CNN on the growing cultural boycott

by on July 1, 2010 31
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Saying that Elton John has "stuck by his guns" certainly sounds different in this context.

About Adam Horowitz

Adam Horowitz is Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel/Palestine

{ 31 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. hayate says:
    July 1, 2010 at 1:18 pm

    Typical ziofascist hasbara portrayed as news. They should change their name to zhn, zionist hasbara network. They begin it with the zionist hasbara and end it with zionist hasbara.

    I have not paid much attention to elton john in decades, what a repulsive creature he turned out to be.

    • Sumud says:
      July 1, 2010 at 10:24 pm

      I agree on Elton John but think the CNN clip was quite reasonable, even approving of the boycott. I don’t watch CNN otherwise so couldn’t comment on their overall reporting.

      For people ignorant of I/P the fact that artists are now boycotting Israel will stick in the mind much more than some people object to the boycott. EJ is described as “defiant” and comes across as an over the hill artist in it for the $$, and Shuki Weiss as a promoter is naturally going to object.

      Omar Barghouti is as reasonable and articulate as ever, and together w/ Roger Waters and the way Elvis Costello is described – it’s the boycotters that are speaking w/ moral authority..

      • hayate says:
        July 1, 2010 at 10:57 pm

        Propaganda 101

        Start the piece with the hero of the story. Fill in the centre with the bad guys, looking mostly dour, then finish the piece with the triumphant and upbeat hero again. It looks balanced, but people watching it will be more affected by the beginning and end of the piece. This is standard marketing. In stores, you see it by what is placed on the end of the isles, as opposed to what’s in between. The stuff at the ends sells more because it catches people’s attention. There was also the visuals, a large difference there between those of the performers boycotting and elton john. The part with Barghouti was good, though, too short. Overall, there was little substance to it at all, mostly visuals, and the somewhat snarky narration, especially when describing the boycotters.

        I almost never watch cnn, unless somebody uses a clip of theirs as part of a story, but compared to the little I have watched before, this story was better than their usual fare. But it is still biased, low quality journalism.

        • Sumud says:
          July 1, 2010 at 11:09 pm

          I understand the top-and-tail structure you describe, I just think the apartheid description and subsequent are very sticky ideas, marketing wise.

        • Kathleen says:
          July 2, 2010 at 11:17 am

          I guess it is movement though. Since normally the MSM would block even a mention of these boycots.

          Too bad about Elton. Just what does he stand for in regard to human rights issues?

        • hayate says:
          July 2, 2010 at 1:19 pm

          Sumud & Kathleen

          That’s true, allowing the mention of apartheid and the boycott is a step forward. That means that the progress made is too much for them to ignore now. Or it could just be a one-off fluke. What will follow? More, and more fanatical, hasbara nonsense, or will the media take the damage control co-option route? Or more of the same as now?

          The zionist run mainstream media will never join our side, regardless.

      • sherbrsi says:
        July 5, 2010 at 11:28 pm

        I agree on Elton John but think the CNN clip was quite reasonable, even approving of the boycott. I don’t watch CNN otherwise so couldn’t comment on their overall reporting.

        hayate is right. The formatting of the video is shaped by the narrative that music should be above politics. It is quite balanced compared to the rest of what the MSM has to offer, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that CNN is there yet. For example, in the report, the narrator calls the wall the “security wall or the separation barrier,” seemingly portraying opinions from both sides of the divide. This may come across as reasonable on face value, but it’s a deceptive ploy. The wall may well be commonly referred to as the “security wall” by Israelis, but the Palestinian term is not “separation barrier,” but land grab wall, or apartheid wall.

        The term separation barrier is in fact a neutral description of the wall, for it identifies the fundamental purpose of it without choosing sides.

        Nonetheless, when the reporter took on the effort to name the wall from both the I/P perspective, it certainly failed in accurately reporting the Palestinian side.

  2. azythos says:
    July 1, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    “…artists like Elton John who ignore the politics of the region…”

    Well, that one is as egregious as the excuse for the Iraq attack, the Zionist return myth and the 911 story combined. Can’t imagine how deeply retarded we all must be for CNN to be able to say such things.

