Like Arab Americans, Jewish citizens in the United States are financial and educational leaders, but the utility of political activism and journalistic participation is a better understood part of the Jewish ethos. (I also need to acknowledge that it is possible, of course, that Arabs can also be, and are, Jewish. Nothing defies categorizations like the peoples and politics that emerge from the Middle East.)
Arabs certainly aren’t unaware of the power of the press. As Neil Lewis recently pointed out in CJR, it is common for Arabs to complain that the US press is detrimentally and unjustifiably supportive of Israel (and also common for Jewish observers to claim the reverse—a reflex some journalism researchers have called the “hostile media phenomenon”). And, again, some Arab Americans do work for mainstream news organizations. Anthony Shadid, America’s most decorated foreign correspondent among the living, is of Arab descent. There are also scores of stellar journalists chipping at the boundaries of change in Arab countries.
Following the Arab spring and with the partial opening of press systems in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere, it is possible that more Arab Americans will be encouraged to serve the public in journalism or politics, and I hope they do. America’s approach to world affairs would be better for it. For now, though, many Arabs don’t view journalism as one of the keys to a better life, and I can’t blame them.
Correction: This article originally included the following line: “There are just two Arab Americans serving in the US Congress, according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, neither of which are in the Senate.” As it turns out, there are five Arab Americans in the US Congress: Justin Amash, Richard Hanna, Nick Rahall, Charles Boustany, and Darrell Issa. This means that over 1 percent of Congress is of Arab descent. (Arab Americans only comprise 0.5 percent of the total US population.) The line containing the incorrect statistic has been removed from the piece, rather than revised, because the point that the author was making doesn’t hold up under this new data; the spot of its removal has been marked with an asterisk. CJR regrets the error.
Journalism as a profession is not a desired vocation for most Arab Americans. Historical and cultural reasons may explain but not justify the failure to recognize this as a medium for the community's political salvation. I have been engaged in public writing for over a decade and would attest to the urgent need for more voices from the community on the pages of our local and national newspapers. Interest in this field will only grow as the community establishes its foothold int the political discourse shaping our lives. Arab Americans demographics are changing as more Arab Muslims take the lead in such fields as law, politics and academia.
#1 Posted by Aref Assaf, CJR on Tue 31 Jan 2012 at 08:40 PM
Reporters in the U.S. are required to be educated and trained like professionals but are paid like cab drivers or, at best, like municipal trash haulers (minus, their job security, of course). The people who stick with it are mostly true believers who seek financial security via their spouses or other family.
How can it be surprising that minority groups of any sort, let alone first and second-generation immigrants--do not find this field attractive?
#2 Posted by Edward Ericson Jr., CJR on Sun 5 Feb 2012 at 09:16 AM
Reporters are required to be educated and trained?
Says who?
"Professional journalists" type their pieces at the 8th grade reading level.
A plumber needs a license. So does an exterminator or a hairdresser. These people are truly professionals. You can't just walk off the street, type a paragraph or two at an 8th grade level, and call yourself a lawyer, a doctor, a barber or a steamfitter.
Journalists? Professionals? Are you kidding me? Or yourselves?
The reason you don't see minorities or especially any diversity of political opinion in the vast majority of the newsrooms of America is that the whole system is thoroughly and intolerantly leftist from the top down - as every single academic study ever undertaken has plainly demonstrated.
How many conservatives ply the halls at CJR? What does CJR do to actively recruit conservatives? Huh?
Let a Young Republican apply for a job at the NYT and he'll see the door, hat in hand, quicker than an Occupier runs from a job fair.
One thing Edward has right - what we're left with among the "professional journalists" of MSM are indeed largely the "true believers" who grind their axes while on the dole from somebody who pays the bills.
#3 Posted by padikiller, CJR on Sun 5 Feb 2012 at 02:34 PM
This piece is notably devoid of statistics - and the only one cited, it turns out, was incorrect and had to be removed by the editors. It turns out that the percentage of Arab Americans in Congress is double that in the general population. In light of that, the author's knee-jerk citing of "anti-Arab discrimination" is absurd.
