Editorial:

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Cody Cass

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UC must respect human rights, divest The
Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Palestinian suicide
bombings are acts so egregious, the University of California has no
business associating itself with either side of the conflict in any
way. Some 165 University of California professors have recognized
this, signing a petition requesting that the UC divest from Israel.
The hope is that the dissent of large Israeli corporations from
their government’s military actions, as a result of
divestment, can bring the region’s humans rights violations
to a close where other measures have failed. Governments may be
bull-headed in foreign relations, but they are rarely so stubborn
when dealing with their wealthy citizens, who can threaten to move
their corporate operations to other countries to avoid losing money
to protesting stock-holders. When the university invests in Israeli
corporations, the profits, in turn, are taxed by the Israeli
government and help support the occupation of the West Bank, as
well as other militaristic ventures. Private institutions can do as
they please with their money, but the UC is funded in part by
taxpayers, not all of which support helping Israel fight
Palestinians, or vice versa, however indirect the assistance may
be. While divestment from Israeli corporations is justified, it
doesn’t imply Israelis are the sole bearers of blame for the
human rights violations. If the Palestinians had their own state,
the UC would have an obligation to withdraw its investments from
there as well. The UC’s investment portfolio is not
independent of its social responsibilities. In 1984, the UC
divested from South Africa because it, too, was clearly violating
human rights during apartheid. But the UC has still not divested
from Burma, even though its investments there help fund the
economic infrastructure which supports a totalitarian government.
In this case, and in the case of Israel, there should be no
ambiguity about the UC’s responsibility; it needs to divest
immediately.

TV coverage of July 4th too sensational Under
normal circumstances, a shooting and a small plane crash would be
mourned but later forgotten by the general public. But Thursday was
no normal day, it was the first Fourth of July since September 11
– the day was built up in the media as a virtual apocalypse
of terrorism. Predictably, the Fourth started out as a slow day in
the news. But when two people were murdered in a shooting at Los
Angeles International Airport and a small plane crashed in San
Dimas, broadcast media instantly spun these two unrelated stories
into a terrorist conspiracy against L.A. The events of the Fourth
of July typified a practice in broadcast journalism of exaggerating
the smallest of incidents into all-day-coverage-type material. News
reports are made on nothing more than speculation and hearsay, and
“experts” have a microphone in their face before they
have anything helpful to say. Conclusions are drawn before the
facts are even out on the table. This type of sensationalist
journalism is driven by competition for higher network ratings,
with limited regard for accurate reporting. It contributes to the
hysteria over terrorism in America, since many absorb everything
mainstream media say as fact. When the media inflates the news
beyond its scope to fill air-time, their reporting becomes
superficial and inflammatory. Having a media willing to extend
their destructive actions to news events irrelevant to terrorism
and perpetuate an atmosphere of terror is exactly what terrorists
want – the coverage of the Fourth of July events exemplifies
how well this works. This is unfortunate. The media has a
responsibility to keep Americans informed, not in fear or ignorant
of reality as the media did last week.