Ahmed Bouzid is the founder and acting president of Palestinian Media Watch.

In May 2002, an Israeli tank shell killed a Palestinian mother and her thirteen-year-old daughter. The pair was grazing sheep on their land, far from any Israeli checkpoint. In defense of their actions, the Israelis said that the two women “looked suspicious.” The incident did not make the front page of any national American newspaper. The next day, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed two Israelis near Tel Aviv in response, and the event topped headlines of every major paper in the country.

The discrepancy did not go unnoticed. Activists from Palestinian Media Watch (PMWATCH) immediately barraged newspapers across the country with letters criticizing the unbalanced coverage.

Founded in 2000, PMWATCH now has thirty-nine local chapters in cities across the United States and tens of thousands of members, who regularly contact media oulets to demand fair coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Group leaders and members have attended dozens of meetings with editorial boards and foreign desk editors, published scores of op-eds and letters in major newspapers and magazines, and appeared on various radio and television shows. The group has become so well-known that writer Ahron Shapiro of the Jerusalem Post called it, “one of the best media monitoring sites I’ve encountered, period.”

PMWATCH began with a single letter. Sitting at his computer three years ago, Ahmed Bouzid wrote a letter to The Philadelphia Inquirer, criticizing a recent article for being pro-Israeli. The letter was published, along with Bouzid’s name and email address. Over the next couple of days his inbox was flooded with responses — some encouraging his efforts, others criticizing his reaction to the paper’s coverage.

Bouzid replied to the supportive emails, encouraging the authors to send their own letters to The Philadelphia Inquirer, and inviting them to participate in a dialogue with him about media bias relating to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Many of his responses were ignored, but three Philadelphia residents wrote back, and an initial mailing list of four — Bouzid and the three respondents — was set up.

The four discussed media bias, emailed articles and opinions back and forth, and wrote to The Inquirer. They also set up a meeting with the paper’s editor to discuss what they perceived as a systematic prejudice when it came to reporting on the conflict. Through word of mouth, news of the list and its goals spread, and others interested in the issue joined. Soon the list had members in cities other than Philadelphia, ranging across the United States from Washington to Los Angeles.

In October 2000, an official organization evolved out of this email list: Palestinian Media Watch. The organization’s mission was two-fold: to identify and protest instances in which U.S. journalists failed to cover the Palestinian-Israeli conflict accurately and fairly, and to help mainstream media outlets access pro-Palestinian perspectives.

Redefining a ‘community organization’

While Palestinian Media Watch’s short-term goals are to monitor U.S. newspapers, it does so with the larger intention of increasing Arab American participation in domestic politics. The group works to empower its members to change the perceived image of Arabs in the media, as well as to teach them how to promote a political agenda using the press as a medium for effecting change.

With these long-term goals in mind, PMWATCH is wary of the strict hierarchy and “take-it-or-leave-it” culture that seems to plague many media watch groups. Media watch organizations tend to attract a more educated audience, and their work ranges from starting and maintaining relationships with editors to publishing media reports. Given these activities, it seems only natural that these organizations often end up as elitist institutions dominated by paid staff and experts.

The leaders of PMWATCH wanted to avoid creating this kind of culture within their own group. It wasn’t just a matter of being idealistic activists. Bouzid and his fellow activists worried that an organizational structure that was less-than-democratic would stifle creativity and intimidate ordinary members from speaking their minds.

Francesca Polletta, a Columbia University sociology professor, argues in her book Freedom Is an Endless Meeting that it is sometimes more “effective” and “efficient” for activist organizations to organize “democratically” rather than hierarchically. In the case of the Arab American community this rang especially true. Arab Americans are not as clustered in cities as are other ethnic groups. While some do attend mosques, most do not, and hence there was no obvious institution from which Bouzid could solicit a constituency.

Moreover, Bouzid’s willingness to get involved in politics, which led him to become the founder and acting president of Palestinian Media Watch, seemed an exception among Arab Americans. In an interview with The Chicago Tribune, Bouzid described the Arab American community as a “punch bag,” absorbing blows that Jews, Hispanics, and African Americans would never tolerate.

The personal experience of many members of the community with monarchies or totalitarian regimes may be one explanation for their lack of political participation. Rashid Khalidi, director of the University of Chicago’s Center for International Studies, says that most Arab Americans confine their activities to business, not politics, and “they have not played the political game.” James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, points out that “the problem is not just apathy but a lack of connectedness that people have to the political process. People aren’t investing in it.”

Working with a constituency resigned to political silence and believing in an “Israeli-controlled” media was PMWATCH’s first challenge. The new all-volunteer organization had a long way to go to reach the level of pro-Israeli media watch groups such as Honest Reporting, which boast large constituencies that are quickly mobilized, paid staffs with office space and administrative assistants, well-endowed activities, and long-standing relationships with newspaper editors and TV producers.

