Everybody knows, BBC/CNN edition

In the spirit of the frankly cynical verses of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” (e.g., the one beginning “Everybody knows that you love me baby”), Professor Richard Landes calls his study of BBC and CNN International media coverage of the Middle East “Everyone Agrees: The BBC and CNN on UNSC Resolution #2334 and Kerry’s Speech.” It is a study of how the BBC and CNN covered (extensively) the passage of UNSC Resolution #2334 and Secretary of State John Kerry’s subsequent speech (December 23-28, 2016). It criticizes the journalists for “pack journalism that inverts reality in the name of a two-state solution even as it empowers those that make that two-state solution impossible.”

Professor Landes has written a a companion post at The Augean Stables. In the post he links to sources and evidence with this introduction:

I have, over the past year, slowly put together a video using my archive of recordings of BBC Global and CNN International’s news broadcasts. It portrays a mindset among journalism that has them “in the name of the ‘whole world’,” misinforming the whole world by reciting Palestinian war propaganda as news. “Everybody knows it’s Israel’s fault” that there’s no peace settlement.

Among other violations of journalistic principles of presenting the relevant evidence, I indict the MSTVNM (mainstream TV news media) for not letting their audiences know what Palestinian leaders – both PA and Hamas – say in Arabic, thus compounding the misdirection involved in highlighting and affirming what Palestinian spokespeople say in English. I therefore include footage generously provided by both Palestinian Media Watch and the Center for Near East Policy Research.

He explains the length of the video:

Some early viewers have complained that this is too long a piece to reach a wide audience, especially among millennials and i-gens. I plan other shorter videos of this kind, but for now, this video is addressed to people who have a 20 minute attention span; and I believe such an attention span can be found in any generation. Indeed, those with longer attention spans are also more likely to command the trust and attention of those without them. So this video, which makes several points over a sustained argument, is addressed to leaders, present and future.

You know who you are.

Professor Landes teaches medieval history at Boston University. I met him through the efforts of the incomparable Fern Oppenheim during my trip to Israel in the summer of 2007 along with Andrew Breitbart and a few other denizens of the Internet. We traveled as guests of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. At the time Professor Landes was exposing what he dubbed Pallywood. There is a thematic connection to the current video, through which I am delighted to reconnect with Professor Landes and bring his work to the attention of our readers.

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