Pens and Swords: How the American Mainstream Media Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

by Marda Dunsky

Overview

As world attention is renewed and refocused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the sixtieth anniversary of its seminal year of 1948, Marda Dunsky takes a close look at how more than two dozen major American print and broadcast outlets have reported the conflict in recent years. Beginning with the failed Camp David summit of July 2000 through the waning of the second Palestinian uprising in the summer of 2004, she finds that the media omit two key contextual elements: the significant impact that U.S. policy has had and continues to have on the trajectory of the conflict, and the way international law and consensus have addressed the key issues of Israeli settlement and annexation policies and Palestinian refugees. Dunsky explores how reports of the conflict routinely take on the contours of American policy and rarely challenge the premises of this "Washington consensus." She also examines the media's responses to allegations of biased coverage and gauges the effect that mainstream news reporting has on public opinion and U.S. foreign policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231133494
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	02/06/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Marda Dunsky is a former Arab affairs reporter for the Jerusalem Post and editor on the national/foreign desk of the Chicago Tribune. She is on the faculty of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Dunsky's work on U.S. media coverage of the Middle East has been published in the Journal of Islamic Law and Culture, Arab Studies Quarterly, and Nieman Reports. Her op-ed pieces on the Middle East have appeared in the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Policy Mirror
2. Reporting the Palestinian Refugee Story
3. Reporting on Israeli Settlements
4. Apex of the Spiral: Reporting the Violent Spring of 2002
5. The War at Home
6. In the Field
7. Toward a New Way of Reporting the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Karim H. Karim

This is an important book; a vital contribution to the scholarship on this issue. The empirical evidence that Dunsky has so diligently provided for her arguments constitutes her book's greatest strength.

— Karim H. Karim, Director, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, Canada

Rashid Khalidi

Written by a journalist and scholar who has reported from the region, this book is a perceptive, careful, and factual assessment of why the American mainstream media do such an exceedingly poor job of conveying the realities of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, instead perpetuating stereotypes and echoing the conceits of policymakers in Washington.

— Rashid Khalidi, Edward W. Said Professor of Arab Studies, Middle East Institute, Columbia University

Robert Jensen

Pens and Swords doesn't just decry systematic distortion but explains why it happens again and again. Marda Dunsky makes use of theory to illuminate rather than obscure, bringing academic rigor to a topic so politicized that many avoid it out of fear. Thanks to Dunsky for this brave and timely book.

— Robert Jensen, University of Texas at Austin

Editorial Reviews

This detailed work should be on the shopping list of all American correspondents moving to Jerusalem.

Nieman Reports - Simon Wilson

A comprehensive account of just how difficult it is to offer a 'fair and balanced' narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the United States-Israel relationship.

TIKKUN - Mark LeVine

Marda Dunsky comprehensively documents the shortcomings of the mainstream U.S. news media in their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Christian Century - Walter Rodgers

Pens and Swords offers valuable insights into several fields and is a good read for a wide readership.

JOURNAL OF PEACE RESEARCH - Jorgen Jensehaugen

[Dunsky's] writing is perceptive and her arguments insightful

Jewish Book World

Marda Dunsky comprehensively documents the shortcomings of the mainstream U.S. news media in their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

— Walter Rodgers

The Christian Century

Pens and Swords offers valuable insights into several fields and is a good read for a wide readership.

— Jørgen Jensehaugen

JOURNAL OF PEACE RESEARCH

A comprehensive account of just how difficult it is to offer a 'fair and balanced' narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the United States-Israel relationship.

— Mark LeVine

TIKKUN

This detailed work should be on the shopping list of all American correspondents moving to Jerusalem.

— Simon Wilson

Nieman Reports

[Dunsky's] writing is perceptive and her arguments insightful

JEWISH BOOK WORLD

Pens and Swords offers valuable insights into several fields and is a good read for a wide readership.

JOURNAL OF PEACE RESEARCH - Jørgen Jensehaugen

Pens and Swords offers valuable insights into several fields and is a good read for a wide readership.

JOURNAL OF PEACE RESEARCH - Jørgen Jensehaugen