Khalidi stresses that building a mass political movement is no easy task. Even if people do become involved, he says, “Political influence will not come quickly. You have to start at the local level with local building blocks. It took the Jewish community literally decades to do this.”

This became painfully apparent to the founding members of PMWATCH. Change did not occur overnight; as hard as it was to get one letter published, a single letter would not make a difference. There were no short-term incentives to encourage the rest of the community to join the effort. How could this new organization, with no history and only an email list of members dispersed across the country, begin to make a difference?

Organizing the ‘politically Palestinian’

PMWATCH’s membership slowly began to grow, initially through word of mouth and later through organized advertising efforts. The new recruits ranged from university students to businesspeople. As membership grew, so did the ethnic and social diversity of the members. Soon separate groups in thirty-nine cities — spread across the United States — had their own email lists and websites.

After Rania Awwad, a graduate student in genetics at George Washington University, set up a Washington chapter, PMWATCH launched its first large campaign. In December 2002, the Israeli army destroyed 350 Palestinian homes and damaged 500 more in the Rafah neighborhoods of occupied Gaza along the Egyptian border. The next day, The Washington Post did not mention the incident but ran a front-page story about several Israeli deaths. For Awwad and several other PMWATCH Washington members, this was the trigger event that inspired them to start challenging media bias.

Washington chapter members wrote and called the Post’s ombudsman, Michael Getler, to demand an explanation for why the Rafah home demolitions were not reported. In his weekly column on the following Sunday, Getler mentioned the complaints about the newspaper’s silence on the home demolitions, before proceeding to discuss the event in detail. This initial success was publicized on the PMWATCH email list, and soon similar strategies were being tried in cities across the country.

With each success, membership grew, and as groups in certain cities became significantly larger, the organization developed “task groups” and “media groups” that spanned the entire network and that any member could join or lead. The task groups focused on developing the PMWATCH website, drafting media reports, and working on other tools that the organization could use to further its cause. The media groups concentrated on national newspapers and magazines, like Newsweek or Time, which were beyond the scope of local communities. (Recently, PMWATCH also established a “movie group” to examine how Arabs are portrayed in Hollywood features and on television — the group is especially popular among younger members.)

Because of the overlap between groups and the lack of a consistent hierarchy, the leader/member divide within chapters has faded. Moreover, since most of the discussions take place over group emails and are posted online, each member has a good chance of being heard as a leader. Often in community meetings, more gregarious attendees and community leaders dominate. However, over email there are no time limits, and shy individuals are generally better able to express themselves. “While you can lose out on getting to personally know people over email, I never felt the group suffered, and we always got to hear people’s thoughts,” Bouzid says.

PMWATCH’s open registration and email communication system have also allowed a wide range of personal experiences and backgrounds to be shared among group members. Just under half the group are non-Arab Americans. The ethnic diversity of the network has not led to any problems, according to Bouzid.

In their book The Miner’s Canary, Harvard law professor Lani Guinier and University of Texas law professor Gerald Torres discuss what it means to be “politically black” — that is, being able to identify with the African American experience regardless of one’s own race. A similar sort of identification process can be found in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “The nature of the conflict is such,” Bouzid explains, “that the Palestinians no longer question the origins of people involved in it.”

You could call these activists “politically Palestinian.” Some Jewish leftists, such as MIT professor Noam Chomsky, fit the label; they have often been the Palestinians’ greatest supporters. Bouzid himself is Algerian, and has never been asked how he came to be so dedicated to the Palestinian cause. (In fact, most Arab Americans identify with the conflict, often called the “Arab-Israeli” conflict). If there are arguments among members of the group, they are often dealt with in the “public arena” of a PMWATCH messaging board.

Turning laypeople into media critics

The fact that PMWATCH members were spread out across the country meant that for the first year of work, the group’s leaders never met in person. The work was done over email and in chat rooms. Strategies were discussed over the Internet, but ultimately the success of the organization came down to the degree of mobilization in each city, and the effectiveness of the group in persuading editors.

The media is a fast-moving industry, and quick response time is essential to success. Waiting for a centralized group to react to a specific event would have incapacitated the organization. Each city group had to be trusted to respond on its own initiative. Furthermore, city groups were best situated to establish the necessary working relationships with editors and foreign correspondents that PMWATCH needed to gain a solid reputation.

Other media watch groups have remained much more centralized and hierarchical. They enjoy fully paid staffs and the money to fly out to visit newspaper editors. In contrast, PMWATCH’s slim resources have resulted in a horizontal structure, which also seems to represent the network’s democratic philosophy.

At the heart of PMWATCH’s mission is a desire to undermine the “us” vs. “them” perceptions that many Arabs have about the media. The organization works to persuade newspaper editors to “print more,” to give a more comprehensive view of the situation. While other media groups, such as Honest Reporting, organize widespread boycotts of newspapers (such as last year’s boycott of The Washington Post for describing atrocities allegedly perpetrated by the Israeli army), PMWATCH has not yet participated in any boycott effort. The group collectively feels that a boycott would undermine the group’s “report more” philosophy.

