Daled Amos: Pay-Per-Riot News

Arutz Sheva has a post about the City of David organization, which has purchased properties in Silwan (Shiloach). Part of the controversy is centered around the claim of archaeological digs that supposedly disrupt the lives of the local Arabs. Hussein Siyam, the Mukhtar of Silwan--a tribal leader in the area--has come out publicly to say that in fact the digs are pre-existing and in fact all that is being done is just cleaning out those digs.

So what is the cause of the misunderstanding? One of the causes, according to Siyam:

“A German news company recruits activists here and gives them money to make problems in order to report on them,” he claimed.

A German journalist, also at the Mukhtar’s home, told his colleagues that the claim seemed a bit “Middle Eastern” to him, but he conceded that local Arabs were hired by foreign agencies – conceivably able to get the news fastest because they are involved in producing it.

This raises again the issue of Pallywood.

Put this in the context of the shrinking number of foreign bureaus as print newspapers as the emphasis is being placed on local coverage--as described by Media Backspin. One of the main sources for news from the region becomes the few who maintain foreign bureaus and the news agencies such as AP and Reuters, who become hard-pressed to provide news about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Check out Augean Stables and the post Pallywood Strikes Again. Richard Landes discusses the video provided by France2 and Charles Enderlin and how in fact it backs up the claim that staged news has been foisted upon the public as real. In the video below, Landes demonstrates how the proof allegedly provided in the raw footage does not hold up. But more than that, at about 6:45 minutes into the video, Landes talks about the reaction of the judge in the case, who at one point turned to Philippe Karsenty and asked "so AP has also sold out?"

Good question.

Have we entered the era of supply-side reporting?