The Meaning of "Calm"

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Counterpunch February 26 / 27, 2005
The Meaning of "Calm"
Relativity, LA Times Style
By ALISON WEIR

Well, I just got hung up on again, this time, by an editor on the Los 
Angeles Times foreign desk. He didn't give me his name. I had called 
and attempted, as politely as possible, to give him a correction for the story 
on the Times's website tonight. This will probably be their front-page lead 
news story tomorrow morning.

The trouble is, their headline and lead paragraph are just plain wrong. And 
now, of course, they'll stay wrong in the paper tomorrow. The headline 
proclaims: "Palestinian Suicide bomber Shatters Calm of Late." The lead 
sentence then goes on to state that this bomber "shattered a months-long 
period of relative calm"

The fact is, however, that the truce and this "calm" were shattered long 
before this. The previous suicide-bombing against Israeli civilians was 
Nov. 1, 2004 It took three Israeli lives. Since that time, while Israelis have 
basked in "relative calm," 170 Palestinian men, women, and children have 
been killed.

During this LA Times, "relative calm," another 379 Palestinian men, 
women, and children were injured and maimed. Anyone who has been to 
the West Bank or Gaza knows what this means: leg bones splintered, 
intestines torn open, teeth shattered.

Also, of course, during this "calm," over 8,000 Palestinians have been 
sitting in Israeli prison cells, routinely abused and grotesquely humiliated; 
over 300 of them children.

None of this mattered to the editor I talked to. He explained that the story 
said relative calm. When I tried to question this adjective, he hung up the 
phone. So I guess I'll just have to explain this word for myself.

Maybe he means that relative to 7 Israeli deaths, 170 Palestinian deaths 
are insignificant. Maybe he means that relative to Israeli grief, Palestinian 
grief is basically unmentionable. Maybe he means that relative to the 
weeping of Israeli mothers and fathers, the weeping of Palestinian mothers 
and fathers, multitudes more of them, is negligible.

Maybe he means that relative to his power, my attempt to set the record 
straight is laughably feeble.
Over all, I guess what he means is relatively obvious: That he can run 
what he wants, distort what he desires, lead with his lies. I guess he 
means that facts don't matter, truth is irrelevant, and deceit the order of the 
day.

I guess he means that Americans are pawns, readers are sheep, and 
people will just keep swallowing whatever the media choose to dish out.

I hope you'll tell him he's wrong: 213-237-5000 / readers.rep at latimes.com

Alison Weir is a journalist, and Executive Director of If Americans Knew.

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   ---   George Orwell


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