I know that you get many complaints of CNN having a bias, but I want to point out to you a very subtle, but poignant, example which you probably are not aware of.
Last night, Zain Verjee on Q&A asked two US lawmakers (Sheila Jackson Lee and Darrell Issa) about US support for Israel, and asked them to respond to European criticisms that US policy is due to the strong Jewish lobby on Capital Hill. Her specific words were for them to respond to criticisms that Americans "pander to their domestic constituency and, two, they're influenced and swayed by the strong Jewish lobby on Capital Hill." She followed-up with: "But more to my point, Sheila, I'm trying to say that there is a strong Jewish lobby on Capital Hill. Congressional elections are coming up this year. You need the Jewish vote. It's a powerful one. Historically, it's been very influential. Is that influencing American policy?"
Now, let me say that on the face of it, there is nothing particularly outrageous about this line of questioning. But, if you think about it in context and all that it implies, it represents in my opinion a very deep-seated anti-Israel and perhaps anti-Semitic bias at CNN.
First of all, the context: I have heard questions like this all the time on CNN, and European politicians often state that American support for Israel is only because of the strong Jewish Lobby. I have heard CNN reporters say after showing a clip of Hilary Clinton condemning Yasser Arafat that she has a large Jewish constituency. I have NEVER heard a CNN reporter ask if the European pro-Palestinian policy is due to a large European Arab constituency, anti-Semitic constituency, or an historical hatred of Jews in general. (Is there no evidence of an historical hatred? Or, am I just a paranoid wacko here?) Is there no alternative explanation for the European policy other than it being the "right" policy? The fact that CNN never questions the motives behind European policy clearly shows that the working assumption here is that the Europeans are "right" and the Americans are "wrong".
Second, I have NEVER heard a CNN reporter ask whether US support of Israel, in contrast to European policy, is based more on justice, a shared sense of values, and a principled rejection of terror. The Arab constituency in France is much larger than the Jewish constituency in the US, so is it possible that France's policy is pandering to Arabs and the US policy is right? Is this unimaginable?
Third, the fact that that CNN keeps wondering why the US is pro-Israel but not why the Europeans are pro-Palestinian strongly suggests that Zain Verjee's real question is essentially this: "The US support of Israel is obviously wrong and immoral, so why do they do it?" "What can possibly explain why the US chooses to be so wrong when the rest of the world is obviously right?" "It must be that the Jews are in control, right?"
Fourth, as I just implied, the basic premise of the question insinuates that there is something wrong or devious about Jewish influence over the US government, and simply plays into the hands of anti-Semites who claim that the Jews run the world. The pro-life movement is also very organizied and powerful, but they haven't been able to reverse Row V. Wade, it's only the Jews that are able to control US policy. Could it be that the position of the almighty Jewish lobby has merit?
Could it be that US politicians are actually just "pandering" to the 99 percent of the US population that are not Jews, but for some odd reason, are against Palestinian terror? Is this not a "large and powerful" constituency that can influence the election? The fact that this question is never asked implies that it is not a legitimate question.
I could go on for days about blatant forms of anti-Israel bias on CNN (the BBC is much worse), but I wrote about this just to show how perhaps the most dangerous cases are the ones where it is the most subtle: when it is just assumed that the Jews run the world and that any reasonable person should be in favor of Yasser Arafat's use of terror, despite his renouncement of terror at Oslo.
It is this very subtlety that allows CNN to claim that it is unbiased, but in reality is just goes to show how deep-seated the anti-Israel bias really is -- it pervades the assumptions of how the issue is presented. If being "objective" means ignoring the motives of European policy but constantly looking for sinister motives behind American policy, then any reasonable person should assume that the pro-Palestinian policy of the Europeans is clearly the more objective stance. Am I wrong? If so, how do you explain that European motives are NEVER questioned?
If CNN really wants to be objective, it should point out all the cases where each side has said something which is, or turns out to be, factually incorrect. The fact that CNN does not do this only suggests that it is more interested in letting Palestinians tell more and more lies than at getting at the truth. I could compile a long list of Palestinian lies for you if you want.
Eric D. Gould
Department of Economics
Hebrew University
Mt. Scopus
Jerusalem 91905 Israel
http://economics.huji.ac.il/facultye/gould/gould.html