Arab American Journalists create a Resource on Top 5 stories Mainstream Media is missing
The National Arab American Journalists Association launched a new Arab American Resource page this week to identify the top five stories that Arab American journalists feel are not being covered fully or adequately by the mainstream American news media.
We are constructing pages for each of the top five topics. We have identified four topics so far and members are now discussing a possible 5th topic. The four topics selected so far from suggestions from NAAJA members include:
1 - 60th Anniversary Coverage of Israel skirts tragedy of the Palestinian "al-Nakba" (Catastrophe) commemorations also taking place around the United States
2 - The War Related Contract Corruption Trial in Rockford Illinois
3 - Racism and bigotry against Arab Americans
4 - The challenges facing Arab Christians (in the United States and in the Middle East and Islamic World)
Here's the link to the Arab American Resource page:
http://hanania.com/NAAJA-US/aaresources.htm
The discussion about the need for such a page started as a result of two discussions, the first on the fact that this week is the Orthodox Easter celebrated by most Arab Christians (April 20 is Palm Sunday and April 27 is Easter), and on the trial in Rockford, Illinois concerning Iraq war contract related corruption. Many Arab Americans believe that the Bush administration is adhering to a very narrow focus on the fraud, and the suspicion is that the administration doesn't want it to spill over on to Halliburton, which Vice President Dick Cheney. Neither story has received, in our opinions, adequate coverage.
Middle East Arab Christians are often marginalized in stories. The terms "Arab" and "Muslim" are often used interchangeably. Arab Christians are often cited on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict as "victims" in a political football game.
(Note: We are transitioning the NAAJA site to the SPJ-Arab Journalists site and we officially closed the independent NAAJA web site and moved it to a temporary site on my web page until the transition is completed sometime in the coming year, maybe)
Ray Hanania
www.ArabWritersGroup.com