Freedom Stays Vanished
When I saw the heading It's Over on the SoA Lebanon blog, my heart sank. I expected the worst. I admit that, as hard as I've been pulling for the pro-democracy forces, I secretly wondered if they would prevail. They're a gathering of young tribes, carrying so many flags, in a land where, as Michael J. Totten describes it, "different parts of the country feel like separate micro-civilizations."
As long as they kept eyes fixed on that one flag, the one with the cedar tree in the center, they'd be OK. They stood up for democracy, and as the overused line of the year goes, democracy is a process. They opposed Syrian-backed tyranny. Syrian-backed tyranny isn't a process. It's a mailed fist.
But then I read the post. I was wrong. They had won after all.
Then I went in to work, to learn more about this. I should mention here (though there's some risk to my continued employment in mentioning this on a blog) that I'm a newspaper copy editor. I have access to the stream of information from the wire services. This is the material that all but the biggest media use to create the nightly newscast, or the morning paper, every day.
Today at about 4 p.m. I did a search of the AP news wire for "Lebanon." No story moved today. I did a search of the AP photo wire for "Lebanon." I got back 191 hits, of which 7 turned out to be of scenes in Lebanon Pa., Lebanon, Tenn., or Lebanon, Ore. That leaves 184 pictures of Lebanon, the Middle East.
And there was a picture of the tent village! 1 picture. It was a good picture.
Here's the caption:
There also was one pictures of Independence2005, but it was an old one; the same scared-kid picture that has been on there for weeks, getting pretty stale by now:
OK, so that's two pictures. Not bad, for good news from Lebanon, from the AP. But what about the other 184 pictures? Well, what did you expect?
Pictures of anti-U.S. demonstrations: 16.
Like this:
Or this:
Based on the selection of images available to newspaper editors in America, such scenes are 16 times more likely to be seen than scenes of pro-democracy protesters. Even if you didn't bring an inherent anti-anything-Bush-likes bias to this job, you'd have it after a few days of scrolling the wires.
Pictures of the Syrians withdrawing: 67. A remarkable number of them showed civilians waving or casting flowers at them. You had to read down into the captions, however, to learn that these were Syrian civilians on the other side of the border. I see, online, that AFP and Reuters took a lot of pictures of Lebanese in the border villages cheering the arrival of Lebnese troops into the positions the Syrians had vacated. AP, apparently, did not see fit to take such pictures.
By contrast, pictures of an April 20 vigil by relatives of Lebanese held by the Syrians: 2.
You'd think this would be somewhat newsworthy, but there were as many pictures of this as there were of Palestinians bewailing their losses in Lebanon's civil war -- 22 years ago. Like the one that carried this caption:
The rest was a mixed bag: Politicians of one stripe or another, 44. Bassel Fleihan's funeral (the former economics minister who died as a result of injuries in the Feb. 14 blast that killed Rafik Hariri): 14. Nothing else of significance.
Oh, well; at least I can keep reading SoA's excellent blog. Best of all, it doesn't cost me anything. The people who plunk down 50 cents for my newspaper, unfortunately, won't be seeing any of that.
As long as they kept eyes fixed on that one flag, the one with the cedar tree in the center, they'd be OK. They stood up for democracy, and as the overused line of the year goes, democracy is a process. They opposed Syrian-backed tyranny. Syrian-backed tyranny isn't a process. It's a mailed fist.
But then I read the post. I was wrong. They had won after all.
Chalk up another, final, victory for the Cedar Revolution.
The Lebanese government formally announced the election will be held on time - on May 29th 2005.
The million-person demonstration, the two-month sleep-in at the tent-city, the countdown campaign, the village campaign, the media pressure, the international pressure - it all came together. It's a new era in Lebanon now. The time of post-war occupation and oppression is over. The Cedar Revolution is now over, too.
Then I went in to work, to learn more about this. I should mention here (though there's some risk to my continued employment in mentioning this on a blog) that I'm a newspaper copy editor. I have access to the stream of information from the wire services. This is the material that all but the biggest media use to create the nightly newscast, or the morning paper, every day.
Today at about 4 p.m. I did a search of the AP news wire for "Lebanon." No story moved today. I did a search of the AP photo wire for "Lebanon." I got back 191 hits, of which 7 turned out to be of scenes in Lebanon Pa., Lebanon, Tenn., or Lebanon, Ore. That leaves 184 pictures of Lebanon, the Middle East.
And there was a picture of the tent village! 1 picture. It was a good picture.
Here's the caption:
A man ties a Lebanese flag at the tent camp at Beirut's Martyrs' square, Lebanon, Monday April 25, 2005. With the last Syrian soldier walking across the border into Syria Tuesday April 26, 2005 and a U.N. team investigating the Hariri killing on its way, camp residents say they are now ready to leave, having fulfilled all their demands. But the fight for independence has not ended yet, they point out, and the activists are ready to return any time there's a need.
There also was one pictures of Independence2005, but it was an old one; the same scared-kid picture that has been on there for weeks, getting pretty stale by now:
OK, so that's two pictures. Not bad, for good news from Lebanon, from the AP. But what about the other 184 pictures? Well, what did you expect?
Pictures of anti-U.S. demonstrations: 16.
Like this:
Or this:
Based on the selection of images available to newspaper editors in America, such scenes are 16 times more likely to be seen than scenes of pro-democracy protesters. Even if you didn't bring an inherent anti-anything-Bush-likes bias to this job, you'd have it after a few days of scrolling the wires.
Pictures of the Syrians withdrawing: 67. A remarkable number of them showed civilians waving or casting flowers at them. You had to read down into the captions, however, to learn that these were Syrian civilians on the other side of the border. I see, online, that AFP and Reuters took a lot of pictures of Lebanese in the border villages cheering the arrival of Lebnese troops into the positions the Syrians had vacated. AP, apparently, did not see fit to take such pictures.
By contrast, pictures of an April 20 vigil by relatives of Lebanese held by the Syrians: 2.
You'd think this would be somewhat newsworthy, but there were as many pictures of this as there were of Palestinians bewailing their losses in Lebanon's civil war -- 22 years ago. Like the one that carried this caption:
Amneh Bannat a Palestinian woman weeps as she holds photographs of her four sons who she says went missing after being taken away by pro-Israeli Lebanese militiamen in 1982 during Israel's invasion, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 13, 2005.
The rest was a mixed bag: Politicians of one stripe or another, 44. Bassel Fleihan's funeral (the former economics minister who died as a result of injuries in the Feb. 14 blast that killed Rafik Hariri): 14. Nothing else of significance.
Oh, well; at least I can keep reading SoA's excellent blog. Best of all, it doesn't cost me anything. The people who plunk down 50 cents for my newspaper, unfortunately, won't be seeing any of that.
