Better Know a Noble

Mad Mel and the Media

Mel Gibson's well-known confrontation with a Malibu County police officer affords a valuable example of how best to cover a scandal.

While racing down the Pacific Coast Highway at 80 mph in a 45 mph zone, Hollywood star Mel Gibson was pulled over by the police and charged with driving under the influence. Thoroughly inebriated, Mr. Gibson compounded his guilt by letting loose a litany of Anti-Semitic remarks, claiming that "Jews are responsible for all the world's wars." He has since apologized publicly for the embarrassing incident and explained the remarks as an unfortunate consequence of too much alcohol.

Coverage of the story in national newspapers differed according to the paper's aims and mission. Judged on the basis of newsworthiness, the actual details of the event were completely insignificant. Mr. Gibson is neither an accountable politician nor a prominent corporate mogul. He is a man that entertains us, not a man who represents us. Those newspapers that chose to cover the story as news tend to prize profit and sensationalism over substance and quality. Disturbing is the fact that The New York Times's account of the arrest closely resembled the one found in The New York Post, a paper rated as the "least credible" media outlet in New York according to a 2004 Pace University Survey.

Several editorialists, however, demonstrated how the story did touch on timeless themes such as deception, bigotry, and forgiveness. As the subject of a clever editorial, the misteps of a Hollywood actor could achieve newsworthiness. Zev Chafets, writing for the LA Times, critisized Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League for exploiting the opportunity to vilify Mr. Gibson on the same day an Arab gunman shot six women in a Seattle Jewish Federation office. Shmuely Boteach stressed the need for Jews to forgive a sincerely remorseful man in an August 1st op-ed in The New York Sun.

With the skill of an artisan, editorialists took an otherwise irrelevant story and reframed it to discuss current societal values. What started as a news story became a modern Aesop fable.

Al Jazeera's Lowly Tactics


This morning, I happened to come across a remarkable video clip in Al Jazeera's online Magazine section. The clip was the first of a four-part Fox news investigation on the possible presence of a large Israeli spy-ring operating in the United States prior to 9/11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAoe26MaTew&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Faljazeera%2Ecom%2F

According to the Fox News report, approximately 60 Israelis have been detained for allegedly accessing classified information from dozens of government agencies such as the DEA and FBI in an effort to track suspected Arab terrorists. Brit Hume, the host of the show, added that "these Israelis may have turned up information on the planned terrorist attacks back in September that was not passed on."


Shortly following the airing of this series in December, 2001, Fox permanently removed the incendiary story from its website. The video lives on today in transcripts found on various hate blogs and Youtube.com.


The decision of Al Jazeera's editorial staff to dredge up a dated 2001 video disowned by the very network that created it and post its link on the front page of its website casts serious doubt on its journalistic integrity. While its anti-Israel agenda has always been a matter of little dispute, this story highlights the great lengths to which Al Jazeera will pursue its aims.

A Winnable War on Terror

In an Aug 21st press conference at the Center Briefing Room, President Bush reiterated for the hundredth time America's core objective for entering the war in Iraq:

"The United States of America must understand it's in our interests that we help this democracy succeed. As a matter of fact, it's in our interests that we help reformers across the Middle East achieve their objectives." http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html

Yet, I wonder to myself whether such a noble vision of peace and democracy is even conceivable in the Middle East. The Middle East is far from a region hospitable to the clarion call of freedom, liberty, and justice. Perhaps the Bush Administration should treat the Mid East for what it actually is: a region continually on the verge of breakdown, a patient in need of emergency care. Democracy-building should be the key policy of some future administration capable of first restoring at least some semblance of order.

My suggestion for the Bush team would be to direct their resources towards a region long neglected and easily winnable: Central Asia.

In the War of Ideas against Islamic extremism, Kazakhstan stands out as an oil-rich, secular Muslim regime forging its way towards greater democracy by its own volition. Together with Georgia, Kazakhstan unabashedly advocates for American interests in the anti-US Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Yet the US has neglected to repay this kindness by not embracing a plan to build a trans-continental oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to Europe bypassing Gazprom. The pipeline would enrich our friends like the Kazakhs, Turks, and Georgians, while loosening Russia's tight grip on Europe's economy.

Note to Bush: Here's a battle against extremism and terrorism that we can actually win.