Admittedly, I’m a bit touchy about false reports that Jews are involved in sinister activities, like the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press reports that a Jewish real-estate developer in California, having raised five million dollars from “more than 100 Jewish donors,” created the anti-Islam video that touched off riots throughout the Arab world and became the pretense for killing American diplomats in Libya. A cursory knowledge of history, conspiracy theories, and stereotyping — from international banking conspiracies to the Holocaust and its denial to present-day hate groups — can make you feel that way. But normally responsible sources like the Journal and the AP needn’t play into the hands of reactionaries, as they did in the initial reports that Jews were at the bottom of the worldwide furor.
The error was not insignificant. In a day when hateful misinformation can produce instantaneous tragedy in any corner of an overwrought world, as it so clearly has in this case, laying responsibility at the feet of an “Israeli Jew” and his affluent Jewish friends can incite more violence against Jews and anyone else in the path of those moved to murder, in the name of God, over a perceived religious affront.
The error was entirely preventable, as well. As a cursory attempt to check the facts would have revealed, no Sam Bacile — the alleged creator of the video screed — ever walked the earth. It’s equally clear from viewing the 14-minute, YouTube post that it didn’t cost five million dollars, or even five thousand, to produce. And would it stand to reason that the imaginary Bacile, as an Israeli, would attempt to “help his native land” by provoking its neighbors with a vile depiction of Muhammad? Or that the individual at the other end of the phone — who’d be blamed for the deaths of innocent Americans and the spread of rioting across a continent, and who’d become the target of extremists himself — would provide his real name?
Yet another irony of the story is that bigoted zealots of the type actually responsible for the anti-Muslim film — its consultant founded a group that, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is “a combustible mix of guns, extreme antigovernment politics, and religious extremism” — are so often anti-Semites themselves. Indeed, the Jews were blamed by the film’s creator who knew full well the condemnation and peril they’d face as a result.
In allowing themselves to be duped by a convicted con artist with a grudge against the Muslim world, the Journal and the AP have, through their own carelessness, played into stereotypes of wealthy Jews conspiring to subvert the institutions of the world — in this case the religion of Islam — in their age-old pursuit of global hegemony. And the spread of the violence and unrest throughout the Middle East in response to a bizarrely ham-handed video clip is more proof than anyone needs of the destructive potential of such stereotypes in today’s interconnected world.
Adding insult to injury, both organizations were slow to concede error and correct their mistakes. As Washington Post staff writer Paul Farhi noted, “The apparent mis-reporting of Bacile’s identity triggered a series of ‘updates’ from media sources, but no direct admissions that earlier reports were incorrect.” The Journal subsequently reported that Bacile had gone “into hiding” and that no record of him could be found, prompting Farhi to ask the obvious question of “how a man who apparently does not exist can go ‘into hiding.’”
The WSJ also noted that “on Tuesday, the Journal spoke to a man who claimed to be the director and called himself Sam Bacile,” but failed to point out that, in addition to listening to the man’s assertions, it reported them as fact. The article mentioned that “Sam Bacile is not an Israeli-American, and his attempt to pass himself off as one is a potentially deadly slander,” but neglected to mention the Journal’s role in sloppily disseminating potential defamation.
In response to an inquiry from PBS’s “MediaShift” about the misreporting, the author of the original Wall Street Journal article explained, “The whole thing blindsided everyone.” Not everyone, actually, just the journalists who in their haste to scoop the competition didn’t bother to check the facts. The author of the Journal article attempted to sidestep any personal responsibility for the errors by explaining,” I’m a columnist, not a reporter.”
The reluctance of the Journal and the AP to fess up to the mistake may make little difference, though. As Jeffrey Goldberg of The Altantic points out, following the initial dissemination of the information to the far reaches of the globe, “It is not possible to withdraw such a story.”
The Journal and the AP aren’t the only media sources that could’ve easily uncovered the truth before they passed along combustible falsehoods; the misinformation was parroted by many other major news outlets. Market forces in the super-competitive, 24/7 cable and Internet news industry mustn’t obscure the need to check facts, however; and verifying the truth of an assertion before it is printed or broadcast, and owning up to inaccuracies when they are, are hardly limitations on free speech.
In his response to MediaShift’s inquiry, the author of the Journal article seemed to agree: “I guess there are some big questions about living in a world where we have to get our stories out so quickly that we neglect the possible fatal consequences of an error. But on the other hand, there’s a judgment call to be made about the proper balance between perfect accuracy and speed.” Unfortunately, the reporter — oops, “columnist” — and the Journal made the wrong call on this one.
