Fighting news media bias and my new book Secrets of New Media Networking

I just finished my first edition of "Secrets of New Media Networking" my collection of ideas on how to overcome bias in the mainstream news media.

It's not about putting a check on someone else's opinions that you like or do not like, but about getting your own opinions into the mainstream news media. The mainstream news media, when it comes to "certain topics," is biased. Plain and simple. I know that because I have been in the news media now 32 years, not including six years working in high school and college newspapers.

The reality is that the extremism in the mainstream bias is the primary fuel feeding the extremism that we find in communities like the American Arab community. The bias reinforces the frustrations of the public and that frustration is consumed by anger, emotion and turns into an unreasoned support of the only option they then feel is out there for them, the loudmouthed, extremists who use violence and hatred to 1) keep their followers in a continued state of frustration and 2) provoke the conflict into more conflict and greater violence which gives them a reason to exist.

If we EVER achieved a real and genuine peace in the Middle East, for example, hundreds of thousands of activists on both sides would find themselves out of a job.

I want to put a lot of those biased activists on both sides out of a job and create a new environment where peace creates a new market that creates jobs promoting reason, moderation, understanding and truly free speech.

But my book is not about the Arab-Israeli conflict, although I do use it as an example -- my personal example of how the mainstream news media bias works. My book is about how to take the bias that YOU see in the mainstream news media to motivate you to easily create an alternative using the Internet to get your message, your views and your products out to the public. It's not hard to do using web sites, blogs of different strategic focuses and topics, social media like Facebook and MySpace, and Twitter and even brokered radio and cable TV public access. It all can come together and create a powerful market place for your views.

The book also discusses the moral responsibility of the media and journalism. It's not good to simply replace one biased media with another biased media. You want to add your views to the public discussion not stereotype, slander or discriminate against the free speech of others. You want to make the mainstream news media objective, not biased towards your opinion. You MUST adhere to principle, fairness, and give others the same that you demand, an opportunity to be heard.

The best strategy to fight extremism, terrorism and violence from extremists is to insure that your strategy includes a significant component that truly expands free speech to everyone. Achieving a fair news media system will do far more to undermine the extremists than all of the military conflict that has been launched in our history as human beings on this planet.

We would have won the Iraq War long ago if we had been more sensitive to the moderates in the Arab World who were shut out of the American effort not because of the war but because the American effort never treated them with respect or respected their views.

I hope you get a chance to check out the new books. CLICK HERE TO GET more information on the book.

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com

Anti-Arab racism continues to plague southwest Chicago suburbs

It has been nearly a decade since residents of Palos Heights sullied their community by rising in protest against their neighbors who happened to be Muslim who sought to open a Mosque where they could observe their religion.

The move pushed nearly 2,000 people to sign a petition protesting the mosque plans, and sparked a high profile public battle led by some members of the Palos Heights City Council.

A few years later, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 700 residents of Orland Park tried but failed to prevent Muslims from doing the same there, claiming that building a Mosque for the region’s Arabs who bring Osama Bin Laden’s terrorism to the suburb.

Although both incidents have faded from public view, the anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hatred that sparked the incidents of community racism has not dissipated at all. There have been many less publicized incidents.

So it was not surprising when on Sept. 16, 2008, a 17-year-old girl working a late night shift at T.J. Grinders in Palos Heights on Harlem Avenue claimed she had been sexually assaulted by a man who looked “Arab” or “Indian.”

According to police, the girl had sent a text message to a friend saying a strange man who looked “creepy” had been ogling her through the sandwich shop’s window before coming in an ordering a sandwich.

Two hours later when she was alone and closing the store, the “creepy man” put a knife to her neck, ordered her into the back seat of his black car, and threatened to kill her if she made a sound. He drove around for 20 minutes and then took her to the forest preserves where he sexually assaulted her.

After the 30 minute assault, she said he drove her within blocks of her home and dropped her off in her t-shirt and underwear.

The police drawing of the suspect, based on the young girl’s description, clearly described a man who looked Middle Eastern. It was a horrible thing to see for Arabs and Muslims in the area as the flyer was distributed everywhere, from Palo Heights to Burbank and to Orland Park, communities with large Arab American populations.

The story immediately became a major report on the weekly FOX News Crime program “America’s Most Wanted,” a program that has done so much good to capture criminals and make the public aware of crime. But you could sense the animosity reflected in the tone of the words of the host, John Walsh when he spoke about the “vicious sexual assault” and the “disturbed sexual predator.” The report noted repeatedly that the suspect was “Arab” or “Indian.”

And it repeated the claim by the victim that the alleged suspect “emitted some minor but offensive body odor,” according to America’s Most Wanted.

Over the past few weeks, emails have been circulating through the Internet about those “Arab animals” and “Muslim monsters” who live in Palos Heights, Orland Park, Burbank and elsewhere.

The Southwest suburbs have a large concentration of Arab Americans. Although they are mostly Christian, the Muslims whose women wear Hijabs of head coverings, stand out making them more obvious targets of the growing hatred.

This week, Palos Heights police announced they were closing their investigation into the alleged sexual assault. The girl’s attorney, Martin A. Dolan, issued a statement that apologized to the “Southwest suburban community” for “the unnecessary concern and the time and effort from everyone involved.”

Dolan’s statement continued, "At this time, we assure you our community is safe and always has been... we ask you to continue your prayers for the family and avoid criticism or anger as they move forward and cope."

It must be terrible to be the parents of a young child that is disturbed enough to make up such a story. I wonder how people in the Southwest Suburbs feel about a child who found it so easy to point a finger of blame against an “Arab” or an “Indian.”

I wonder how many of the people who sent the hate emails around warning about the vicious Arab rapist who was wandering our community from Burbank, to Palos Heights to Orland Park still believe this?

Dolan said he did address the issue of the racism and the family specifically apologized to the specific ethnic groups that were mentioned. This was the action of a young, immature girl and she did not intentionally try to single out Arabs and Indians, he said. “But I think maybe it might be a wider problem and I can appreciate it for sure," Dolan said.

But, I wonder how long it will be before all of the phony police sketches of the “Arab” or “Indian” suspect will be removed.

It probably will happen faster than many people in the Southwest suburbs will be able to cleanse their hearts of the racism that helped make this tragic young girl’s lies so believable.

-- Ray Hanania