Thursday, January 13, 2005

Rumor: A sense of proportion breaks out in the Middle East

An interesting piece of anecdotal evidence from NPR's ombudsman, Jeffrey Dvorkin:
Can it be that some journalists, along with some listeners, just wish this story [the Arab-Israeli conflict -- MS] would go away?
Anecdotally, I am told that some news organizations are now so battered that they tend to avoid the story as much as possible. Some of my colleagues at other news organizations say they report the story only when the outrages from one side or the other are too appalling to ignore.
At the same time, listeners and readers complain that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict gets too much coverage. They admit to "compassion fatigue" from weighing the claims and counter-claims of the two sides, and from following the reports of journalists who generally are unable or unwilling to determine which side has the high moral ground....
I sense in myself an occasional instinct to avoid the Middle East story, since it tends to fall under the category of "no good journalism goes unpunished (eventually)."
Haven't noticed any evidence of this myself, but if it is true, it would be good news for a country with one of the highest ratios of reporters to square miles in the world.

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