orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) (10/14/86)
> > [Martin Lewis Walter Hall] > > The Palestinians and other factions have several times tried more > > peaceful means and have been rebuked...While I am not really sure what > > side I am on I definitely think that many people are brain-washed into > > believing that the PLO is a terrorist organization. > ----------------- > And all the time I thought it was because of the terrorist acts > committed by the PLO. Silly me. > ------------------ > Begin Disclaimers to discourage flames: > 1) The fact that the PLO is a terrorist organization in > no way implies any merit or lack of merit in the Palestinians' > underlying cause. THEY ARE SEPARATE ISSUES. > 2) The fact that the PLO is a terrorist organization in > no way implies that the Israeli government is a paragon of virtue. > 3) The fact that the PLO is a terrorist organization in > no way implies that all (or even most) of the current wave of > terrorism is being committed by the PLO or its supporters. > --------- > The PLO is a terrorist organization because it engages in terrorism. > Pure and simple. Should it publicly renounce terrorism (not necessarily > armed struggle, which is not the same thing), AND LIVE UP TO ITS > ANNOUNCEMENT, then it would no longer be a terrorist organization. > However, the underlying merit in the Palestinian and Israeli causes > would not be changed one whit. > -- > Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL ihnp4!ihlpg!tan I think it is incredibly simplistic to simply state that people have not been "brain-washed" about the PLO or the Palestinian cause because members of the PLO engage in terrorism. The fact that the equality PLO == Palestinian == Terrorism has been made by most Americans is indeed a creation of the distorted reporting by our media of Middle East problems. First off, not all Palestinians are members of the PLO. Secondly, not all members or supporters of the PLO advocate terrorism and the use of violence in the Palestinian cause. But you see little mention of anyone *except* members of the terrorist faction of the Palestinians by our media. This is, I'm afraid, typical of the biased reporting typical of American media. The only time they will pay attention to most protests it seems is when they turn violent. But of course, once they have turned violent then the cause of the protest is totally obscured by the coverage of the violence. There have been Palestinian groups in several major cities which have tried to call attention to the cause of the Palestinians nonviolently. They have gotten zippo press coverage. But let one maniac plant a bomb and it will be headline news. There is something gravely wrong with this. There is something gravely wrong when the Soviet scientist Yuri Orlov is freed from the Soviet Union and rightfully receives headlines for the next week, but when the American scientist Carl Sagan is arrested for trying to stop unilateral nuclear tests by the US it is not covered at all, except one item on page 18 of the New York Times. There is something gravely wrong when the McNeil-Lehrer Newshour invites militarists like Henry Kissinger and Malcolm Wallop to comment on the Daniloff deal and not a single expert from the Peace movement. There is something gravely wrong when CBS News invites Republican Jack Kemp and Democrat Sam Nunn (a militarist among Democrats at that) to provide balanced commentary on the Iceland Summit (fair enough) but then the "arms expert" asked to comment is the militarist, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Again, where are the 70% of top physicists at MIT, CIT, and the nation's top research institutions who have signed the pledge not to do Start Wars research? Where is Randall Forsberg, the initiator of the Nuclear Freeze idea? Where are retired Admirals LeRocque and Eugene Carroll from the Center for Defense Information? There is something wrong when even National Public Radio, for which I generally have great respect, invites Robert McFarlane, Reagan's former National Security Adviser, as its regular "commentator" on arms control. We can hear what the Reagan administration wants us to hear on arms control (or should I say: why we should keep the arms race forever) every day of the week. How does giving Robert McFarlane a regular "arms control commentary" inform us of anything new? It is time to begin protests where political agendas begin: that is at the organs of the media which regularly distort the information received by the American public. tim sevener whuxn!orb
desj@brahms (David desJardins) (10/15/86)
In article <1012@whuts.UUCP> orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) writes: >There is something wrong ... >There is something wrong ... >There is something wrong ... >It is time to begin protests where political agendas begin: that is >at the organs of the media which regularly distort the information >received by the American public. When you see something wrong with everything, what is probably wrong is you. Why is it that you are so adamant about your right to free speech but are unwilling to concede the same simple right to others? -- David desJardins