Why blogging should have a disclaimer attached
There is a plethora of blogs. There is a veritable world opinion that is available with through search engines and the click of the mouse. Most of it is from armchairs, dorm rooms, and the one-eyed view of personal interest. Recent reporting on the Israeli Gaza situation has been both illuminating and frustrating. Most of the commentators have never flown into the Gaza airport, before it was bulldozed. Most have never drunk coffee in Jerusalem, or talked with Israelis or Israeli-Arabs, let alone never walked with a Palestinian through olive trees and been told the history of each and every tree. Bloggers will happily debate Africa, as I did this morning with someone who hadn’t crossed the Zimbabwe-Zambia border by steam train, didn’t know you even could, but had an opinion anyway.
They sit in rooms in New York, New Orleans, Oslo or Brighton and espouse opinion. Hey, an opinion is an opinion, but if the commentator hadn’t lived in America, I might, just might, factor the opinion accordingly. There is a blogger whose views I disagree with about the recent Gaza conflict, but he lives in Israel. I have to respect his opinion, even though I differ with it. I could talk-talk streets, mosques and temples with him that we both know – we disagree, but I have to respect that his view is immersed in reality, not theory. If you don’t talk to Palestinians, how can you guess what they are thinking from watching CNN or Fox? If you haven’t walked the Afghan trails, how can I trust you to debate the effect the terrain has on warfare there? If you haven’t been to war, held a friends body together as he bled , and put his body into the bag, why should I value your opinion about whether a war, any war, is justified or not?All bloggers, online reporters, citizen journalists should put a disclaimer on their reports – this is an opinion only, based on research and assumption, 0r instead I have walked that ground, talked to those people, and know about what I write.
Some traditional journalists are no better. They jet in, are handed a microphone and have people thrust in front of them to interview. Some big time bloggers, Michelle Malkin springs to mind as she always does when one thinks of extreme ineptitude, will happily write an opinion piece on Beirut when she has never sat, smoked, and talked to the locals. The Internet is a great democracy, but unfortunately everyone, including the individual who has never been outside the bayou, can act as an expert. I have to think that a native New Yorker, and they are getting scarce, knows more about the workings of Manhattan than a Danish backpacker who spent a weekend there does. This is particularly true in the Middle East. It is complex, subtle and shifting. I have been asked to make meetings for visiting dignitaries on Friday afternoon, even though they wouldn’t do so on a Sunday morning. I have been asked why oh why they can’t have a get together with a business contact on Thursday at their office, but the idea of making them come to the office on Saturday is problematical. I know vaguely where the moon is, I have read about it, I have even seen it in a telescope, but I doubt my opinion is as valid as that of a professional astronomer. Such should be the measure in the world of cyber-activism.
There are certain things we here at the Daily Clarity chose to write about. Predominantly our coverage is of the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia and the occasional op ed on the US. We have, collectively among our staff, lived, worked, researched and visited these regions for 25 years or more. Some of us are even married to locals from these areas. Our views may be academically researched, fact based, but our opinions are based on living, breathing and talking to the locals in these places. That is our disclaimer. If we write a piece on Orlando or New Orleans, we are just but the “Danish” backpacker passing through. However, if we write a piece on the Lebanon we have, and remember it, sat in a cafe in Beirut and felt the world as it looks from there, for good and bad. We do not, often, cite an opinion on religion – Islam is violent or Judaism is about revenge – because we are not Muslim or Jewish. The point of this little op ed is nothing more than to ask you to context what you read. The strident pro-Israel, anti-Zionist, pro-Hamas or anti-Fatah piece you read has often been written by an author that has never met any of them – but may well have watched Fox or CNN last night. Keep your wits alert, your senses up, and if the opinion is extreme one way or another, be very suspicious of the source.
