Irish Times chooses the downhill slippery slope of embedded journalism

On the 22nd and 23rd of July the Irish Times published two articles, by Northern Editor, Gerry Moriarty reporting from Israel where he spent the best part of a week with a group of other Irish journalists embedded at the invitation of the Israeli Ministry of foreign-affairs, politicians, charity workers, community activists, religious, business and medical people and ordinary civilians.

Reading the articles his hosts must have been well pleased with their efforts to rehabilitate Israel’s tarnished image in the wake of its latest massacre in Gaza. Anyone familiar with Israel’s brutal subjugation of the Palestinian people would be forgiven for thinking that Mr. Moriarty must have enjoyed a little too much of his hosts hospitality before writing the articles.

As a professional journalist and Editor, Mr. Moriarty is expected to report factual information without the omission of uncomfortable truths or the inclusion of misinformation from sources with a vested interest in distorting the facts and manipulating public opinion. He failed to meet this standard. He either allowed himself to be sucked in like a rookie journalist still wet behind the ears, or, more likely given his experience, allowed his own prejudices to surface. Either way the result is the propagation of a dangerously distorted picture of a very ugly reality. Palestinian children in the ghettos of the West Bank and Gaza bear the ultimate burden of such sloppy and irresponsible journalism.

Mr. Moriarty failed to challenge the opinions of those selected to meet him during his heavily scheduled week. Englishman and Israeli resident Barrie Rothman who felt the Israeli attacks with white phosphorous and flechette nail bombs on the defenceless and besieged residents of Gaza were justified was not asked how such callous disregard for the safety and health of his neighbour’s children, 315 of whom died during the assault, could advance the cause of justice and peace in the region.

He did not ask how Israeli citizens in Sedrot felt about the fact that the rightful owners of the land which Israel ethnically cleansed and stole to build their new town were refugees in Gaza, still denied their right to return to their property by Israel. Such, albeit uncomfortable, questions would have made Mr. Moriarty’s reports much more enlightening.

Apart from his failure to probe, Mr. Moriarty grossly downplayed the impact of Israel’s devastating two year siege on Gaza with a breathtaking understatement: “There are restrictions on what is allowed to pass through” (the border crossing into Gaza). Pity the residents of Gaza who might have dared to hope that the presence of an Irish Times Editor would shine some light into the darkness of their abyss and offer even the slim hope of rescue or relief from their purgatory. Mr. Moriarty, bathed in the hospitality of their oppressors, like so many Westerners, turned the blind eye.

Worse still, he took up the sword against them, or in his case the much more lethal pen, paraphrasing the frequently misquoted (in Western media) words of Iranian President Ahnadinejad claiming he, Hizbullah and Hamas want to see Israel and Israelis swept into the Mediterranean.

The dearth of Mr. Moriarty’s knowledge about the Oslo peace process was exposed by his parodying Seamus Mallon’s explanation for the stagnation of the Northern Ireland peace process: “Oslo for slow learners” when asked if he had learned anything during his visit. It is obvious from such a remark that Mr. Moriarty is not aware of the vacuous rhetoric that was at the heart of the Olso charade that further undermined the Palestinians’ situation.

Mr. Moriarty’s reports fall far short of the standards set forth by Madam Kennedy on the paper’s web site where she says its readers “buy the newspaper on the understanding that they will be offered the best journalism in Ireland: reports that are honest, accurate and comprehensive; and analysis that is informed, fair and based on the facts.”

One wonders what purpose Mr. Moriarty’s trip served other that to facilitate Israel’s desire to get a toe on the high moral ground. In doing so the Irish Times chose the downhill slippery slope of embedded journalism.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0722/122....html
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0723/122....html