Robert Fisk on Journalism and 'the words of power'

...the flotilla - the convoy of boats setting off for Gaza. I don't think they are a bunch of anti-Israelis. I think the international convoy is on its way because people aboard these ships - from all over the world - are trying to do what our supposedly humanitarian leaders have failed to do. They are bringing food and fuel and hospital equipment to those who suffer. In any other context, the Obamas and the Sarkozys and the Camerons would be competing to land US Marines and the Royal Navy and French forces with humanitarian aid - as Clinton did in Somalia. Didn't the God-like Blair believe in humanitarian 'intervention' in Kosovo and Sierra Leone?

In normal circumstances, Blair might even have put a foot over the border.

But no. We dare not offend the Israelis. And so ordinary people are trying to do what their leaders have culpably failed to do. Their leaders have failed them.

Have the media? Are we showing documentary footage of the Berlin airlift today? Or of Clinton's attempt to rescue the starving people of Somalia, of Blair's humanitarian 'intervention' in the Balkans, just to remind our viewers and readers - and the people on those boats - that this is about hypocrisy on a massive scale?

The hell we are! We prefer 'competing narratives'. Few politicians want the Gaza voyage to reach its destination - be its end successful, farcical or tragic. We believe in the 'peace process', the 'road map'. Keep the 'fence' around the Palestinians. Let the 'key players' sort it out.

via english.aljazeera.net

"Competing Narratives" Yeah, weasel words FTL!

Posted via web from franksting's posterous

Nothings changed...much

I've just read John Bergin's excellent piece Is the Real-Time Web Really Changing the Rules of Journalism? on the Media140 blog and was inspired to write as I, unusually, agree with the majority of the article. Though I was initially a bit confused after our rather ragged exchange at the Australian Internet Industry Association Dinner last week.
I have continually disagreed that Journalism itself has changed. While I did some training and plenty of writing in my late teens, I'm not and never have been a practitioner, perhaps I'm not the one to comment. But when has that stood in the way?
I would actually say the inputs or noise around the story, the influencing whispers always have existed. The work has always been to ignore those noises or at least take them and mark them as relevant or irrelevant to the story? No doubt the amount of noise has grown, and the great difficulty is sorting the relevant and irrelevant in so much data. Though I'm pretty sure this applies to every profession as the ability to seek and get feedback from all stakeholders, real or otherwise has become easier.