Sunday, July 12, 2009

Sins of Omission

Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, foreign editor of The Australian and advertised "most influential foreign affairs analyst in Australian journalism," did not write these sentences in his opinion piece on 9 July: '[A]s usual, the Israelis have the international community bluffed. They have achieved this with the Palestinian territories in part by convincing the world that all Palestinian activists are 9/11-style terrorists.'

But he did write this: "[A]s usual, the Chinese have the international community bluffed. They have achieved this with Xinjiang in part by convincing the world that all Uighur activists are 9/11-style terrorists." (China's crackdown has the world bluffed)

Nor did he write: 'The Palestinians have a lot of grievances... When the Jewish Zionists took control of Palestine in 1948, Jews made up 33% of the poulation, with Palestinians the vast majority.'

But he did write this: "The Uighurs have a lot of grievances... When the Han Chinese communists took control of Xinjiang in 1949, ethnic Han made up about 6% of the population, with Uighurs the vast majority." (ibid)

He has never referred to Palestinians as 'a minority in their own homeland.'

He has, however, referred to Uighurs as "a minority in their own homeland." (ibid)

Likewise, he has never written about 'the danger of the nationalism and Jewish Israeli chauvinism.'

But he has written about "the danger of the nationalism and ethnic Han chauvinism." (ibid)

Go figure.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spot on. Bias rather than principle drives the content.

MERC said...

The really interesting story is how an individual like Sheridan ends up as blinkered as he is. When and how did the process begin? What were the key moments/ influences in the journey?

Anonymous said...

I agree. Am constantly having to reassess my own beliefs to see whether I am being fair, and indeed the pro-Zionist lobby seeks to exploit this (why are they not being equally critical of other countries - well, principally because my Government actively criticizes those other countries, so I do not feel the need to voice my agreement. The pro-Zioinist commentators seem to lack these questions.