A Glance Over the Common Dismission of Palestinian Journalists

The further I read through Amahl Bishara’s Back Stories: U.S. News Production & Palestinian Politics, I wondered about whether or not a person can be completely objective towards the situation that they might be in. Bishara mentions the idea of balance objectivity and how journalists specifically are expected to bring in said narrative. On paper, I think that the idea of balance objectivity would seem as ideal, as an audience would be able to hypothetically form their individual opinion from an unbiased source. Especially when we’re thinking about social conflicts such as the Palestinian and Israeli conflict and presenting it to a heterogeneous audience.

Identifying what is objectivity and what it means in the first place can conflict depending on the framing of notions. Journalists Should aim towards showing both perspectives and in this way practice balance objectivity accurately. Being that the Palestinian issue is an Arab issue one would think that Arab journalists would take the lead and would be supported in covering it. In the case of Palestinian journalists, I think the notion of complete objectivity is used against them, and thus the Palestinian side of the conflict isn’t heard. Palestinian journalists are framed as not presenting a “balanced” narrative, when as Bishara mentions, in most cases legal barriers stand in the way of these journalists from reporting the Israeli narrative (p. 7). This is often blamed on the political location of Palestinians, and that potential bias which is apparently “understandable” to them. I see this as an excuse that is targeting Palestinian journalists because the same argument could be applied to other social conflicts. Yet journalists who are native to the origin of the conflict wouldn’t be silenced in the same way.

Additionally, Bishara also mentions Palestinian journalists have all the required qualities of being a skilled knowledge production source, yet close to none are acknowledged (p. 3). To myself, this conflicts with the idea of objectivity and only hinders it, as news outlets would only be hearing from one side, in this example, it’s the Israeli side.