Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 2005, pages 46-49

Southern California Chronicle

USC Media Panel Examines Spin, Corporate Takeovers and Challenge of Internet

By Pat and Samir Twair

“THE BIG LIE? News, Media and the Fiction of Nonfiction” was the theme of an April 2 seminar at the University of Southern California (USC). A morning session focused on “Reporting the News” while the afternoon session dealt with “Spinning the News.”

USC journalism instructor Robert Scheer, co-author of The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq, moderated the “Spin” session. Breaking with tradition, he opened the discussion with a questioner from the audience asking if the world would be better off if Saddam Hussain were still in control of Iraq.

Scheer responded that the U.S. should have told the truth about its reasons for going to war with Iraq.

“Never before have lies been uncovered so fast,” stated Scheer, a Los Angeles Times columnist. ”It took 20 years for the Gulf of Tonkin to be exposed.”

Added comedian Harry Shearer: “It seems like North Korea or Iran might have topped the threat list more than Iraq. It’s goofy that all three—Britain, the U.S. and Australia—fell for the same schoolboy mistakes, the same flimsy stories, and yet the leaders were re-elected, or at least they were in the U.S. and Australia—we don’t know how the election will go in England.”

Andy Borowitz, who is seen early mornings on CNN, opined: “I’m tired of the news, so now I just watch FOX news because, according to its glowing reports, things are going so good in Iraq, I might want to move there.

“The White House is great about creating news with its infomercials,” he continued. “Look at its spin about going to war with Iraq. First it was weapons of mass destruction, then it was mushroom clouds and now it’s spreading democracy. Osama bin Laden has been dropped entirely.”

On a more serious note, panelist Marianne Wiggins, the author of seven novels, noted the alarming trend of corporations which now control news networks: Disney—ABC; Viacom—CBS; General Electric—NBC and AOL/Time Warner—CNN.

“ABC is ending ”˜Nightline’ because it can earn more with an entertainment spot than showcasing the hard news,” she pointed out. “News should inform. Growing up in Britain, I had to listen to BBC documentaries on the Kurds. I didn’t care much about being informed about the Kurds, but through the process I did learn about Kurdish issues.”

Shearer, who is the voice of Mr. Burns, Smithers and Ned Flanders on “The Simpsons,” noted that only one million Americans watch Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” while four million watch “Nightline.” So the number of people aged 18 to 29 who reportedly get their news primarily from Stewart’s show must be exaggerated, he commented.

Borowitz said he’s not terribly unhappy about the state of affairs for news in the U.S. Since he is on CNN in the wee hours of the morning, he explained, he’s never asked in advance what topics he will address.

“In England, there are very strict libel laws,” he noted. “I couldn’t say the things there that I can here.”

“It’s a matter of dumbing down the news for Americans,” Shearer interjected. “Just compare CNN’s domestic news to its international news. CNN presents much more in-depth news to the rest of the world because those viewers expect it.”

On the topic of Britain’s libel laws, Wiggins, who is the former wife of Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, said that blasphemy laws didn’t apply to Rushdie’s novel because a British judge ruled that blasphemy only applies to the Christian God.

The novelist added that it was a myth that she and Rushdie lived in a series of safe houses provided by the government after an Iranian fatwa was issued against Rushdie’s life.

“Scotland Yard didn’t know how to protect him other than to have him live on a military base,” she recalled. “So we moved from rental house to rental house at our own expense.”

When Alison Weir of If Americans Knew, introduced herself as a questioner, moderator Scheer stated, “I know who you are.”

He evidently was referring to a flier that had been placed on audience chairs prior to the morning session. The circular critiqued a Los Angeles Times story on a Palestinian suicide bomb “shattering calm” during a period in which Israeli troops had killed 170 Palestinians.

Despite an effort to dismiss her, Weir asked to be allowed to query the panel as to why Israeli deaths are featured on page one of U.S. newspapers while Palestinian fatalities are mentioned at a ratio of 150 Israeli deaths to 5 Palestinian.

Scheer concurred that there is a “glaring omission” of the Muslim/Arab point of view in the U.S. media and a need for practicing Muslim reporters to be in U.S. newsrooms.

Added Borowitz, who comments on the news daily at his Web site <www.borowitzreport.com>: “At least the Rupert Murdochs of the world haven’t figured out how to ruin the Internet. Media consolidation of the Internet would be a disaster.”

