JEDDAH, 20 January 2004 — A snippet of Hollywood tinsel glittered briefly at the forum yesterday.

In a half hour panel discussion — “The Media and Entertainment Agenda” — former Saturday Night Live star Chevy Chase and cult Hollywood actor John Cusack, joined International Herald Tribune publisher Michael Golden.

Both actors greeted the auditorium with the Islamic greeting of “Assalam Alaikum” to the evident pleasure of the crowd.

“I’ve never had so much fun being recognized by so many of younger....er, actually not so young generation here,” said Chase of an evening spent meeting Saudis.

Cusack was also surprised by his being recognized. “I had no idea my movies played here” mistakenly thinking movie theaters existed in the Kingdom. “How little we know about your culture, poetry, your art,” he added. “We tend to see only caricatures of each other.”

The discussion took on a more serious tone, when the subject of Arab stereotyping and violence in Hollywood was brought up.

“The truth is rarely seen in our world,” said Chase. “Violence is exorbitant — over the top,” he admitted.

Judith Kipper, moderator of the session and director of the Council on Foreign Relations, was terse to the limits of courtesy, commenting: “When you come to the US, you tell us that we need to understand you. You need to help us; you don’t help us.”

“Art is about ideas good and bad, you need to export and import more ideas,” said Cusack. Commenting on the decision to include violence as part of the marketing mix of a film, Cusack said: “A choice has to be made by a star who is bigger than myself, who can say, ‘No I don’t want to shoot a hundred people in my next movies.’ That decision is made by a bigger star or a director.”

Michael Golden described the US news media as a relatively small community in a huge industry that is the biggest export earner in the US economy.

He expressed what some saw as the insouciant opinion that they were “not trying to convince people of a particular point of view,” a comment that brought a guffaw of disbelief from some sections of the audience. One member of the press corps was heard to suggest loudly that Golden should actually read some of the publications in his group more closely and mentioned a notorious web journalist.

Golden saw the news media as “an economic generator” not just because they made money, but with the elliptical statement that “it is not that the press tells the truth, but that the debate plays out,” and this he said, fosters ideas that can be tested. In turn, this provides the engine for change through national debate. The press therefore, he said, was a prime source of economic development.

Arab News pointed to the panel that the American people are led to believe that the Arab media is controlled and censored and that satellite channels such as Al-Jazeera are hostile because they show images, in Iraq and Palestine, that are unfavorable to the Americans rather that presenting America’s take on events. Arab News asked if the panel thought there was much misrepresentation, distortion and manipulation in the American media of the Arab world.

Golden gave what several people in the audience thought was a non-answer. He said that in the US there is a clear choice of media outlets. “There are people whose goal is to convince others of their point of view... even if it’s misguided,” in direct contradiction to his previous assertion that the press was not trying to convince people of a particular point of view.

However, he suggested going to the more respected and balanced media outlets such as New York Times, CNN and NBC. These, in his opinion, try to present what is happening in the whole world including the Arab world and the Middle East and it is there that they can have an impact on the debate by presenting Arab views.

“People in America think that the press in the Arab world is controlled and that there is no free exchange of ideas,” he said. “It is an issue that this country and others should find their own path in handling.”