Images of Palestinians in US media

[Brad DeLong]

>Brad DeLong wrote:
>
>>>So why haven't Sabra and Shatila, or the routine bulldozing of 
>>>houses, had a similar effect on Israel's image? Is it because the 
>>>attentions of the image-shapers are, um, asymmetric, to use an 
>>>economist's word?
>>>
>>>Doug
>>
>>Fewer videocameras.
>
>And why are there videocameras in one place (sites of Palestinian 
>"terrorism") and not in another (sites of Israeli state terrorism)? 
>Because the editors and producers who decide where to deploy the 
>cameras are interested in one story and not the other. Ever talk to 
>a mainstream hack about what constitutes or doesn't constitute a 
>"story"? You quickly encounter a nearly impenetrable (to the hack, 
>not to the informed interlocutor) armor plating of ideology that 
>boils down to - a "story" is that which confirms the status quo, or 
>offers the temptation of spurious novelty that leaves the status quo 
>untouched (e.g. Monica). Massive election fraud in Russia? Not a 
>story. Massive election fraud in Serbia. Big story. Palestinians 
>blowing up civilians? Story. Israelis blowing up civilians? Not a 
>story.
>
>Doug

It's more complicated than that.

A "story" (like the bombing of restaurants) shows people similar to 
the viewers in some kind of trouble: I spend a lot of time at Point 
Reyes, and I have an eight year old daughter, so I could not not read 
this morning's story about an eight year old girl's drowning at Point 
Reyes.

A "story" (like the Munich Olympics) focuses on celebrities:  as Adam 
Smith wrote, "A stranger to human nature, who saw the indifference of 
men about the misery of their inferiors, and the regret and 
indignation which they feel for the misfortunes and sufferings of 
those above them, would be apt to imagine, that pain must be more 
agonizing, and the convulsions of death more terrible to persons of 
higher rank, than to those of meaner stations.... It is the 
misfortunes of Kings only which afford the proper subjects for 
tragedy. They resemble, in this respect, the misfortunes of lovers. 
Those two situations are the chief which interest us upon the 
theatre; because, in spite of all that reason and experience can tell 
us to the contrary, the prejudices of the imagination attach to these 
two states a happiness superior to any other. To disturb, or to put 
an end to such perfect enjoyment, seems to be the most atrocious of 
all injuries. The traitor who conspires against the life of his 
monarch, is thought a greater monster than any other murderer. All 
the innocent blood that was shed in the civil wars, provoked less 
indignation than the death of Charles I."

Brad DeLong