A popular pastime among both liberal and conservative commentators in this country is the castigation of the media for its conservative (if you're liberal) or liberal (if you're a conservative) bias. I don't think there's much question that there is a certain amount of bias built into any news reporting, no matter how objective the reporter tries to be...it's human nature to project our interpretations on what we observe (otherwise, there wouldn't be millions of blogs, would there?).

But no matter how frustrated with our media you may be, the reporting bias of much of the media in the rest of the world, and the Arab world in particular, is utterly astounding. I would call your attention to two recent articles in Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst: The Faultlines in Arab Media Analysis (July 28, 2006) and Understanding Arab Media Analysis (August 2, 2006), and a July 28th article by Victor Davis Hanson (at www.victorhanson.com) titled, The Vocabulary of Untruth.

The Jane's articles do a masterful job of analyzing how what passes for news analysis in the Arab print and video media is driven by four "sanctities": a distrust of social change; unease with cultural (as opposed to material) importations; disparagement of Arab intellectuals; and antipathy to compromise. Taken together, these lead to analysis of events which focuses on self-pity and the assumed malign actions of a vast Western Jewish conspiracy bent on the subjugation of the Arab Muslim world. For some examples of how the Arab world presents and analyzes the news, you can read the translations available at the Middle East Media Research Institute (www.memri.org). It will leave you little doubt as to why the Islamic world, and the Arabs in particular, are their own worst enemy.

The Hanson article presents a devastating critique of how the selection of politically, culturally, and emotionally charged words in news broadcasts slants the coverage to a particular point of view. Hanson's sympathies are obviously with Israel, but his point is still valid - that much of the world's media reporting, especially outside the United States, is heavily biased in favor of the Arab world. Here are two examples of Hanson's analyis of how words are used in reporting the war in Lebanon:

"'Grave concern' is used by Europeans and Arabs who privately concede there is no future for Lebanon unless Hezbollah is destroyed - and it should preferably be done by the 'Zionists' who can then be easily blamed for doing it."

And,

"'Deplore' is usually invoked against Israel by those who themselves have slaughtered noncombatants or allowed them to perish - such as the Russians in Grozny, the Syrians in Hama, or the U.N. in Rwanda and Darfur."

Words matter. As it happens, I have a degree in Linguistics (Penn State, 1973) and a lifelong interest in language and meaning. We need to be critical of how we report and analyze the news, and how we present this analysis...otherwise, we will be no better informed and intelligent than the average mullah or imam whose entire education consists of rote memorization of religious texts more than a thousand years old, unfiltered by any tradition of critical thought.

Listen to the news and read the opinion pages of the newspapers. Listen to the words that are being used, and consider what they may mean in terms of the opinion the reporter or analyst wants you to take away. Then make your own decision on what it all means.

Have a good day. We'll continue this discussion tomorrow.

Bilbo