Sunday, February 19, 2012

Ignorance at the Times: Languages Matter


Ignorance at the Times: Languages Matter

But there’s one more aspect of Rudoren’s unsuitability for what is one of the most important reporting posts her newspaper could have given her. At no point in either of her interviews was she asked whether she possessed one of the most important skills a foreign reporter operating in Israel and the territories needs: the ability to speak the languages of the people they are covering. Given the simplistic nature of her attempt to bone up on the subject (she’s reading one book at a time and started with one by a leftist American Jew who was her college classmate but has little understanding of the political cultures of either Israelis or the Palestinians), I think it’s pretty obvious that she doesn’t know either Hebrew or Arabic. That means she will be utterly dependent on translators and the English-language press when she reports about Israelis and on Palestinian “fixers” who will lead her around by the nose whenever she tries to do a story about the Arabs.
As anyone who has studied Middle East media bias, lack of fluency in these languages has gotten many otherwise diligent journalists into big trouble while attempting to cover the conflict first hand. That is especially true of those who try to do stories in the territories where all those working as “fixers” for the foreign press must answer to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.
While it was once to be expected that all foreign correspondents operating out of Jerusalem didn’t speak the languages, many now do. But apparently the Times didn’t think to hire someone who wasn’t handicapped in this manner or who had ever worked in the region before. And if Rudoren is about to start work soon, it’s not likely that she’s going to have the time to study up now. While it is true that most Israelis and many Palestinians have some grasp of English, would any foreign media outlet even think of sending someone to work in their Washington bureaus that didn’t speak English?
Seen in this light, her appointment must be understood as an even worse idea than we thought. Rudoren’s is not just biased, she’s hopeless ignorant and lacks the basic language skills she needs to effectively do her job.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/02/16/reporting-jodi-rudoren-new-york-times-jerusalem-languages/

No comments:

Post a Comment