20744: Antoine: Re: 20683: (Chamberlain) re: 20676: Antoine: Re: Latortue praises rebels (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy S. Antoine <webmaster@haitiforever.com>


Well, Greg, I am neither "crowing about the mistake" nor
making any claim as to their frequency in "mainstream
media". As I replied to you the other day, "who's keeping
count?"  Not me!  I generally gloss over the inaccuracies
because it's not my avocation to keep track of them.
However, I was genuinely startled to read the cited paragraph
in the AP story. The reporter, Paisley Dodds, is obviously
a newbie for making such patently false claims (of Amiot
Metayer getting killed "just days" after his break from prison
"last September") but one has to wonder whether the foreign
desk editors were that ignorant or indolently sleeping at the
switch to allow such egregious errors.

Is it possible though that Paisley Dodds  did not write that
part of the story, but that the desk editors felt obliged to
insert those two error-riddled sentences as "filler" for the
enlightenment of readers who have just gotten interested
in the Haitian crisis or even Haiti's existence for that matter?
True, the editors will on occasion kill challenging parts of
a reporter's story and then find room to insert such triteness
as "Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere",
sometimes over a reporter's objections. But such a stupendous
misrepresentation could never pass as a fill-er, or could it?
In either case, I have to conclude that the wire service
personnel did a great disservice both to Paisley Dodds and
to themselves.

That is my reaction.  I do not have scores to settle between
mainstream, ideological, corporate, or independent  media.
A columnist is not necessarily a reporter, and a reporter is
not necessarily an analyst.  Whatever hat one is wearing,
and whatever outfit one is working for, we should expect
them to be 1) well-informed and 2) to relay their reports
fairly and accurately.

One final comment to history buffs on the list: I actually
enjoyed the Larry Luxner's relating the story of the Jews
in Haiti for the Miami Herald, where it still can be found
at the following address:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/religion/8224216.htm
I read that story on the same day, but just prior to the AP
article we've just been discussing (much more relaxing
in any case than learning of the U.S. installed Prime
Minister of Haiti calling some convicted criminals "freedom
fighters" and therefore a model for the youth of Haiti
 to emulate.)  However, I confess that my sensitivity had
already been heightened when I came to the sentence:

[ Haiti's few Jews hold on to history
BY LARRY LUXNER /FOR THE HERALD ]
 The first Jewish immigrants came from Brazil in the 17th
century, after Haiti was conquered by the French. These
marranos (Jews who feigned conversion to Christianity
but secretly practiced Judaism) were all murdered or
expelled -- along with the rest of the white population --
during the slave revolt of Toussaint L'Ouverture in 1804.

All I can say is that Haitians had better hold on to their
history too!

Guy S. Antoine
Windows on Haiti
http://haitiforever.com