Quite correctly, Arafat saw the information war as crucial from the beginning, and insisted on the wire services hiring Palestinian reporters who were either susceptible to pressure or willing to prosetylize for the cause as the price for access to the story.
Shrinks looks at this phenomenon and ponders - is it just incompetence or sheer malice? here's a sample:
"I make it a point to never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence. I hold to this point even when the outcome of such incompetence is harmful to what I consider to be important interests. However, with new war threats looming, holding the MSM to a higher standard of competence is crucial.
The upcoming Annapolis Summit, already being downplayed on all sides, is all too likely to be a disaster. The Palestinians and their allies have made clear that their presence at the summit depends on Israeli willingness to cede negotiating points that are non-starters for most Israelis (the right of return, sovereignty over the Temple Mount, etc). Further, even if Mahmoud Abbas (who is either too weak or too disinclined to confront the terrorists among his Fatah movement, let alone non-Fatah terrorists) can be seduced into attending the conference, the Palestinians have already threatened a third intifada if the talks fail. [HT: Elder of Ziyon]
... Thursday, senior Fatah official and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia warned that if the upcoming regional peace summit does not yield results, Palestinians are likely to respond with a third, more intensified uprising, Army Radio reported.
"If the talks fail, we can expect a third and much more severe intifada," Qureia, who is also known as Abu Ala, was quoted as saying. Qureia currently heads the Palestinian negotiating team.
It is in this context that the slowly developing drama of France2 and Pallywood must be understood. Reporters, most especially foreign corespondents, have long held themselves up as models of hard-nosed, cynical sophistication. They have long held pretensions of responding to a higher calling, that is, to bring the spotlight of conscience onto the oppressors who harm the innocent, to give voice to the silenced . Beyond the damage they have already done to their craft by abandoning the attempt to report facts, they are risking more serious damage to their credibility by their daily attempts to manage and direct the "narrative." However, I am not concerned with their livelihoods; I am concerned with how this is likely to play out as we approach another round of fighting in the Middle East."
Read the rest here
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