“We seem to be rolling over and accepting the spin,” complained Wiggins. “All networks should observe the moral mandate to tell the truth.”

“The coverage on the Michael Jackson trial is outstanding,” Borowitz pointed out. “I hope they’ll do the same during the Saddam Hussain trial.

“But,” he concluded, “when a kid gets his head blown off in Iraq, then the lies that started this war should be investigated.”

New Film on Rachel Corrie

Under the auspices of the Palestinian American Congress, Palestinian filmmaker Yahya Barakat visited U.S. college campuses during April and May to show his new documentary, “Rachel: An American Conscience.”

More than 70 Orange County civic leaders and Latino and Arab activists gathered March 30 in the Yorba Linda home of Said and Joanne Abuqartoumy to view the film.

Barakat, who teaches TV production, cinematography and filmmaking at al-Quds University, told the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, that he began work on the documentary the instant he learned Corrie had been crushed to death by an Israeli-driven Caterpillar bulldozer.

This documentary offers rare footage of Rachel talking to a camera and describing Israeli human rights violations against a Palestinian civilian population.

The film opens with grim images of dinosaur-like Caterpillar bulldozers turning urban Rafah into a garbage pile of destroyed buildings. It continues with interviews of Rachel’s fellow International Solidarity Movement volunteers, and concludes with comments from her parents.

According to Barakat, American students on campuses in Berkeley, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Memphis and San Francisco campuses have been moved by the film. These writers agree it is the most in-depth investigation into Corrie’s murder.

The film is available for purchase at <www.palestineonlinestore.com>.

Funny in Farsi Author Speaks

\As part of its ongoing effort to encourage Muslim women writers, the Muslim Women’s League of Southern California hosted a March 20 book signing for Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi, at the Islamic Center of Southern California.

The author, who lives in Palo Alto, CA, says she wrote the book for her children because she wanted them to know who she is.

When she immigrated with her family in 1972 from Abadan, Iran, Dumas lamented that no one in the California town they settled in knew where Iran was.

“So we told people Iran is between Iraq and Afghanistan. It didn’t work,” she said. “Strangers said they didn’t know those countries either.

“We figured Americans know what caviar is,” she continued, “so we’d say we come from near the Caspian Sea where caviar is found.

“We still received blank looks.”

Then, Dumas recalled, a friend told her she loved her cats.

“What cats?” Dumas replied. The woman showed her a photo of a long-haired cat with a pushed-in flat face. The caption read: “Persian Cat.”

“From then onward,” Dumas said, “we told folks we’re from where Persian cats are from.”

Her family was anonymous in their new home, Dumas said, until the 1979 Iran Revolution and the taking of hostages at the American Embassy.

“Suddenly we were the enemy,” she told her audience. “One day we had to call for a plumber. When he arrived, we saw a sticker on his bumper that said, ”˜Wanted: Iranians for Target Practice.’”

After the plumber inspected the drainage problem, he asked Dumas’ mother what country she was from. Without blinking an eye, she replied: “Türkiye.”

“My mother was Turkish for two years,” Dumas recalled.

Her book contains 27 chapters that relate her family’s experiences of adapting to life in the U.S.

“My father is a storyteller,” the author explained. “We always got together and exchanged stories. I think the vignettes in my book show our commonalities outweigh any differences in language, music and the spices we use in our food.”

When her daughter started kindergarten, Dumas joined a Wednesday morning writing group. She had written 70 pages when 9/11 happened. Now, she said, she had a purpose: she wanted Americans to see the human face of Muslims.

Dumas submitted the initial 70 pages to a literary agent, who, saying there was no oppression or struggle in the book, passed on the project.

“This really upset me,” Dumas said. “Not all Muslim women are oppressed or have to struggle.”

The second agent rejected her submission with the comment that she laughed so hard she couldn’t believe the author was Middle Eastern.

“I wanted to reply that we’re all not scary people,” Dumas recalled.

In 2002, Random House accepted her manuscript, and the hard cover edition was released in 2003. Funny in Farsi is on the California Recommended Reading list for schools, which has led to its author making appearances in schools.

The students’ favorite chapter by far, Dumas said, is the one in which she recalls her first summer camp experience. There were no doors on the shower stalls, she explained, so the modest Muslim girl didn’t bathe for the two weeks she was at camp.

“I didn’t make any friends either,” she noted.

