Sunday, February 05, 2012

PennBDS Bans Journalist

According to Mondoweiss, journalist and documentary filmmaker Martin Himel has been banned from interviewing participants at the Pro-BDS conference at the University of Pennsylvania. They used a technicality, saying he did not register as a journalist and was interviewing participants under false pretenses. Really? I think the problem is the fact that he's pro-Israel.

I've never heard of Martin Himel before, but from what I've read, it seems the PennBDS organizers are afraid he'll interview people who don't know who he is, will then edit his footage to pick the worst things people say and then portray the BDS conference-goers as anti-Semites. Indeed, despicable tactics that I do not endorse. However, these are tactics the pro-Palestinian side has endorsed in the form of faux journalist Max Blumenthal's propaganda pieces against Israel.

Blumenthal's usual MO is to go to all kinds of places, stick a camera and microphone in the faces of people who don't know who he is, ask questions, take only the worst quotes to make Israelis/Jewish Americans/whatever look bad and give no context (for instance, one of his videos was from the right-wing group "Im Tirtzu"'s demonstration, but he didn't mention that fact). When Blumenthal or any other anti-Israel filmmaker does this to make Israelis look bad, then it is okay, but when it is done to your side it isn't?

3 comments:

  1. Blumenthal's usual MO is to go to all kinds of places, stick a camera and microphone in the faces of people who don't know who he is, […]

    I’m not generally keen on that kind of journalism but it does get results. If someone gets a microphone shoved under their noses and they spout racist nonsense, is that the microphone or the journalists fault? Racist statements like that are made in the public domain, G-d only knows what such racists would claim behind closed doors!

    If Blumenthal announced himself as an ‘anti-Zionist journalist investigating racism in Israel’, do you think he’d get a single honest response? People are responsible for what they say.

    There are however far more convincing ways of investigating racism than by mere street interviews. The latter have become quite the fad of 24 hour ‘infotainment’, replete with mini-‘polls’ (ask three people a question, then claim ‘this is what the people have to say’) that have no significance.

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  2. "If Blumenthal announced himself as an ‘anti-Zionist journalist investigating racism in Israel’, do you think he’d get a single honest response? People are responsible for what they say."

    Looking for honest responses is legitimate. Editing those responses manipulatively is not. I have no sympathy for the racists in those videos. My objection is to the fact that Blumenthal is selective in what he puts in his videos. The racists stay in, the non-racists are cut, and then he presents his ideological foes as racists.

    The organizers barred Himel from filming because he used the same tactics (if I undertsand correctly), including not saying who he is. When it's done to their opponents, they have no problem with it. When it's done to them they cry foul.

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