PMWATCH - May 2, 2002 -- On March 29, 2002, when the IDF rampage against Palestinian towns, villages, and refugee camps started, we complained that the media was NOT asking the most basic question that common sense rquires one to ask of the Israelis: "If Ariel Sharon and his government are really after pressing Arafat to stop suicide bombers, then why have they confined him to his barracks since December 2001, destroyed his helicopters, annihilated his communication and security infrastructures, and relentlessly terrorized Palestinian civilians?"

Now that Arafat is allowed to emerge and the "military operation" is declared complete, once again the media seems to be flouting the most basic journalistic common sense by not only refraining from asking the right questions, but by asking questions that betray a basic lack of perspective and common sense.

Here are some facts: (1) all the major human rights groups have concluded that in Jenin and elsewhere, war crimes and gross human rights violations were committed, needlessly, willfully, by the IDF; (2) Israel has refused to allow a UN fact finding mission into Jenin; (3) the IDF has inflicted heavy damage on the civilian infrastructure of Palestinian society; (4) the IDF has inflicted heavy damage on the PA's security aparatus.

These are facts that no one is denying.

Here are some sources for IDF-propaganda free information:

And yet: what are reporters asking Arafat as he emerges from a crushing, humiliating ordeal, personally and as a leader, who has seen his people battered and have war crimes perpetrated against them while the world sat by complaining but doing nothing else?

They are asking Arafat and the Palestinians: "Are you going to condemn terrorism and what are you going to do to stop it?"

They are asking someone who was humiliated, whose authority was dragged in the mud, to face his people -- who were battered and treated like cattle, imprisoned for weeks in their homes -- and lecture them about the evil of violence!

When will the US media display some common sense, and a sense of basic decency while we are at it, and start to think independently? Why do they insist on asking loaded questions that grossly reveal that deep down, they have fully bought into the Israeli narrative?

Please send in your comments to the media on the need to inject a sense of perspective -- and some COMMON sense -- and to think a little before asking flagrantly loaded questions.

Your letter will be sent to:

		48hours@cbsnews.com
		60@cbsnews.com
		am@cnn.com
		andyr@nytimes.com
		bdold@tribune.com
		cable@msnbc.com
		cdavis@phillynews.com
		Christiane.Amanpour2@cnn.com
		cmcmahon@tribune.com
		community@cnn.com
		community@cnn.com
		csatullo@phillynews.com
		dan.fisher@msnbc.com
		diehlj@washpost.com

		eason.jordan@turner.com
		editor@reuters.com
		editor@usatoday.com
		evening@cbsnews.com
		foreign@phillynews.com
		foreign@washpost.com
		friends@foxnews.com

		hraines@nytimes.com
		inquirer.letters@phillynews.com
		jacoby@globe.com
		kingc@washpost.com
		letter.editor@edit.wsj.com
		letter@globe.com 
		letters@iht.com
		letters@latimes.com
		letters@nytimes.com
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		letters@washtimes.com
		mcooke@suntimes.com 
		michael.moran@msnbc.com

		mmatza@phillynews.com
		nightline@abcnews.com
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		nwarwick@phillynews.com
		nytnews@nyt.com
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		oreilly@foxnews.com
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		tauth@phillynews.com
		tom.johnson@turner.com
		trubin@phillynews.com
		Viewerservices@foxnews.com
		World@MSNBC.com

For other basic media failings, please visit:

http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/cast/sharonsbloodyhands.asp

http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/cast/mediatimidity.asp

http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/features/mediapractices.html