And what of Helen Thomas? Christiane Amanpour? These (were) at the top of their profession.
Very sloppy work.
#4 Posted by JLD, CJR on Sun 5 Feb 2012 at 07:46 PM
JLD - Read: "While anti-Arab discrimination may be a partial cause [for the lack of Arab Americans in journalism], I’m not persuaded that it is the primary contributor."
#5 Posted by Justin Martin, CJR on Mon 6 Feb 2012 at 08:40 AM
@JLD: Christiane Amanpour is not Arab. She's Persian.
#6 Posted by NNM, CJR on Mon 6 Feb 2012 at 08:44 AM
Justin - You have no basis to cite "anti-Arab discrimination" as a contributor (partial or otherwise), as (1) you have presented absolutely no evidence for it and (2) there is no evidence whatsoever that Arab Americans are under represented in journalism. All of this is pure conjecture on your part.
I guess Americans are showing their "anti-Arab discrimination" by voting them into Congress? That'll teach 'em!
[Kudos to the editor that picked out your glaring error.]
#7 Posted by JLD, CJR on Mon 6 Feb 2012 at 07:02 PM
Helen Thomas, Octavia Nasr...both journalists and both fired for having voiced pro-Arab anti-Israeli opinions...Yet mainstream journalists all over the country voice their pro-Israel anti-Arab opinions all day long without having their careers threatened. How is that for a reason why there aren't many Arab Americans in journalism?
#8 Posted by GhadeE, CJR on Mon 6 Feb 2012 at 11:20 PM
"Many Jewish Americans also fled regimes oppressive of politics and press, of course, but they have the example in Israel of a country in which elections and journalism are forces for change." Most American Jews are from Europe and not from Israel and have never lived in Israel ... so how would Israel's "open press" be an influence on them?
#9 Posted by GhadaE, CJR on Mon 6 Feb 2012 at 11:26 PM
The political activism of Jewish-Americans, like labor organizers in the early-1900s, predated the 1948 founding of Israel.
Also, the Jewish-American press (including a vibrant Yiddish-language press) in the late-1800s and early-1900s predated the founding of Israel.
The example of political and journalistic activity in the Jewish State did not exist for Jewish-American activists and writers before 1948.
#10 Posted by Brian O'Malley , CJR on Fri 10 Feb 2012 at 12:42 PM
Thanks Justin for asking this ignored question:
Answers:
Because 1) we're pushed out; 2 - Mainstream journalism has a biased view of Middle East issues that contradict with any demand for balance or fairness; 3 - the Middle East is too controversial and a lot of media don't want to have to provide balance when it is so much easier to deal with the accepted stereotypes that are popular ... and thereinlies the problem -- American Arab journalists would challenge the status quo and cause grief for the business model that is already crumbling under the media's feet ... the last thing a mainstream newspaper wants is an American Arab journalist asking questions that would create public animus ...
Also, the Society of Professional Journalists, and groups like UNITY: Journalists of Color have downplayed the concerns of AMerican Arabs and intentionally do everything they can to keep Arabs out as demonstrated by the recent bigoted and biased actions of the SPJ at their last convention, and by the refusal of UNITY to include American Arabs in their comfortable little "Quadrpartite" balance that includes Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans ... they don't want anothe rminority group sitting at a table that has limited seats because they'd each have to give up seats and clout
#11 Posted by Ray Hanania, CJR on Wed 15 Feb 2012 at 09:48 PM
Great piece!
Can anyone provide the stats on the number of Arab-American journalism students in the USA? Certainly programs like Wayne State, with a large number of Arabs, has to have a good number.
Also, how do we define what "Arab American" means? I have Lebanese ancestry along with Irish, Russian, italian, Greek, German and more....am I still "Arab American" in the standard sense?
#12 Posted by Patrick, CJR on Sat 25 Feb 2012 at 11:11 AM