Max Blumenthal's latest video was posted on the Huffington Post and quickly taken off by site administrators. Blumenthal shared that an administrator told him the video didn't have “any real news value.” Well, with that in mind, here are some headlines that were posted on Huffington over the weekend:
- 'Hangover' Premiere: Boobs, Ugly Glasses And Bradley Cooper (PHOTOS)
- Carradine Had Rope Around Genitals: Thai Police
- Hammer Time! Baggy Pants Making A Comeback
I'll admit I didn't dig too deep to find these, they were just on the homepage, the first two appeared under "Most Popular on HuffPost."
I would have been fine to let it go, and accept the site for what it is, until I saw Edgar M. Bronfman's post today – "A Real Two-State Solution." Bronfman, the former CEO of the Seagram Company Ltd. and the former president of the World Jewish Congress, uses the post to blame the Palestinians for the failure of the two-state solution. To accomplish this he repeats almost all of the most tired hasbara cliches about the peace process. One example – "It is worth remembering that, historically, Israel has always embraced every Arab hand that was extended forward in a true gesture of reconciliation and co-existence." Is there anyone who still believes this, after Gaza, after Lebanon, and with the Obama administration itself implying that Israel is the greatest impediment to an end of the conflict? My question to the Huffington Post – Where is the "real news value" in this?
This is an important issue: how the Huffington Post is going to treat one of the central foreign policy issues of the Obama administration? They have a track record for publishing pieces like Bronfman's. Mort Zuckerman's also come to mind. Going over to their Middle East topic page where the leading headline is "Suzanne Mubarak's Summery Style" (I'm not making this up) didn't ease my concern.
It seems the Obama administration is wanting to change the discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this country so that it is more based in a balanced view of history and the on the ground realities. The media is going to play an important role in this, and in some cases will have to lead the way, opening the discourse and sharing the realities of life in Israel/Palestine that are so often ignored. The Huffington Post needs to decide what role they are going to play in this shift. They can either help lead or they will be passed by on this important issue as outdated conceptions of the region fall by the wayside and a new understanding of the conflict takes hold.
