trip to Israel

I am going on this trip primarily to entertain those people who have been forced from their homes as a result of rocket attacks. In doing this I hope to explore the gap between peoples experiences and the media reporting. There has been a gap,a silence,almost a denial that large swathes of people have been denied their right to live in peace and stability. There are many reasons for this and I am not sure I completely understand how this has come about. For sure amongst many reporters there is an accepted understanding of what is real or true. Reporters seem incapable of thinking outside these accepted assumptions. Even more than this they share their thoughts as if they are fact. for Example, john Simpson last week in a report told us about what were the expectations of the israeli army. How could he possibly have known what are the intimate thoughts of the general staff of the IDF. This is not factual reporting but his take on what is goingon. I ask why is his opinion given more status than any other. Given that he was in an area seemingly controlled by Hezbollah how much access does he have to what is actually going on. I will return to these themes as I feel we are beginning to see a massive questioning of the media. Only this week a blog called Little green Footfalls proved that certain reuters photos had been altered forcing reuters to terminate the use of one particular photographer. Yet this seems to be the tip of a nasty iceberg. We will see.