Because the network does not focus its efforts on boycotts, it has the more challenging job of gaining legitimacy and respect from editors and television show producers. Experience has taught them that it is counterproductive to walk into an interview unprepared. Editors will always claim that the complaint is about a “one-time event” and that, overall, the coverage of the situation is balanced. PMWATCH learned fast that to be taken seriously, its members had to do their homework. Letters to the editor would only be effective if written well and intelligently.

PMWATCH had to bring its members up to a level of critical thinking that editors would respect. To this end, PMWATCH has put a lot of time and energy into the development of its online resources. On the “action page” of its website, for instance, links are provided not only to important articles and the phone numbers of editors, but also to guides for letter writing and detailed reports on current issues. Furthermore, visitors to the site are invited to participate by doing research or writing up reports.

While new members of PMWATCH might balk at the idea of writing a research report criticizing the media, they quickly learn that there is no one else to do it. PMWATCH has gotten around having a paid professional staff by teaching laypeople to research the issues and write the reports by themselves. The website provides templates of previously written reports, and simple instructions on how to calculate figures of a newspaper’s bias, and how to classify articles under the terms “pro-Israeli,” “pro-Palestinian,” and “balanced.” Authors of previous reports are available to help any city group or individual writing a report for the first time (even though this support might only be over email or the telephone), and the researchers can send emails to the list soliciting input along the way.

Another key component of Palestinian Media Watch’s strategy is “constructive pressure.” PMWATCH regularly sends editors and foreign correspondents updates about academic work on the conflict, as well as lists of potential sources or op-ed writers: people who are able at a minute’s notice to grant interviews, or who are articulate enough to react immediately to a column or event with an op-ed that newspapers can publish.

An organic and effective structure

As Polletta argues in Freedom Is an Endless Meeting, groups that choose participatory democracy over more conventional forms of organization do so because it is more efficient. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, such decentralized structures have certain advantages over hierarchical ones: Members working within a participatory system, for instance, have more say over decisions and are thus more likely to accept them as legitimate.

Believing in the cause and trusting group decisions becomes even more important when being a member of the group also makes one a target of harassment. So far, the negative repercussions for PMWATCH have been fairly minor: Bouzid received a call from the FBI after newspaper editors and television show producers complained about vulgar emails sent by hackers from his account (the email accounts of several other PMWATCH members have also been hacked into).

Having a healthy level of participation within an organization also encourages innovative thinking. At PMWATCH, members from across the country can offer their input about different strategies and approaches. The group as a whole benefits from the diverse array of media experiences represented, and can draw from this resource base to rapidly respond to a constantly changing news cycle.

Participation is especially important when it comes to developing leadership skills and increasing self-confidence. For many members, meeting with a newspaper editor can be a frightening experience. When a member feels she or he has contributed to the group’s overall strategy and is well-versed in the rationale behind it, that member’s ability to carry out the task effectively is substantially enhanced.

By promoting democracy within their organization, PMWATCH activists have encouraged the often shy Arab American population to begin getting involved politically. In the process, they have enfranchised and mobilized a broader membership than anyone would have thought possible. Working upward from an initial four-person email list, PMWATCH has created what Harvard Professor Archon Fung refers to as “social capital with fangs.”

STORY INDEX

ORGANIZATIONS >

Committee for Accuracy in Middle Eastern Reporting in America
A media-monitoring and research organization “devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East” and fighting anti-Israel and anti-Jewish prejudice.
URL: http://www.camera.org

Honest Reporting
Media watch organization that monitors instances of anti-Israeli bias.
URL: http://www.honestreporting.com

Palestinian Media Watch
Group that seeks to increase attention to Palestinian viewpoints in the news.
URL: http://www.pmwatch.org

PEOPLE > BOUZID, AHMED >

“Keeping an Eye on the News”
By Sandi Cain. Published by Arab-American Business. July 20, 2003.
URL: http://www.arabamericanbusiness.com/July%202003/newsfocus.htm

“Palestinians Find Their Voice Online”
By Mark Glaser. Published by the Online Journalism Review. October 22, 2003.
URL: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1066177054.php

Personal website
URL: http://www.ahmedbouzid.org/

PEOPLE > FUNG, ARCHON >

Personal website
URL: http://www.archonfung.net

PUBLICATIONS >

Philadelphia Inquirer
URL: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer

TOPICS > ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT >

“Photostory: Home demolitions in Rafah”
By Darren Ell. Published by the Electronic Intifada. December 19, 2002.
URL: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article995.shtml

“Covering the Company, etc.”
By Michael Getler. Published in The Washington Post. January 20, 2002.
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A6797-2002Jan19¬Found=true

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