Friday, January 16, 2009

Orthodox Bias

In this mornings Hamodia(Thursday,even though its now 1:15 am for me that's still considered today)in the Letters to the Editor section someone wrote a letter defending the media bias against Israel.In short,he explained how in order to be let into a war zone,be granted interviews by the terrorists and to spare their own lives,journalists must side with the terrorists and publicize their point of view.Its a very good point but alas I must disagree.I know its not much of an argument without positive proof but I am too tired to think of specific cases of media bias against Jews and Orthodox Jews in particular that doesn't involve Israelis Muslims or war.But who can deny that happens quite often.Every time an Orthodox Jew is arrested and thrown in jail(as they rightly deserve to be)for fraud or child abuse,does the media not make it into a Jewish issue and ignore the credo about rotten apples?This has nothing to do with war,terrorist interviews or fear of life.Is this not an anti Jewish media bias?

This issue of media bias only gets more interesting when you think about the Orthodox Jewish newspapers.As Jewish papers they are or claim to be,the voice of Orthodox Jewry.As such they often speak out against the media bias.Nobody stops to think how biased they also are.Everyone is biased in accordance with his own views The Muslims have theirs,the Israelis have theirs,the right wingers have theirs and left wingers have whatever least resembles common sense.This is fine when its Jew vs. Muslim.The problem arises when within the Jewish community there is an incident or news story-ten Jews,thirteen opinions,isn't that what they say?But the orthodox papers will each only publish their slant,how they see it or want it to be.Is this too not bias?

The reason I seem to be taking this personally is because it is personal.A little bit.After the tragedy in Mumbai I sent letters for the first time to both the Yated and Hamodia.It was mostly the same idea people were saying at the time about increasing achdus and the like.Except I had a little twist in mine.I pointed out the similarities of the tragedy in Mumbai and in Mercaz HaRav in the summer.How the victims were mostly not what one would call 'mainstream' yet people who the day before would be hesitant to count him in a minyan because hes not exactly like 'us' would today cry for him.The main point I was trying to make was that while crucial to increase achdus among family,friends and people who daven in your shul-its more important to increase achdus with people who are different than you.Whose to say who is better?From the stories we all heard afterward it seemed like all the victims were better people and better Jews than we are.Definitely better than me or anyone I know.........Long story short(its my blog I can go off on tangents)the Hamodia never printed my letter.The Yated did but a censored version.Apparently the fact that the victims may have been better Jews and not 'mainstream',had potential to offend a lot of people.Is this not also a case of media bias?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Karma Dude's rules of survival:
Rule 2985: The more unbiased a man says he is, the more biased he is.
Explanation: Every human being (unless he is a certifiable moron, which 90% of people I know, are) is biased to everything. If everyone you knew growing up likes pizza, chances are, so do you. If everyone you knew growing up hated Israel, chances are, so do you.
The job of a journalist is to try to look past his/her personal biases and report the news as it actually happens. But if you're going to try to convince me that you have no bias, I don’t buy it.
For that matter, if you try to sell me that you have no bias,, I’ll slit your throat.
To summarize, You tell me you looked past your biases and you're reporting the news, maybe I buy it maybe I don't.
You tell me you're unbiased, I kill you because you're either full of shit or you listen to too much Rush/Hannity to think on your own, so you’re selling their biases.
That's it I have to say on the subject. If you don't like it, don't vote for me.
Paid for by KARMA DUDE for DICTATOR. copyright 2009.