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Also this issue: Lethal Logic The Big Stink The Bell Curve Who's on Second? The Green Mile |
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July 18-24, 2002
city beat
 signed up: Demonstrators and counter-demonstrators converged at Inquirer headquarters last Friday. Photo By: Michael T. Regan |
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It’s Friday, July 12, just before noon, and nearly 300 demonstrators -- mostly white, mostly Jewish -- have converged in front of the 400 N. Broad St. headquarters of the Philadelphia Inquirer. About 200 of those assembled, many of them members of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), are here to protest what they say is “anti-Semitic” reporting on the Middle East crisis. The other 100 or so are from Jewish Mobilization for a Just Peace and some other groups, and they have come to protest against the ZOA and its position (according to Jewish Mobilization literature) that “it is unacceptable to debate U.S. policy on the Middle East in the pages of a major newspaper.”
Beneath high-flying Israeli and American flags, and amid placards emblazoned with slogans like "Don't Buy Bias -- Boycott the Inquirer" and "If You Love Jews, Stop the Illegal Occupation of Palestine," the two groups take their places on opposite sides of the building's front doors.
"We are here today to tell the editors, the writers and the corporate bosses [of the Inquirer] that freedom of speech does not mean freedom to distort the truth," Len Getz, president of the local ZOA chapter, bellows through a bullhorn. "They are refusing to call [the Palestinians] terrorists and are portraying these killers and their parents as victims in their Œso-called' human-interest stories. Even worse, they bury the important pro-Israeli stories on page 24."
Toward the corner of Broad and Callowhill streets, and along the boulevard's median, the counter-demonstrators are holding their ground. Alex Volin, of Mt. Airy, carries a sign that reads, "Jews Against the Occupation."
"We're not here to defend or attack the Inquirer," Volin says. "We're here to support freedom of speech, because we want all sides of the story to be told in the media."
The day before the demonstration, Inquirer editors met with members of Palestine Media Watch, which has been analyzing the paper's coverage in excruciating detail for more than a year. Its latest report accuses the paper of implying, primarily through photograph selection and placement, that "the bulk of civilian suffering is borne by Israelis ... [and] that Israel rarely acts as an aggressor."
When readers on both sides of a divisive issue accuse you of bias, does that mean your coverage is fair?
In a way, yes, concedes Lillian Swanson, the Inquirer's readers' advocate. "I guess that does mean we're probably doing a good job," she allows. "I think it's a sign that we're on the right track."
And since word of the demonstrations got out -- the Inquirer reported on the plans two days before -- positive feedback on the paper's coverage of the Middle East has been rolling in at roughly the same rate as complaints, Swanson adds.
But the demonstrations followed a more significant change in the feedback Swanson first noticed a few months ago: a sharp increase in the number of strongly worded, strident, accusatory e-mails. Attempts at discussion have given way to attempts at coercion.
"I think we take it seriously," she says of the criticisms leveled by individuals and organizations. "But at the same time, we don't appreciate when anyone assigns a motive to us. That's where we draw the line."
"[The Palestinians] are not militants, anytime, anywhere. They are terrorists: every time, everywhere," says Herb Denenberg, the broadcast and print journalist, as he drops sections of the daily broadsheet into a large, orange trash bin, labeled Denenberg's Dump. "Someone said to give them hell. Well, I'm going to give them something worse -- I'm gonna give them the truth!"
Denenberg announces that he has brought an indictment against the Inquirer and has had a grand jury impaneled to investigate why the newspaper repeatedly referred to a springtime Israeli incursion into Jenin as a massacre -- even after it was disproved.
"They never provided any evidence of the massacre, but they kept on reporting it, over and over again," he tells the crowd.
"It's a lie. It's a lie," someone yells.
"Let's face it. It's Jew hatred," says another.
"Walker Lundy, are you listening?" Denenberg demands of the Inquirer's editor. Lundy, who is standing tall, but silently, on the edge of the crowd next to a bulky security guard, offers no response.
Occasionally, demonstrators and counter-demonstrators exchange words. "You are a traitor," says a middle-aged woman, decked out in a large straw hat and a bright-green pantsuit, to Volin. Her finger is just inches from Volin's nose.
"Do you want to hear what I have to say?" Volin asks.
"No, you are a traitor," is her curt reply. "How can you call yourself a Jew? You're nothing but a turncoat and a Nazi."
Jewish Mobilization for a Just Peace, along with Bubbes & Zaydes for Middle East Peace, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and American Friends Service Committee, has been holding silent, peaceful vigils in front of the Israeli Consulate for the better part of a year.
"The ZOA is not the voice of the Jewish community in Philadelphia," says Rachael Kamel of Jewish Mobilization. "[Our contingent is] made up of many different groups, but we all agree in freedom of the press and separation of church and state. We're looking for more debate, not less. More information, not less. We're looking to have our voices heard as part of the democratic process. We actually believe in the Bill of Rights."
By 1 p.m., the rally is winding down. As folks pack up signs, flags and banners, a few linger to make their final points.
"If you want to have peace, talk to the Palestinians. Don't kill them," Ahmed Bouzid of Palestine Media Watch says to a ZOA member.
"Who's killing them?" Arnold Tuzman retorts. "The Israelis are defending themselves."
"You defend yourself by killing other people?" Bouzid asks, incredulously.
"Yes, if you have to," Tuzman says.
Hal Switkay, of Swarthmore, is one of the last to leave. A ZOA organizer, he's been left with the task of tidying up.
"I'm pleased we had a lot of people turn out today," he says. "People inside the Inquirer were definitely aware of us, and hopefully this will be the beginning of a process to broaden the coverage and give more context to the stories. Hopefully, I say. But, really, who knows?"