    • Pamela Olson says:
      July 1, 2010 at 2:28 pm

      LOL. Of course the welcome with open arms artists who “ignore the politics of the region.” Because that’s exactly what Israelis themselves do!

      Let the Palestinians eat cake, we’re over here enjoying a concert and ignoring politics like we always do whenever Palestinians and international community quiet down and let us colonize their land with impunity!

  3. Philip Munger says:
    July 1, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    So Beethoven, by tearing up his dedication of the Eroica Symphony to Bonaparte, and for writing the very political opera Fidelio, was a “cultural terrorist,” eh?

  4. Mooser says:
    July 1, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    Are they saying Elton John stuck by the guns which murdered the people in the flotilla?

  5. potsherd says:
    July 1, 2010 at 2:44 pm

    I hope the haredim throw eggs at the abomination.

  6. traintosiberia says:
    July 1, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    I was exposed to a different CNN when I was visiting Spain a few years back. It was more explicit,detailed,and evn handed in describing the Palestinian situation.It was broadcasting weeklong on gaza/WB issue. I think it was year 2007.On my wayback I met a person from Midwest who said to me that he had noticed a different tone and emphasis on English channel incluing in the contents of CNN. I dont remeber the specifics but I remember my reaction to International CNN that, in US ,CNN would not never broadcast those material .

  7. mok says:
    July 1, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    Read this and replace the words “Ministry of Defence”, “MoD” and “RAF” with “IDF”; “British” with “Israeli”; “Iraqi” with “Palestinian”; and “Iraq” with “Palestine”. The Arab names of people and places can stay the same:

    The parallels are uncanny. Ather Karen al-Mowafakia could have been Ziad Jilani.

    Makes you understand why Britain and America and others are so strangely supportive of Israel. They sing from the same hymn sheet. Birds of a feather…

  8. worker bee says:
    July 1, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    I love how they very carefully call the apartheid wall a “separation barrier” or “fence” in the part about Roger Waters.

  9. DICKERSON3870 says:
    July 1, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    RE: “Saying that Elton John has ‘stuck by his guns’ certainly sounds different in this context.” – Adam Horowitz
    MY COMMENT: That’s SIR Elton John (and everything that implies) to you MR. Horowitz! (lol)

  10. VR says:
    July 1, 2010 at 7:56 pm

    Apparently there is no abusive, powerful, and murderous group that “huggie bear” will not entertain. “Sir” Elton John has made his choice clear, in the future he will be the person to call for celebrating among those who display rancid racism, apartheid, and murder with impunity. One wonders, if he were born a bit earlier, who he would have entertained?

  11. kalithea says:
    July 1, 2010 at 10:01 pm

    I’m disgusted by Elton John’s callousness. Palestinians are suffering and being deprived of their human rights, driven off their land and forced into impoverished conditions and he’s entertaining the most apathetic bunch of people on the planet!

    I picture Elton John playing a tune in the Reichstag too!

    He’s scouring the bottom of the barrel; I’ve lost all respect for him.

  12. lobewyper says:
    July 2, 2010 at 6:55 am

    Sumud,

    I agree with your sentiments in post # 2, above, and that the clip is another victory for the good guys, because CNN reaches millions of people who until now didn’t know that many artists are boycotting Israel due to their treatment of the Palestinians. In the past, CNN would have ended this clip with a segment about deserving Israeli families who would suffer economically from a boycott, but instead, they let Barghouti speak. Don’t want to read too much into it, but I think there’s change in the wind…

    • bookwoman says:
      July 3, 2010 at 12:09 am

      “Don’t want to read too much into it, but I think there’s change in the wind…”

      Like the recent Kristof article in the NYT. Perhaps the mainstreams are beginning to see that they have zero credibility on matters concerning Israel and Israel-in-America and are finally trying to reach an audience that they realize they have lost. Market share, you know. But half-hearted and timid is better than nothing, which is what they have had until now.

  13. Chu says:
    July 2, 2010 at 9:36 am

    goodbye yellow brick road Elton. He made it political when he said: “…We don’t cherry-pick our conscience” – what a nice dig at the other musician’s of conscience.
    Stupid move on his behalf.

  14. dalybean says:
    July 4, 2010 at 9:49 am

    Elton John played the gay-hater Rush Limbaugh’s wedding too, for a million dollars.

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