The Empire of Lies that threatens all of us

What is the responsibility of the media?

Regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict in the mass media of the world frequently equal weight is given to information from corrupt police states and proven liars as to information from a vigorous, self-critical democracy.
The pious but fatuous posture is that this is somehow fair, as if truth existed in a moral vacuum, something to be measured by the yard, like calico. Five million Jews in Israel are a vulnerable minority surrounded by 300 million Muslims governed for the most part by authoritarian regimes, quasi-police states that in more than 50 years have never ceased trying to wipe it out by war and terrorism. They muzzle dissent and critical reporting, they run vengeful penal systems and toxic schools, they have failed in almost every measure of social and political justice, they deflect the frustrations of their streets to the scapegoat of Zionism and they breed and finance international terrorism.

Yet many times it is Israel that is regarded with skepticism and sometimes hostility.
 
This Empire of Lies of the Palestinian Authority and of a large part of the Islam world incites its own population to unprecedented hatred. This Empire of Lies with the help of a greedy an unscrupulous part of the Western media, also threaten the values of the whole democratic civilization, which is a relatively easy victim, having get used to, more or less, speak the truth and believe what is told.

The weak front where the forces of the empire of lies broke through our lines of defense, is the greedy and unscrupulous part of our Western media. Now, is this simply the media's business? Or, is the media responsible? Can the media be held responsible if and when distributing such lies, leading to conclusions which are not much short of blood libels? Is there a chance for a self-purifying process within the media? No easy answers.

One thing for sure. A demanding public may contribute a lot to a better media, by expressing itself actively, in letters to editors, to journalists and to decision-makers. Actually You can take a pen into your hand, write and influence!
 

Endre Mozes,

Chairman of Take a Pen