As the editors of our esteemed news organizations well know, the job of journalists is to report the news, not to become it by fanning the flames.
Jay Sterling Silver is a law professor at St. Thomas University School of Law in South Florida. Many of his other pieces can be found in the National Law Journal and the Huffington Post.
Interestingly, Israel’s most prestigious newspaper, Ha’aretz, also reported this story erroneously as emanating from this Sam Bacile who claimed to be an Israeli. I wonder if journalists nowadays need to reconcile the competing demands of speed with accuracy by publishing rumors or initial unconfirmed reports with a warning that these have not yet been confirmed. Or should they simply refrain from publishing until the facts are more clear, which Prof. Silver seems to argue, but the competitive marketplace may have rendered impractical?
At a certain point, a news source has to decide that what they know (or think they know) is close enough to the truth. It is a cliche by now that journalists “write the first draft of history”; it may take a writer or historian years or even decades to uncover the actual truth. So this matter is inherently problematic.
Don’t ‘nt the right hand know what the left hand is doing??? Wouldn’t it had been far easier to say we didn’t do it??? How-ever – William John ” Bill” Bennett LUV’s cenocides to save his own butt – So maybe the crew – isn’t hidden after all – The Ultras…. The master minds of the last 50 years…
It is still widely believed in te Mulsim world that Jews were behind the attacks on 911. It serves woto shape there opinions on US actions.
Of course an Egyptian producer released his version of the age old anti Semitic text, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. And you wonder why Israel is not accepted in the region? We have also seen a parade of anti Semites here in Tikkun Daily. just wait till Rahmat shows up with his link to Rahmat’s World.
My only problem with this piece is that it refers to the Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal as:a “normally responsible source…”
As a progressive Muslim, I was deeply suspicious of the claim that an “Israeli Jew” and “Jewish donors” were behind the incredibly inept film on YouTube. It was just too neat a solution and played directly into the hatreds and fears of irresponsible Muslim mobs in the third world. Personally, I find the clip so bizarre and poorly made that I can only imagine that a truly scurrilous voice-over in Arabic must have accompanied it.
I am deeply ashamed for the response of the mobs, and that anyone had to suffer, let alone die, for this piece of nonsense. The Prophet (saw) himself withstood much worse in Mecca under the hands of the Quresh and responded with peace, not with blood shed and violence. It is his example of patience and tolerance the mobs should be emulating, not this mindless violence. In fact, there were counter protests in Libya, where people held up signs apologizing to America and denouncing the violence. I pray that Mursi in Egypt will search his heart and find it to quell the anger and follow the example of our Prophet (saw). Sadly, that does not seem to be happening.
Also, the timing of the release of this clip played too well into third world Muslim fears. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is edging closer and closer to war with Iran — something I pray for both countries will not happen. There is now a massive international naval presence in the Straits of Hormuz just waiting for that contingency. There could be no “better time” for such a piece of (to borrow a good Yiddish word) dreck to be released and inflame hatred: Jew against Muslim.
So, to conclude, I concur with the writer of this article. The reporters did NOT do their job, either for Jews throughout the world or for Muslims, in reporting the story. Far better they should have kept silence on the supposed “origin” of this clip, until the facts could have been verified.
Besides [sarcasm] isn’t Hollywood supposed to be the haven of the Elders of Zion who make movies? And wouldn’t such film makers make a much better movie that “Innocence of the Muslims”? (If you haven’t seen the clip, it is something that a vindictive 4-year-old with Daddy’s help and a bunch of sheets for costumes, and a Final Cut, could have made on a home computer.) It is so sad. it would be humorous if it were not for the fact of so much violence that has erupted because of it.
I like to use this analogy. If I have an old pet, and I tell my neighbor (who is not Jewish! 🙂 ), “Please don’t poke my old pet with a stick.” Then that neighbor not only pokes my pet with the stick, he puts out an eye. This video was meant to inflame: Muslim against Jew. It is a travesty. But all I can say is this: “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”
Shalom, Salaam, and Peace to all brothers and sisters under the Abrahamic G-D, and belatedly, Rosh Hashanah Tovah, may the new year bring sweetness to you, and not evil slander.
