Phil, Adam and Rania Khalek have done a thorough job of covering Jodi Rudoren’s outlook, at least as it’s communicated through her social media feeds and work as a journalist.
While I agree completely with their conclusions I don’t get the sense that Rudoren is malicious or particularly tendentious. Instead, she seems like someone who’s emerged from a milieu where Palestinians are characteristically simple, barbaric, aloof, stoical, etc… (in other words, a Zionist upbringing). Her direct exposure to actual Palestinians – yes, real people – is causing her to reevaluate some of those latent biases. At least, that’s what it seems like to me.
Take her article about the young Palestinian man – Anwar Qudaih – who was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier today (frustrated by a weak leadership and lack of action, the youthful and ardent Zionist took matters into his own hands). Rudoren explicitly highlights unjustifiable Israeli policies and the number of Palestinian children killed by the Israelis:
The buffer zone was established in 2005, when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, which it had occupied since the 1967 war. Human rights organizations say that Israel drops leaflets warning residents to stay out of the area, and that its security forces killed 213 Palestinians near the fence between September 2005 and September 2012, including 154 who were not taking part in hostilities, 17 of them children.
The framing isn’t perfect, and the stuff about leaflets and Israel’s “withdrawal” is nonsense. Also, the context is provided halfway through the text, but this is still much better than some of her earlier work on the issue – and the facts she conveys are indispensable for understanding what’s actually happening.
For me, this article, along with her second Facebook message, signify a willingness to see the reality with clearer eyes – away from the Hasbara-mongers in NYC. Rudoren’s work also represents a very substantial break from Ethan Bronner’s world which was governed by the spokesperson of the Israeli army. A world where Palestinians were born and died nameless.
My appreciation for Rudoren’s coverage may be a symptom of the impoverished range of discussion on this issue, but I’m grateful for it anyway. I’m also hopeful that her work will continue to improve as she meets more Palestinians in Gaza.
I could be (most likely am?) completely wrong. But I’m willing to give Rudoren the benefit of the doubt.
@ahmed Moor — I think you’re showing generosity of spirit. More than the NYTimes or its Middle East bureau deserve. Perhaps she can grow, as she experiences more reality & starts to think beyond the entrenched biases & cliches of what seems like a narrow life experience.
But, is this a position for on-the-job learning? the major newspaper in the US, and such an important & complex news beat?
That said, it almost seems like her lack of preparation & knowledge actually might help — perhaps she’s more open because of that? But the public should expect much more. The question is not — is she a nice & well intentioned person. The question is — is the public getting the journalism it deserves?
Sure, I think it’s an improvement having their bureau chief in Gaza at the time of the attack, and I expect she will gain knowledge on the ground.
Her article on Saturday seemed to show sympathy for Gazans, but did it appear that she placed blame on Hamas for the people flocking to the fence:
“Palestinians flocked to the fence on Thursday and Friday because their leaders said the cease-fire eased what they call Israel’s “siege” on Gaza… Hamas leaders said that was but one of the quality-of-life improvements that they had won. They also told their people that Israel would ease the three-mile limit on how far fishermen can venture from the coastline and the passage of people and goods through border crossings. But an Israeli government official said Friday that since no further talks had taken place, its policies had not changed.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-conflict.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0
Now I could see her responding- well that’s the facts and I am just doing my job reporting them. And she could be right. But the way it’s framed here would make an analogy this way:
Two neighbors have a disagreement about a fence and come to some agreement. Neighbor A tells his kids it’s ok to go near the fence now, but instead when they do, Neighbor B retaliates.
We’ve already seen that Israeli forces have violated agreements in the past, it wouldn’t surprise me if they implied a promise about this to Hamas when they met with them and didn’t observe the promise. But I don’t know, what do you think about this article?
This is how I feel about her reporting and it was that passage that jumped out at me today when I read it. (I mentioned this in an earlier thread). Yes, Rudoren has her unconscious biases, but she seems conscientious about trying to correct them and that passage is pretty much what I want to see from the press–reporting on what actually happens to innocent people in the conflict, on both sides. Of course, the vast majority of the innocent victims are Palestinian and so if reporters simply report the facts about the suffering of people on both sides, that’s going to come out.
Her article today is in very sharp contrast to the disgusting editorial the NYT wrote about a week ago (I forget the exact date), where they opposed an invasion, but solely on the basis of the harm it would do to Israel. They condemned rocket attacks and said Israel had the right to defend itself, but said absolutely nothing about Palestinian fishermen being shot at or Palestinian civilians in buffer zones inside Gaza being shot. I’d like to see an editorial page that wasn’t racist, but I’ll settle for decent reporters and worthless editorials. (The WSJ was legendary for that combination when it came to reporting on the economy–trust the reporting, but ignore the editorials.)
I’m just going to leave this right here and back away slowly…..
New York Times Says that Weed is Totally Awesome and Should be Legalized
http://gawker.com/5963022/the-new-york-times-says-that-weed-is-totally-awesome-and-should-be-legalized
Ahmed Moor’s “appreciation of Rudoren coverage” is without doubt, at this time, simplistic to say the least. Reading her comment on the killing of Palestinians at the fence does not show Israel’s action as “unjustifiable”. She prefaces it with human rights organizations supposedly stating Israel “dropped leaflets” warning Palestinian to stay clear of the fence. Isn’t she justifying, in a sense, what she states next , the death of Palestinians at the border/fence area.? Are they the same type leaflets telling Palestinians in Gaza to “leave ” their homes as it will be targeted. They knew better. In 2008 the people of Gaza listened and were massacred even as they followed Israel’s instructions. Women and children waving white sheets, flags were mowed down. anything, anyone that moved was a “terrorist” to be terminated. In previous wars upon Lebenom Israel did drop leaflets telling the people in the south to leave their homes. As per Israeli custom those that left were torn apart by US made missils and bombs even as they used the roads Israel said would be save for evacuation. The author of that atrocity was none other then Shimon Peres, the indefatigable “peace” politician. Rudoren’s slight change in emphasis on Palestinian life that Mr. Moor senses is, I believe, due to the outcry by Mondoweiss commentators to her FB racist babbling about Palestinians “ho hum” approach to the death of ther chidren. Maybe when she gives up her home , stolen, in Jerusalem to the rightful owner I might be able to see some change in her writings.