Why We Should Have More Non-Western News Outlets NewOrganizations

Author: 
Sarah Whelan, Arab News
Publication Date: 
Mon, 2005-09-26 03:00

They say when you’re drowning, “your life passes before your eyes.”

But what if you’re flying?

What passed before the eyes of passengers on Jet Blue’s flight 292 was news of their plane’s jammed landing gear — a life-and death drama — on their individual satellite TVs, as their pilot circled for hours, burning off potentially fatally flammable fuel.

“It was very weird,” one passenger related, after the plane skidded, wheels afire, down the runway to safety. “It would’ve been so much calmer without” the live TV coverage of their ordeal. Another said he’d watched until overcome by anxiety, then flipped the channel, then flipped back, horridly self-fascinated. Others telephoned loved ones and sent text messages to be opened upon their deaths. “It was very scary,” another passenger related. “Grown men were crying.”

And if someone had possessed a tiny Sony or Casio digital camera, along with the presence of mind, they could have used their cell phone to actually send a news agency such as live DirectTV, which broadcast Jet Blue’s flight 292’s drama, direct feed from the plane’s cabin itself. Grown men crying? Get that on tape. Avowed atheists praying? Tape that, too. It’s all part of the global news impact, a loose, uncentered phenomenon that not only reports news far and wide, but influences the future and has the power to change the world. What of people who pee in their pants? What of people who vomit in anxiety? Will we show all that? What do you say to families who don’t get a text message because their loved one smoked a last cigarette in the lavatory instead?

Do we really want to see this? And do we have the right?

And is it easier for those who might die if we aren’t “there?” What about their rights?

These aren’t easy questions to answer. But in the wake of 9/11, we must have the debate.

Who can forget 9/11? Two airliners, flying deliberately into the majestic towers of the World Trade Center on the clearest, bluest of New York mornings, and then the towers’ horrific, awesome collapse as trapped victims reached out in anguish for impossible rescue? Modern technology beamed these images of mass murder around the world through TV, radio, and Internet so that the experience was virtually shared by almost everyone on the planet. The Pentagon and Pennsylvania crashes were considered secondarily and even suspiciously because no moment-by-moment images were available. But the dramatic news that some victims’ families had been in cell-phone contact deepened the drama. People who never bothered suddenly started making sure their own phones were fully charged and working. Because you never know when a bunch of terrorists are going to come and turn your life upside down. You never know....

And now, you never know when the landing gear of the plane in which you’re flying will get stuck and perhaps cause you to fatally crash upon landing, and not only all your friends and relatives, but a whole bunch of previously disconnected strangers — the whole global community — can now watch as you face your last moments on earth, as you cry, or type, embrace your mistress, or pray and make your peace with God.

Do we really need to know everything there is to know?

With 9/11, the political ramifications of “being there” were immediately clear. The unforgettable videos played over again and again, bringing horror to many, and excitement to some. That we didn’t know their motivations and who sponsored them meant nothing so much as avenging our dead and the unprecedented attack not just on US sovereignty, but upon our peace of mind and way of life. Bush’s immediate reprisal into Afghanistan, where some of the 9/11 hijackers had trained, was expected, and not legally unjustified. But could the Bush administration and its neocon ideologues have justified invading Iraq, had not this same footage been played all around the world, over and over again?

Any criticism of the proposed war and neocon ideology was roughly silenced with a run of the ever-repeating video of the planes, gliding so silently and effortlessly into impossibly high, glistening pillars of steel and glass and marble that collapsed so unexpectedly in seconds. If we’d never had that film, would American troops be fighting a war in Iraq that many military officials now publicly doubt they can ever win?

Bush’s war with Iraq is partly fueled, wittingly or unwittingly, by Western media. As other countries create news media services like Al-Jazeera, so decried by Western governments but so greatly needed for balance, things may change. What’s needed? A global dialogue on media responsibility. Create a conference somewhere far away, and think about the issues while you’re flying on that plane.

Imagine the world watching your every move. Because it will, if you let it.

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