Censoring out the uncomfortable truths: Fatah’s formal embrace of Al-Aqsa terror group goes unreported in most western media
I decided that I would wait a few days just to give the laggards in the western media a chance to catch up. Surely, the formalisation of the notoriously bloodthirsty Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade as the armed wing of the leading Palestinian Fatah faction would be a major story. It would be splashed across the foreign news pages; blasted across the airwaves; and then analysed to death in the comment sections.
Or, rather, not. On a search for “Fatah” and “Martyrs brigade” on my Factiva database, one of the most extensive such databases in the world, the only recent stories that came up were from the Miami Herald, the Guardian and Britain’s tabloid Daily Mirror — reporting not that Israel’s moderate Palestinian partner for peace had just embraced one of the most brutal terror units in the world but that Sacha Baron Cohen’s (gay Austrian fashionista) Bruno character had slandered a non-profit worker from Bethlehem by implying that he was a terrorist. Good to see the media has its priorities right.
Now, since no database is infallible and since I might have missed something on my Google searches, I am hereby launching an appeal to readers to provide me with evidence that this hugely important development in the Middle East has in fact been covered widely in the western media. I will update this entry as the evidence comes flooding in.
Fortunately, there are people around who will provide for us the information that the media will not. Tom Gross, the widely respected analyst of western reporting on the Middle East, has a comprehensive report on his website about all of the proceedings at the Fatah Congress. It is well worth reading in full. To do so, click here:
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001044.html
Tags: Israel
August 13th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
The media don’t like it when Hamas or Fatah do or say something ‘extremist’, you’re right, they’re just uncomfortable truths because then it would mean maybe Israel isn’t to blame for *everything*!
And when a Guardian columnist (Ben White) does decide to talk about Hamas’ evils, he has to blame it on Israel!