Yesterday, I received an e-mail from Ruth Eglash, the journalist from The Jerusalem Post who wrote the misleading article about Jordanian blogger reaction to the Red Sea Cinema Institute. Here is what she wrote:
Natasha,
Thank you for your feedback on the article that I wrote this week regarding the opening of a film school in Jordan that will include Israeli students. I believe the project is an amazing opportunity for the whole of the Middle East and was extremely disappointed that commentators on several blogs that I visited seemed to be against the idea. My article was designed to raise that issue and counter it with positive comments from Israeli filmaker Dan Katzir. I would love to write something more positive but personal attacks on me and my journalism will not help. I simply report what I see and hear.
If, as you say, there is a large group of people in Jordan who believe in this project and believe it can work together with Israeli students then that is another good story. You and your community should send me your comments and perhaps I will do a follow up article showing that there are some people in this region willing to try. I know you are angry that I did not referrence your blog, however I was trying to show where the original comments came from and I believe that it is clear from the text that not only Arab bloggers are against the idea, there were some Israelis making negative comments too.
Regards,
Ruth Eglash
This was my reply:
Dear Ms. Eglash,
Thank you for taking time to respond to my concerns. As I mentioned in my post, there are several flaws in your article. First and foremost, you quote people in your article that are not bloggers. They are anonymous online commenters. A blogger is someone who owns and operates an online journal and not someone who leaves a comment on a blog. As a result, your story, which purports to be about the negative reactions of "Arab bloggers," is just flat wrong.
Let us play devil’s advocate here and actually examine the Jordanian bloggers’ reaction. The blogs that brought up the Red Sea Cinema Institute initiative were all supportive. As a journalist, why did you fail to note that in your article? And, though there are some negative responses in the comments, it is not hard to find positive comments as well. Look at my blog, Amin or Laith’s. As a western-trained journalist myself, I can tell you that your article is simply unbalanced and it willfully misrepresents the facts. You chose negative comments and then misrepresented them as the opinions of bloggers. I wonder why you would so deliberately misrepresent a source. I also wonder about your journalistic research when you simply select the exact same comments I noted in my post. Is that as far as you dug? Did you notice that my post showed "both" sides of the issue, highlighting my support but noting the possibility of controversy.
You indicate in your note to me that you were "disappointed" by the comments. This suggests you understand these are "comments" and that makes me wonder. You note that you "counter it with positive comments from Israeli filmaker [sic] Dan Katzir," as if he is the only source of a positive response. I see this as a personal agenda: Those "terrible" Arabs are against this initiative while "reasonable" Israelis support it. That is the subtext of your story and clearly your intent, proven by the fact that you chose Katzir for a counter but skipped the blogs you used as your source … and they were all praising it. You made not one mention of this. In closing Ms. Eglash, you chose to dredge up the negative, draft a bogus, misleading headline and paint Arabs as troublemakers. There is no journalistic integrity in this.
Regards,
Natasha Tynes
ATTENTION ISRAELIS WHO WANT “PEACE”
Today, the most critical issue facing Jordan is the palestinian refugees. This is a problem you have created for us and we continue to grabble with it. with your West Bank seperation wall and checkpoints and embargoos, the problme is getting worse for Jordan.
Why in the world should we jordanians welcome you and make peace with you when you have created the most dangerous problem for us.
I will borrow another blogger’s term to describe your attempts to establish contact with jordanian. you want a cheap peace, a no-commitment, no-responsibilty, no-ethical standards peace. You dump on us and the lebanese and after you slaugter hundeds of them you show up the next day with an extended hand and nothing else.
While we deal with instabilty you have created for us, you want to exploit jordan to break into the wider Arab markerts (QIZ ring a bell?) with your products, and we get nothing but bad press for all the exploitation that takes place is the QIZ and a serious refugee population issue.
Fact is, for the average jordanian, Israel has been nothing bad bad news.
and you come and lecture us about peace and love and a better world. how twisted of you.
Hi Natasha,
Good for you for taking Ruth Eglash to task for her sloppy journalism, and what a pity that her response was so lacking in apology. As an Israeli and a blogger I was appalled by the selective, biased reporting you highlight. I would not have read or heard about the article otherwise, simply because I never read the JPost. It is not taken very seriously in Israel; native Hebrew speakers are barely aware of its existence.
The JPost is read mostly by English speakers who think Haaretz is too left wing for their tastes, and at the foreign press (who do not take it very seriously either). There are a couple of good reporters working for the JPost, but unfortunately their voices tend to get lost in the cacophony of mediocrity.
Kinzi you are a funny man. israel does all the killing and you ask us what we are doing to better our world. you should ask what is israel doing to better the world? assasinations? land theft? expulsions? we in jordan don’t do any of these things. so don’t you think you are asking the wrong people.
do you even realize how offensive you sound when you lecture us about bettering our world when jordanians are peaceful people who do not invade anyone, don’t expell anyone, and don’t steal anyone’s land. you have a serious issue with objectivity. i must agree with the other posters, this shows a disturbingly distorted view of yourself and your conduct. i think you are immune to self-ciritism and self-reflection. this scares me and many others.
Kinzi you ask “Sara, and what are you doing to better your world? ”
By fighting racism and religious extremism in all forms including Zionism, Nazims, racial supremacy, the sort of ills all decent and equality loving people must do to support peace and justice.
Yet hear you are asking us to open our hearts and minds to jewish supremacist who view Arabs as a demographic threat and kill them daily with impunity, conjur up schemes to intice arab israelis to leave, and still don’t see anything wrong with all of that. you are a deeply troubled society Kinzi.
Again, when you admit Skinheads and Neonazis to your films schools, to make your world better, then you can come and tells us to do the same.
Sara, and what are you doing to better your world? I’m not being sarcastic, just asking.
You are all bored, rich upper class Jordanians with nothing better to do. Eglash credited the sites the original comments came from. How does Natasha even know that they came from her blog? Anyway, if you actually read the comments made to Natasha’s furious entry then you will notice that the majority of people do NOT want a film school that includes Israelis. Go figure
Basboos, very well said. Whether or not one agrees with the idea of the film school, this post was about poor, sloppy journalism. Natasha, I am so proud that you are my friend. The fact that you got this so-called journalist so rattled that she had to respond to you-and your response to her-was fantastic.
Hopefully now Ruth Eglash of Jerusalem Post will do a follow-up article on Arab bloggers who are pro-Peace and for co-operation between Arabs and Israelis 🙂
I seem to remember that Jerusalem Post has Arab blogger listed on its website:LUCY WIDAAD.And they do say :We are always interested in running compelling guest bloggers on this site. If you would like to run a blog on Jpost.com or recommend a guest blogger, please contact us”
http://info.jpost.com/C005/BlogCentral/contact.html
Matt,
I didn’t say she’d broken any copyright laws, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t broken basic rules of politeness, not to say the generally accepted rules of her chosen profession of journalism. Sure, Natasha has no grounds for suing her, but I find it a bit hypocritical for Eglash to fail to cite a public source of information (she can’t claim to be protecting a source) and then to whinge about Natasha attacking her journalism. The fact is, Natasha identified a serious technical flaw in her journalism that seems to have contributed to a more general problem in the quality of her analysis. She’s a sloppy sensationalist and Natasha was quite right to call her on it.
I salute you! you did what was supposed to be done exactly. Good job