Wel Lynn, your condemnation is more than welcome. The violence and hatred is being generated by ext rest Mullahs in largely Muslim countries and a bias press. It is for the most part to draw the public’;s attention to the misery and oppression at home. What better way to consolidate power than to generate hatred elsewhere? It worked for germany ion the 1930’s and the end result was not pretty. Jewish success where they settle is their curse. It makes for an easy target. The is not unique to just Jews, but it certainly has defined hatred towards them for 2000 years
I want to thank you Lynn by repeating what you did from my background instead of yours:
The Charles Manson clan used blood as to speech to write “P” in their victim’s blood to create a worldwide race war he called Helter Skelter. They weren’t punished for their speech in blood because convicting them of direct murder rather than attempted baiting of mass murder was enough to keep him in jail. When windows of tall buildings used to open a few used to cry jump at anyone standing on the ledge. A generation later I still want to see any of those perpetrators punished
Recently some group put a lot of effort to complete Manson’s dream, or to cause worldwide mayhem to give the Obama Administration a Jimmy Carter October surprise ending.
Media for Christ sponsored a fictionalized film about Coptic Christians being mistreated in Egypt.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/21/innocence-of-muslims-film-permit_n_1903570.html
Coptic Christians in Egypt helped pay for it. Pieces of the film were rearranged into a trailer and insults to Islam very haphazardly dubbed in, in order to induce Muslim extremists to carefully finish the job, by skillfully dubbing and slightly expanding the insults into Arabic, and sending it on some Muslim blogs. A hundred imaginary Jewish donors and Coptic Christians in Egypt who helped sponsor the original a movie on Coptic discrimination, being put in harms way,
Sam Bacily earlier efforts was gathering together a massive amount of ingredients to form Meth or speed, until he was arrested for his efforts. He was hired to call himself a director of a new film he was told would be called Innocence of bin Laden, and may not have known that someone other than bin Laden was going to be smeared in the porn flick. When Sam found out the truth of the project and whether he continued to push it afterwords is important to Muslims but the whole world needs to be very concerned over what organization admires Charles Manson’s legacy. Some group supposedly committed atrocities in Syria to be blamed on the government to try to get the US and other countries to help the opposition. To risk changing direction the US risked its future security by not leaving Iraq and apologizing to Saddam, after no weapons of mass destruction were found. Unless we take this kind of false flags seriously from now on, the future of us all is pretty grim.
Walid Shoebat a Muslim who had a breakdown and is now a Christian infatuated with Israel, somewhat similar to David Horowitz is spreading the story on conservative Christian blogs that the whole film clip is an al Qaeda plot. Again he may or not know differently. He and David Horowitz are spreading the lie that the 9/1l peace mosque where all religions will be invited to worship, nevertheless, honors bin Laden, even though al Qaeda and the Norwegian terrorist who attacked a summer camp are united in the the belief in not wanting to delude their cultures with foreign influence. I urge that peace monument be built to poke out bin Laden’s successes at separating the religions.
We human’s lately try to solve all our problems with punishment. I would be content to see Sam Bacily and Norwegian bigot, Anders Breivik under heavy guard spending their next few years as a brick layer or some other job building the NY City 9/11 peace mosque.
Very few people brag about hurling the insult “fatso” at a heavy person, but many see those who purposely upset Muslims as being heroic, defending free speech, and standing up for religious liberty. Even if you believe Islam is wrong, try going up to a mother smoking holding her baby and scream you are killing that child with smoke, you child abuser, you piece of “S”, you dirty “S”. Imagine this world being different enough that, that insulter would be considered a hero standing up for a cleaner world and healthier human beings, and the victim’s reaction proof that she is a bad mother.
When US flag burning was illegal some burned red, white a blue stared cloth to see how far they could go and still be legal. When department stores were hounded out of putting peace signs on clothing a peace sign without the bottom line appeared. Whatever the punishment laws should be people should be prevented from screaming jump at someone standing on a window sill or in trying to bait this planet into mayhem. And it is the duty of every government to discover what group exactly is behind this provocations including mayhem in Syria to be blamed on the other side.
Enclosed is web material I produced to help heal the hurt,
http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/212-212/13706-insulting-muslims-contrasted-with-the-n-word-and-shouting-vicious-p-at-a-police-officers-funeral
http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/profiles/blog/list?user=1ps27hsfgy1t0#.UGjdiJE8CCk
In some circles Jews are the automatic victims.
I think it would be a good i dea for some historian
to make a list of non Jewish public figures that have caused untold
murder and mayhem, such as Stalin, Lenin, Hitler and
George W. Bush.
The list would be endless.
Pol Pot
Saddam Hussein
Sudan’s President Bashit ( under indictment for genocide)
And now we have Assad.
Um.. Otto, as piss awful Bush was ,he diode not send an army in to target civilians for genocide. I love how you place him in the category of HItler, lenin or Stalin. As an American I resent that you owulld compare any president with those monsters.