New Beatles, But Old Questions About Media Coverage of Middle East Conflict

"Now and Then" and...again, brutal war and the press.

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books and now writer/director of award-winning films. He was the longtime executive editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. His newsletter remains FREE when you subscribe. His film “Atomic Cover-up” became free via Kanopy this month and the current “Memorial Day Massacre: Workers Die, Film Buried" remains free on the PBS site. Both have companion books.

Update: Some guy keeps putting up John's demo of "Now and Then" and it gets taken down (has 45 seconds cut from new single). Here for now.

Okay, a few things today. First on a happy note: You’ve probably already found or been bombarded with the “new” Beatles single, courtesy of Peter Jackson’s team of technicians and help from Paul and Ringo and approval from families of George and John. Because you’ve maybe read it all before, I will skip the background and just post the song below, along with a Washington Post appraisal that found it “disappointing” or in any case “not enough.” Since my expectations were pretty low, I have to say I find it very fine, haunting and moving. John’s re-figured voice does sound more like Paul’s, but I love the tune.

Friend Mikal Gilmore: “As advanced as technology is, not even Paul McCartney can rewind the tape and make this a composition by the Beatles from, say, 1967 or 1969…. This is a song by a John Lennon who had rejected the Beatle version of himself, purged his music and come to some kind of domestic peace. But it is still a song by John Lennon – and bears the watermark of his slightly melancholic and experimental melodic sense.”

Anyway, here it is, along with a cartoon. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE.

Next, a reminder that my film Atomic Cover-up is now up at PBS.org and all PBS apps, free for all everywhere. My post here earlier this week with links for film, companion book, background, reviews etc.

Finally: Occasionally I post guest columns here. Here is a new one from writer Beth Arnold. She reminds me of my days as the editor of Editor & Publisher when we won numerous national awards for our coverage of the media mistakes related to the Iraq war (my own writing was collected in my book So Wrong for So Long, with an intro by Bruce Springsteen). Of course, she now focuses on the media and the current Gaza/Israel/Hamas tragedy.

By Beth Arnold

IN LATE 2002, my husband, James Morgan, and I moved to France to research and write a book called Chasing Matisse. It was a heady time for us. We had chucked our lives in America to see ourselves with fresh eyes and to experience life in profound new ways. It was the promise of new beginnings.

But by early 2003, longtime U.S. supporter France was being vilified by the American press for not supporting President George W. Bush in his frothy eagerness to start a war with Iraq.  What Jim and I witnessed as American citizens in France was the mainstream U.S. media, including trusted news anchors of the networks, not reporting the actual news but instead dispensing propaganda that was priming the American public for a war with Iraq, as well as to be angry and resentful towards the French for not going along with it.

Yes, France opposed the invasion—and rightly so. But Jim and I were astonished to hear, from newsmen we admired, ridiculous stories of anti-American sentiment throughout France—we felt nothing of the kind; in fact, we felt just the opposite. “French Fries” being renamed “Freedom Fries” as a taunt and an indictment against the French was broadcast and circulated widely.  And it worked. If you don’t know the story, you’ll find it here.

According to Mother Jones—where you can find a lie-by-lie timeline of how we got into Iraq—a White House Iraq group was created to market the war in August, 2002. This was then being sold to the American Congress and the American people and, finally, to the world.  France and other countries didn’t buy it. Nevertheless, the propaganda flowed.

AND NOW, TERRIBLY, we have the chaos and crisis in the Middle East, which is being incessantly reported by major news sources…but how and from what point of view?   Hamas brutally murdering 1400 innocent Israelis, including the elderly and little children, and kidnapping over 200 hostages is a nightmare. To add to that human slaughter, innocent civilians in Gaza are now paying the price with over 8,000 people—of which at least 40% are women and children—who have by some reports been killed in Gaza, while Israel takes down whole city blocks searching for Hamas.

And when will this indiscriminate killing stop?  “Helpless people are being subjected to horrific bombing,” said Medicins sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders International President Dr. Christos Christou. “Families have nowhere to run or to hide, as hell is unleashed on them. Water, food, fuel, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid in Gaza need to be urgently restored. We need a ceasefire now.”

I can only imagine the depth of the anger and despair Israelis felt over the terroristic attack that killed their loved ones and countrymen. I have seen their agony reported over and over on every newscast covering it for the last few weeks, and not just the facts of this hideous event; Israel’s POV is repeatedly promoted, and many times, along with Israeli talking points.

Grief and loss are core issues we all deal with throughout our lives. But this is another situation where governments, peoples, and groups want to direct the narrative of what’s happening to their own points-of-view.  The Middle East is a never-ending murky area and subject, but this is a humanitarian catastrophe for both sides, and there is a mountain of propaganda being floated through cyberspace and the media as if it was some cosmic truth.

From my experience watching American media from Europe, I learned that to get a more complete world view, I needed to go to other news sources rather than American.  Here are a few current observations:

1.     There are Jewish groups and people who see that this tragedy is real for both Israel and the Palestinians. They feel compassion for the civilians who are profoundly suffering in Gaza—and they see that a two-state solution must be put in place for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace. They want peace, period, and they are trying to stay away from damaging propaganda.

2.     There are other Jewish groups or people who will not consider another POV beyond their own. And if they see others showing compassion and/or understanding for the suffering civilians in Gaza, these individuals are referred to as Jew-hating anti-Semites. Their anger is also directed at the humanitarian organizations in Gaza—the United Nations, Medicins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders, OxFam—who they say are lying about the complete collapse of humane conditions in Gaza as well as the number of civilian deaths reported, which is Hamas propaganda. I am unclear whether they care if the deaths are real or not.

3.     Islamist militant movement Hamas (which many countries have labeled as a terrorist organization) had evidently been preparing for the surprise attack in great detail, and we are told that they broadcast their own awful cruelty on October 7th. The point of these sorts of videos is terror and shock. Mission accomplished…for the whole world. Hamas created their own propaganda on the ground.

Lies about Israel, lies about Gaza. We live in limitless duality, and this is the most recent and harshest example of it.

But in the meantime, the world is watching the trickle of humanitarian aid getting through to Gaza as well as the suffering and death that engulfs the Gaza Strip 24/7. It is pounding international consciousness. Massive protests in favor of a ceasefire as well as for a free Palestine that are happening in every world city indicate that people are fed up with governments standing by and watching the carnage happen. And in the case of the United States, that we’re supplying bombs that are indiscriminately destroying whole families.

But where are Americans seeing this global outcry reported? Not much in our own media. One has to go to Al-Jazeera to get a more inclusive view of what’s happening in Gaza.  Make no mistake. The Arab world is incensed about Western coverage.  It doesn’t help that Israel won’t let international journalists into Gaza to independently report on the situation there. And why is nobody saying anything about this?

One thing is certain: Propaganda is not going away. But what level of propaganda is acceptable for the American Press to employ, and what should our knowledge about their bias be? And should we not expect our journalists to report the facts including both sides of a story?

Beth Arnold is an award-winning journalist whose prime topics are culture, politics, travel, art, and design. She is the author of Jours of Our Lives: On the Road in France and Beyond, a chronicle of her and her husband’s move to France, where they lived for a decade. You can reach her at beth@betharnold.com.