Did you know that there’s a Palestinian stock market?

Neither did I, until I read today’s New York Times article about how Abbas extended the deadline for Hamas amid the ugly tensions between the latter and the PLO. In the middle of the story detailing the strife appeared this sentence:

With armed clashes adding to the political tension, the once high-flying Palestinian stock market hit its lowest point in more than a year.

This is a fact in desperate need of context.

The media routinely shows us only the most destitute Palestinians, living among rubble. There is a bigger story. In order to be properly informed about that part of the world, which plays such a big part in our own world, we need to see the whole story, to be told the whole story, and to know that story.

I’ve been reading The Other War, by Stephanie Gutmann, an insider’s story (and a harsh and illuminating critique) of how the Middle East is covered by the American media. It’s a passionate tale, told by someone with a strong point of view. It shows that the Western media is under constant intimidation from the Palestinians. More about it after I finish reading it.

From the HuffPost’s new “Eat the Press”*** media-blog-within-a-blog:

In a bizarre irony, HuffPo’s ETP has learned that The Boston Herald plagiarized Editor & Publisher’s article about Seth Mnookin’s Vanity Fair article about…plagiarism. Except for the first paragraph, today’s Boston Herald “‘Code’ blue: Vanity Fair calls Brown copycat cowboy” is almost identical to E&P’s “Upcoming ‘Vanity Fair’ Article Raises New Issues About ‘DaVinci Code’ Author,” dating from yesterday, June 6th, at 11:45 am ET. The byline on the E&P story is “E&P Staff” and the byline on the Herald story is “Inside Track,” which is the Herald’s gossip column.

Read the whole mind-boggling story.

Also, I see that Seth Mnookin’s got a blog. He’s a journalist to watch—non-mainstream MSM, maybe? (he broke lots of taboos—social, I’d say, not journalistic—in his Vanity Fair profile of Judith Miller). It’ll be interesting to see what he does with the blog.

—–

***I get it, but it’s not a very good name, especially from someone who has called for Better Branding from Democrats.