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
NNN, it’s voices like yours that scare Westeners away from pushing for a Palestinian right to return. I support it in spite of you. Go find my name yourself on the MidEast Calm on-line petition, but I reject your authority as my judge and jury. BTW, I haven’t paid US taxes for twenty years…it’s not my money funding Israel.
Thanks Amin…thanks to you, Hollywood WON’T be pumping out as many anti-Arab anti-Muslim films anymore. NNN will just continue spewing hate. I’m done now.
So,
What are you guys fighting over ?
“ealousy and envy reign supreme on these pages as of late”
The Infrormer, Are you a high school student? let me exlain it in simple terms.
Think of this situation like having a cool Nokia N80 and Shlomo takes it away from you and you get like totally bumed out dude. yeahhh man! so they tell you to chill out dude and you like “i want my nokia dude” and the dudes say “no way dude…you can have the nokia 1100” and you say “dudes…this is so not cool…like if it were your nokia like and i take it away from you…you know…would you…like…take back a nokia 1100 instead …and they say no dude but that’s all your gonna get.” and you get so full of envy and some total bum comes along and says to you “dude…what’s the big deal…just take the friggin 1100 and go home…you are making so much noise and its like brining everyone down.”
I hope this explains the envy part.
Jealousy and envy reign supreme on these pages as of late, filling the subtext of many comments. Jealousy and envy are a dangerous thing.
Amin, you uselfish, self-absorbed, shallow sorry excuse of a director. all you think about is fun and films and try to pass that as some sort of a great fight for peace. peace is justice, you are the personification of the 3 monkeys. but i guess with your camera, you are the 4th who films no evil.
I dedicate to you this song, customized to fit your mentality, from the words of the great Cindy Lauper:
That’s all he really want
Some fun
When the filming day is done
Amin– he wants to have fun
Oh Amin just wants to have fun
Man, you are no hero for justice, you are an opportunist of the finest caliber.
I struggle with whether I should comment or not, but my anger gets the better of me sometimes. To all those negative commenters… you bunch of cynical idiots! Jordan is going to have a film school under the guidance of USC’s school of cinema. This is a dream come true. This is something amazing for the future voices of Arab cinema. Focus on that you idiots! Focus on the results of that you stupid angry ignorant imbiciles. Your regressive views block your vision of the potential for Arab filmmakers. It’s pointless to argue with these people, Natasha and Kinzi. They will continue to search for something to be angry about and feel sorry for themselves. It’s really pointless.
Kinizi you say “Shutting down the whole concept of this film school before a single student has entered”
so these are the options Jordanians have to contend with: either open a film school in jordan and admit supremacist jews or jordan does not get a film schoo. Well screw this trade off. Donors can shove their money somewhere else if we always have to be subjected to this racist blackmail.
“One of the other things I do is help Palestinian refugee women in a microenterprise of creativity so they can feed their families and have the dignity of being self-sufficient.”
How nice. You give the jews palestinian territory, cover their murders and stand silent in the face of expulsions, and reward them with 5 billion dollars in aid a year, and you give the expelled palestinian arabs “microenterprise”. That pretty much says it all bout america’s fairness vis a vis jews and arabs. You OWE those palestinains much more for the horrific injustice you have committed, defended, and funded against them.
Kinzi, this question has been asked many times to filter supremacists from decent peopel. You can say all sorts of touchy feely things and that would not be worth a dime. The real question is do you accept, without ifs thens or buts, that Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies to jews and non-jews including palestinains which stipulates: “(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
If you can’t say yes, you are a supremacist and this discussion is over.
Yousef, I am sorry to have offended you and scared you and ‘many other commenters’. Did that one sentence provoke your comment or have you read other comments you didn’t like?
You pulled a lot about me out of that one sentence, let me correct you. I am not a guy, but a middle-aged American mom who has lived in Jordan a long time. I’m a writer too, who spends a lot of time trying to explain to uninformed Americans (including elected officials) the damage that Israel has done and continues to do.
One of the other things I do is help Palestinian refugee women in a microenterprise of creativity so they can feed their families and have the dignity of being self-sufficient. Helping refugees has been my work for 20 years now. And you, what are you doing?
Shutting down the whole concept of this film school before a single student has entered is the kind of negative thinking that keeps progress from happening. I believe putting artists together helps overcome problems.
I only ask Sara this because of her blanket condemnation of rich Jordanians. There ARE too many that sit n Starbucks and complain about the Palestinian refugee camps in view below…but Natasha isn’t one of them. And there are plenty of less wealthy people who sit around doing nothing but complain as well.
Incidently my first post on this thread was encouraging JP bloggers to stand against this woman’s uninformed slander of Jordanians…mis-using comments to promote her anti-Arab agenda. I bet that surprises you. Peace.
Bravo Natasha. You go girl! Stand up for responsible journalism!
Go Natasha! Jpost, btw, really bites. It used to be a very good paper and was well-respected but in recent years the level of journalism has been reduced to practically nil (think that happened when its budget had the same fate and the good journalists left it pretty much en masse) and very few Israelis bother to read it –it still rides on its previous laurels in the rest of the world but that is rapidly changing since Ha’aretz and Ynet put up online english editions.