Daily Show under fire for covering Israeli-Palestinian conflict

[bobbyw24]

Jon Stewart's comedy news show The Daily Show is reportedly under fire from pro-Israeli groups for giving airtime to two pro-Palestinian figures on Wednesday night.

Stewart hosted Palestinian democracy activist Mustafa Barghouti and human rights activist Anna Baltzer, author of A Witness in Palestine, who explained the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of the Palestinian side.

According to a letter reportedly written by Baltzer and circulated by blogger Eric Johnson, the show "was overwhelmed with angry emails and phone calls prior to the appearance, and up until the last minute it seemed like they might cancel."

"During the taping the show had its only heckler in 11 years," Baltzer wrote. "The entire staff were very nervous and may come to regret the monumental decision (and not make it again) as they will surely be inundated now that the show has aired."

At one point during the interview, Barghouti asserted: "We [Palestinians] are struggling for liberty, we are struggling for justice. It's Palestinians who have been subjected to the longest occupation in history and a system of segregation that is totally unjust."
Story continues below...

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/daily-show-israelipalestinian-conflict/

[devil21]

When you're taking fire, you know you're over the target.

[Dreamofunity]

Regardless of the subject matter, I thought it was a good and fair interview with fairly honest answers and genuine discussion, I don't know what else more you could ask for in an interview.

Stuward should be powerful enough to blow off this, if anything he should invite them back to piss of those people more.

[Oyate]

It was one of the more honest and candid interviews I've seen Stewart do. You could tell he was very sincere about the subject matter. But at the end he did have to slam and bias the entire piece with the comment about unicorns. As much as to say "the plea for peace you just heard is utter fantasy".

Alas.

This is the man who fawns like....well, like a fawn when Colin Powell or anybody with the last name Crystol shows up.

It was still the bravest and most unconventional thing anybody's done on major TV since they let Ron Paul on stage during debates.

[TCE]

The Daily Show has hit new lows this past year. Especially this past week, it has become Stewart's own propaganda machine. He is pushing for the public option more than some liberals. I couldn't even get through ten minutes of the trash.

[angelatc]

.

Stuward should be powerful enough to blow off this, if anything he should invite them back to piss of those people more.

Stewart is Jewish. The entertainment industry is largely Jewish. He won't do this again.

[HOLLYWOOD]

Well someone has to cover it... obviously, MSM, has this squelched. Pretty pathetic you have to go to Satire or Foreign news to get better information on current events.

Mindless crap of American MSM TV is for the jellyheads and party firsters

[tsopranos]

MUST WATCH:

Peace, Propaganda, and The Promised Land
YouTube - Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land {Part 1} (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCL6WdnuNp4)
YouTube - Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land { Part 2 } (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo2HW4T7wK4)


Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported. Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one.

The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.

[BlackTerrel]

Under fire seems a bit over the top. Their evidence is that they got some angry phone calls and emails (I doubt that's a regular occurrence) and that some blogger named Israel (wonder what side he's on with that name) wrote on his blog that he was upset.


Stewart is Jewish. The entertainment industry is largely Jewish. He won't do this again.

Based on what? The other pro-Palestinian woman he had on was Jewish too.

[akforme]

Stewart is Jewish. The entertainment industry is largely Jewish. He won't do this again.

He's not real pro-Israel tho. He's nailed them several times were nobody else would.

[lester1/2jr]

Stewart is Jewish. The entertainment industry is largely Jewish. He won't do this again.

what you mean he's not really irish!! :)

[Oyate]

what you mean he's not really irish!! :)

See that's where everybody has it wrong. Clearly there were white skinned, blue eyed dudes living in the mideast for thousands of years.

All those pictures of Jesus as a blue-eyed college linebacker-type are completely historically accurate.

[Dieseler]

It was a kind gesture on his part to have those people on to discuss their side of the conflict but I can pretty much see that it was designed to pull back some viewers who had been a little disenfranchised by Stewart since the election.
I don't believe the interview shown on tv was nearly as long as the one on the internet.
Like someone already said, that won't happen again.

[dannno]

Jon Stewart has had a couple shows where he came out against the Zionists, I'm surprised he hasn't picked up more flack before..


Mayor Bloomberg's Israel/Gaza analogy: "If you're in your apartment and some emotionally disturbed person is banging on your door saying they want to kill you... do you want us to respond with one police officer, which is proportional, or with all the resources at our command?"

Mocked by Jon Stewart, who replies, " I guess it depends if I forced that guy to live in my hallway and go through checkpoints every time he has to take a shit."


Stewart also once showed McCain, Hillary and Obama all stick up for the Zionists and made fun of the fact that if they opposed them they wouldn't be able to become mainstream candidates for President.

[lester1/2jr]

I think israel palestine and the israel/ us relationship is like civil rights was in the 60's. it's the biggest most controversial issue and I think our media and society are doing a much worse job of dealing with it than people in the 60's did with civil rights.

overall i'd give the media maybe a D for israel palestine and an F for Israel lobby /foreign policy.

[Reason]

Props to stewart!

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

nt

[Dionysus]

It's one thing to be pro-Israel or pro-Ireland or whatever. It's quite another to militantly support anything based on shared ethnicity. The militant Israel supporters are very intolerant of even friendly dissent. I mean, was Kennedy forbidden from criticizing the Northern Ireland peace process? No way. Most Irish Americans had his back. Israel needs more internal debate. This yes man mentality has driven them to very dispassionate policies.

Speaking of Ireland:
YouTube - The Cranberries - Zombie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJEySrDerj0)

[Mandrik]

I grew up in a pro-Palestinian home, because my entire family is Greek Orthodox. There are A LOT of Orthodox Christians in the middle east. I can remember conversations between my family members about how upset they would get at how the US would "allow" Israel's military to cause so much harm & grief to the people in the region. I didn't understand much of what they were talking about as a kid, but when I was old enough to understand I wasn't instantly brainwashed into thinking like the media wanted me to think. I always questioned why they never talked about the other side of the problem. They always victimized Israel.

Even as a kid I knew that every problem had two or more sides. When you are only hearing one side you are not looking at all the facts. Growing up in the family environment I was born into allowed me to realize at a very young age that the news doesn't always tell you both sides of the story. They will point fingers & victimize certain sides. It's a shame that when someone does try to present the other side people get PISSED. What is so wrong about letting someone else speak? What's wrong with looking at a problem from different sides?