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The 5 Ws of news
By M. Zeyaul Haque
 Nearly
a quarter century ago, as a journalism trainee I was told to remember that
news consisted of five Ws. It was one of my first lessons in the
profession I had chosen for myself. The five Ws were (I don’t remember
the order): What, When, Where, Who, Why. Years later, when one of my sons
chose the same career, he also got the same lesson as a journalism
trainee, of course from a different generation of teachers. Down the
decades journalism trainees have been told that their profession hinged on
a good grasp of the five Ws.
After all these years of taking it for granted that journalists would
always remember their primary lesson, suddenly we discover that most
journalists have said goodbye to one of the crucial Ws –– ‘Why’.
Report after report and analysis after analysis of the September 11
incidents in New York, Washington and Pittsburg talks endlessly about
‘terrorism’ just stopping short of asking the vital question,
"why did it happen?" Or, "why did it happen to America
only?". One of the Ws is thus increasingly being overlooked as it
seems to be requiring too much of moral courage to ask the question
‘why’?
Now that the U.S. and its allies seem to have made up their mind that
Osama bin Laden is the mastermind (without being able to convince the rest
of the world), it seems easier to answer the ‘why’ of September 11.
Because Osama is an Arab and a Muslim and many of his men are Arabs and
all of them Muslims, it is easier to guess that America has deeply hurt
Arabs and many Muslims with its policies to the extent that many of them
would not mind dying or killing others (mostly innocent folk) in a
desperate attempt to attract attention to America’s unjust policies
regarding Muslims.
Asking ‘why’ would help us grasp the problem and try to seek an
enduring solution. If it is Osama and his men, we already know what riles
him –– American troops on Saudi holy land and America’s unstinted
support to Israel to confiscate Palestinian lands and build illegal
settlements on those lands with American money and killing of Palestinians
with U.S. supplied weapons. As simple as that. The solution too would not
be to difficult to find if America is half as serious about the causes
underlying what it calls terrorism as it is to crush ‘terrorism’.
Asking ‘why’ is not the same as supporting Sep. 11 events: to diagnose
a disease does not imply that we wish the disease well. Nobody can defend
the indefensible –– we only want that Sep. 11 should never recur so
that America is never again forced to go to war to eliminate its enemies
(and thousands of others as innocent as World Trade Centre victims).
As a working journalist (as one whose livelihood depends on regular work
as a journalist) I am amazed at the hype and hooplah around terrorism
accompanied by a deafening silence about its causes. Between CNN and BBC,
the former has been more afraid of asking the uncomfortable question than
the latter. This has added to the credibility of BBC, although it had to
apologise for asking the question. The BBC buckled under pressure, only to
regain its independent posture soon afterwards. On the contrary, CNN could
never muster the courage. The reason is not far to seek: the Zionist lobby
is far more powerful in America than in Britain, which means it is
virtually impossible to talk about Israeli excesses in the U.S. media.
A recent article by Saeed Naqvi in the Indian Express makes interesting
reading. He does ask some questions about America’s unpopularity, but
there is virtually nothing about the Arab feeling of denial of justice at
the hands of the U.S. However, the last line makes up for the lack when he
writes that when he saw the WTC towers burning and crumbling the face of
the Palestinian child Muhammad al Durra dying helplessly in his father’s
helpless arms flashed before his eyes. Muhammad was shot in cold blood by
Israelis at the beginning of the current Intifadah. He was not even
throwing stones.
The general feeling in the Arab world is that Zionists have enslaved them
with the power of American money ($10 billion in annual loan guarantees)
and are killing them with American weapons. How fair is it to continue
doing it, Mr Bush? Five consecutive U.S. presidents in their time have
opposed the continuing confiscation of Palestinian land and construction
of ever newer Jewish settlements on them. Bush Sr. was almost forced out
of the White House for declaring that the U.S. would withhold the $10
billion loan guarantees if Israel continued building new settlements on
Arab land. Bush Sr. had finally to eat humble pie as Israel went on
building settlements and getting American money. Bush Sr. had to accept
defeat when thousands of Zionist lobbyists descended on Washington from
all over America. Bush Sr. meekly declared: "What can a small man in
the White House do when he is surrounded by so many people?" Or
something to the effect. Nothing, of course. Nothing except surrender.
The Great George Herbert Walker Bush, Commander-in-Chief of U.S. forces,
whose forces fought the Gulf War and won hands down, abjectly surrendered
before Zionist lobbyists. The present George W. Bush would also fight a
great war (incidentally against Muslims) but would not dare to lift a
finger against Zionists whose depredations are the primary cause of every
strife.
Now, coming back to the media, of late we have witnessed some curiosity
for knowing the ‘why’ behind Sep. 11, and Saeed Naqvi’s is not the
only article to try to do so. There have been quite a few, the most
interesting being a nice one by celebrated writer Fredrick Forsyth in the
Indian Express of Sep. 22 in which he raises the issue of American funding
of British terrorist group Irish Republican Army (IRA). The IRA survives
on American funding, which makes Tony Blair’s support to war on
international terrorism look silly. It also makes President Bush’s
resolve to go after terrorists and their supporters look absurd. Will
America go to war against America for funding terrorism in Britain?
The answer is a plain no. But Iraq, Sudan and Algeria might be attacked in
weeks ahead for ‘harbouring’ terrorists. Even the friendly Egypt could
meet the same fate for the same reason. Pakistan would have met with worse
fate if it did not join the campaign against Afghanistan.
The question is why it is that America wants to hit some terrorism
sponsors and forgive others, including itself? Why selective justice?
Because the Zionist lobby wants some to be punished and others to be
ignored. And, what can a small man sitting in the White House do against
thousands of lobbyists? Remember, if Mr Bush Sr. felt himself to be small
before Zionists, Bush Jr. has got to feel smaller. We can’t expect
anything better from him. He would never ask the right question, the
‘why’ of Arab anger.
As for CNN, it would be unwise to expect fairplay from this media giant.
In what was the greatest media record of dishonesty, it showed video clips
of Palestinians rejoicing over the attacks on WTC and Pentagon. The CNN
deliberately did it to provoke American anger against Arabs. The tapes
were not of Sep. 11, 2001, but of 1991 when Palestinians were celebrating
the invasion of Kuwait. q |
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