Khaled Abu Tuomeh has written an explanation of how the Jerusalem Post was gulled on the supposed Gaza “honor killing”. It is not entirely inconsistent with my guess of yesterday. Apparently, the reporter was gulled by some phone calls from “Fatah” telling him the video, readily available on the Internet with Iraqi provenance, was of a crime committed by Hamasmembers.
Unfortunately, Tuomeh gives us no proof the phone calls were inded from Fatah, though it is possible; his explanation is insufficient and self-serving. He lays blame on the Israeli military for his own failure to authenticate:
Since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, the IDF has banned Israeli journalists from entering the area. Consequently, the Israeli media (and many foreign journalists) are forced to rely on local reporters and Fatah and Hamas officials as a main source of information.
As the French say, Qui s’excuse, s’accuse. Or is it the other way around in this case? Tuomeh doesn’t seem capable of taking responsibility for what happened and his own role in it. Everything is impersonally written, yet this is clearly a personal event.
Who is Tuomeh and how is he being used and for what end? We also don’t know the veracity of his previous report of lurid Fatah videos confiscated by Hamas – or where that came from.
In the larger scheme of things, this is just another small incident, but it is also another chink in the grand myth of media objectivity. Who is reliable? Probably no one.
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8 Comments
1. adhoc:I think Khaled Abu Toameh is basically a good guy. For years, he has written stories exposing corruption, intimidation and worse by the Fatah, Hamas and other Palestinian factions. He was virtually alone in fully reporting the rise of anarchy and strong arm mafia-style tactics by both PA and Hamas in the former settlements and in Gaza following the Israeli withdrawal in 2005.
I heard him speak in London, where he gave a similar account to this of his own early journalistic career under the auspices of Fatah and his loathing of them.
I think Fatah were delighted to set him up– no doubt they have wanted to settle scores with him for years. Shame he fell for it.
His credibility will have been badly damaged. But look at his coverage of the faction fighting in Gaza and the West Bank for the JP over years, and form your own view of whether there is a better correspondent currently reporting on the PA and Hamas.
Incidentally, so much does he loathe the corruption and dishonesty of Fatah that he used to say he would rather vote for Hamas. That was before Hamas came to win the election of 2006. I’m not sure he’d vote differently now.
Sep 30, 2007 - 5:44 pm 2. Roger:I have read Tuomeh before as well, adhoc, and don’t disagree with your assessment of some of it. I just think he owes us – and himself – a fuller explanation here. If we have learned anything in recent years it is that full disclosure is the way to go – and it rarely hurts.
Sep 30, 2007 - 7:46 pm 3. Michael J. Totten:Roger: Who is Tuomeh and how is he being used and for what end?
He’s an Israel Arab who writes for Commentary Magazine’s blog, as well as the Jerusalem Post. I thought he might be Palestinian, but apparently not if he can’t go into Gaza.
Sep 30, 2007 - 10:55 pm 4. Michael J. Totten:I think he handled this okay. Could be better, but what he said happened is pretty much what I figured happened.
He called people in Gaza who said they were eyewitnesses, and the story was yanked as soon as it was debunked. He didn’t pull a Dan Rather by any stretch.
I doubt very seriously he knew the story was bogus until after it was published. That Iraq video went viral on the Internet. It is very unlikely he would think he could get away with something like this if he knew it where the video actually came from.
Sep 30, 2007 - 11:01 pm 5. Carl Spackler:As always the passive voice is pathetic.
What does it say about professional journalist that they don’t run names, photos through a search engine?
Where are their, and their editorsí skills, with linotype?
What does this say, that a famous video that has been on the net for months, and previously used as hoaxes, and the JP is clueless? If that is so, why bother with the Post?
I think we have an entrenched, groupthink mentality in old stream media. Watching the New York Times dissolves is like twenty years of corporate news out of Detroit.
Still though, this is yet another example of harnessing the Wisdom of Crowds idea that PM is working on. I don’t think as an institution the MSM can make the transition anymore then the Joint Chiefs are going to go to a week long symposium with NCO’s to flatten the organizational pyramid. Old organizations don’t fundamentally reform, they weather and fade. It is more efficient to build/buy anew. Homeowners who remodel know this. The elderly know. Americans who gave up on waiting for Detroit and bought Japanese know.
I used to buy two or more papers a day. On Sundays every single one. I loved the papers. Now, I hardly buy any.
Oct 1, 2007 - 5:49 am 6. Michael J. Totten:Yes, the passive voice is pathetic. I agree.
Most journalists are not allowed to write in the first-person. I insist on doing so, and it limits my ability to publish in the mainstream media.
Oct 1, 2007 - 10:41 am 7. melk:I am so pleased and relieved that this was not a video of a young Muslim girl being lynched by a Hamas mob, thereby discrediting Muslims everywhere.
Instead,it’s a video of a young Muslim girl being lynched by an Iraqi mob. Muslim honor is
Oct 1, 2007 - 12:49 pm 8. Barry Meislin:maintained.
Abu Toameh is one of the most courageous journalists out there.
He made a mistake and admitted it.
He explained how it could have happened and why it did.
He did not “blame” the IDF or its Gaza policies for his mistake.
Oct 2, 2007 - 6:48 am