Her ability to go without bathing for two weeks fascinates elementary school pupils, who ask many questions about this feat.

Other chapters deal with her family’s love of tasting food samples in markets, her father’s bid to win the $280 jackpot on TV’s “Bowling for Dollars,” and the weight an uncle gained when he visited from Iran.

Dumas is preparing a one-woman show, “Laughing Without Accent.” Her website is <www.firoozehdumas.com>.

Karma Nabulsi Addresses PAWA

“The Right of Return” was the theme of the annual International Women’s Day banquet of the Palestinian American Women’s Association (PAWA) of Southern California. More than 400 guests gathered for the March 12 program in the Garden Grove Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Keynote speaker was Dr. Karma Nabulsi, who is spearheading the Civitas program based at Oxford University, where she is a fellow at Nuffield College. Supported by the European Commission of External Relations, Civitas is the first study on channels of communication between Palestinian refugees and exiled communities throughout the world.

“Israel’s occupation [of Palestinian land] is a problem, but the core of the conflict is the right of return,” stated Nabulsi, who was an advisory member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s delegation to the peace process in Washington, DC from 1991 to 1993.

“The national Palestinian movement grew out of the right of return,” she explained. “Israel has refused for Palestinians outside Palestine to be part of the national dialogue. The worst part of Oslo was the 1995-96 election process.

“For the first time,” Nabulsi pointed out, “a majority was excluded from elections—and this was accepted because everyone assumed that after five years there would be a Palestinian state.”

While Washington argued that small issues should be dealt with first, the refugee problem was shelved, she continued. When it became clear in 1999 that the right of return would be dropped, it became an international issue.

“The right of return has gone beyond being a legal issue or an individual desire,” Nabulsi emphasized. “It is a national issue and a democratic issue.”

For generations Palestinians have been practicing democracy in their unions and associations, the scholar noted. They do not need lessons in democracy building from outsiders.

“It was wildly utopian to expect the refugees to disappear,” she stated. “If peace is the goal, then it has to be made with the people involved. No one talked to the refugees, they only talked about them.”

And so Nabulsi has organized discussions and meetings with Palestinian refugees in camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, as well as with exiled communities throughout the world.

The needs of each community are different, she noted, and it is up to the PLO to answer the priorities of communities in each region. Each session has a moderator and note takers, and the results are then sent to Nabulsi at Oxford.

“This is a unique oral record of where the Palestinians are at this moment, what their dreams are and what their needs are,” she told her audience.

In all cases, Nabulsi proudly noted, women are eager to speak out, and far better able than men to articulate their priorities. In Denmark, she noted, the exile community suggested twinning with other associations throughout the world.

“The most important thing is for the Palestinians to hold together and resist Israel’s occupation,” Nabulsi concluded. “The only way to do so is to make the world hear our views on the right of return.”

Arab-American comedian Maysoon Zayid then entertained the audience with her monologue about being a single 30-year-old Palestinian woman. Dinna Omar read her piece, entitled “Think Outside the Box.”

Over the past two years, PAWA has raised $57,790 to supply medical equipment for Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron, scholarships for 25 women students at Birzeit University, and aid to refugees in Lebanon and Syria.

Thousands in L.A. Protest Iraq War

Some five thousand Los Angeles peace activists marked the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq March 19 with a march in front of CNN offices that culminated at the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

Marching bands and groups of black-clad mourners for those killed in the war walked with union groups and veterans and military families whose signs identified them. One woman carried a large photo of Casey Sheehan, who was killed in action at age 24, that stated, “Bush Lied I Died.”

FM radio station KPFK co-sponsored the demonstration with ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and Racism). Noted Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic told the audience: “I was wounded and paralyzed 37 years ago in Vietnam. You’re part of the birth of a new beginning in the U.S. You’re the power, the beginning of a movement to stop the war in Iraq and to change the agenda of this country.”

Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg took the podium and stated: “They claim the Iraqis want us there. Why on Earth would they? The Iraqis have no lights, their schools don’t work, they don’t live in safety. It’s all about owning the world and the attitude that what’s yours is mine.

“We have this situation in California with the new “governator” who thinks he can kill pensions for employees. This is bringing the war home. Schools and hospitals are being closed. The Los Angeles Department of Health is going to have a deficit in 18 months—for an amount that is less than our government spends for one day of war in Iraq.”

Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.