Journalism signed by "Anonymous"
By Iqbal Tamimi • Oct 21st, 2008 at 8:59 • Category: Analysis, Hasbara Deconstruction Site, Ideas and Projects, Newswire, Opinions and Letters
WRITTEN BY IQBAL TAMIMI
Media professionals know all the tricks in the book of their profession. Playing with words, twisting the neck of truth, restructuring a sentence that would swap the seats of a judge and a criminal in the box, going around in circles that never lead to Rome or anywhere else for that matter, using double meaning words as a lining for a coat of lies, and giving things anything but their real names… all these tricks and much more we “journalists” have exposed since we have been in the kindergarten of media. So, when someone signs anonymous under an article of fabricated news, he is not only insulting our profession, he has also inserted his hand in our beehive.
States or governments as official bodies no longer deal with people directly because the human rights groups and people concerned with media ethics never sleep, patrolling the media streets, making sure that there is media as transparent as being naked.
Such states found it easier to reward some people, to work as its arms in different areas, thus protecting its image: which should be spotless clean on records. These dirty hands belong to ordinary individuals, they look like totally average harmless citizen who are supposed to contribute to the society through social networks and Internet websites, using the Internet to influence the public and steer them towards supporting certain issues.
Since such people have no credibility and since they are not real journalists, their little schemes are not covered well, the feet of their lies show from under their short cover of fabricated articles. This is why they have chosen the easiest way out of being criticized by signing as “anonymous”.
Such a miserable scheme allows a lot of dirty water to pass under the bridge, an average person might swallow such lies, but not people working in the media. For we know and believe if we really are fighting for an ethical cause, we will never hide behind pseudonyms, or be scared of telling who we are, for we are telling the truth.
Those people who sign by “anonymous” know very well that governments know about every move individuals make – to a point they can censor your dreams and create your nightmares. So such games are not played with the authorities, these games are played with simple minded people whose IQs are as low as room temperature, people who can be tricked easily. People who can swallow a big fat lie and reproduce it later in another form.
I would like to warn my fellow colleagues, journalists and human rights activists, of reading articles written by Mr or Mrs “Anonymous”. For Mr Anonymous is not trustworthy. Anonymous is not a journalist and knows nothing about the ethics of journalism. Behind his thin, see-through screen, Mr Anonymous is knitting a scandal, or altering an extra-large lie to fit a small brain, or modify an event to suit a certain agenda.
I would advise Mr Anonymous not play in the journalist’s playground. Getting dressed with a media outfit does not make you a journalist. Take your coloured pencils and scribble graffiti of hatred on a wall in a dark ally, real journalists never shy of writing their names to defend a human cause or an ethical issue.
Iqbal Tamimi is a Palestinian journalist and poet from Hebron. She is the creator of a vibrant and important activists' network Palestinian Mothers, open to all who share the vision of peace and justice, men and women alike. She is working now in UK.
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great article, Iqbal, and very true that while it is easy and comfortable to use a pen name or even anonymous, it can make (and should make) all of us who take total responsibility for our words very suspicious.
I'd like to add one more reflection. On the new wave of NING sites (yours was the first Ning network I've ever seen, and it is still the absolute best for Palestinian activists to meet and discuss) we are finding two worrying trends:
1) that while some members are open to scrutiny, sharing photos, names and thus risking being spammed across the universe by Zionists or just those who feel threatened by our position as being totally behind the just cause of the Palestinians, many are released from this kind of obligation. I was on one site for 5 months, and there are still members who have changed their screen names a few times, never inserting a photo and harassing those who had rather been clear about identity from the start. I would say that if anyone is harassing another using a first and surname, they had better have their own one up there. They don't, and in that way, the moderator of the board should take action, but does not do it if the ideas shared are the same. This makes those who speak plainly in their own name leave to avoid the constant hatred thrown at them by total strangers who remain anonymous.
2) that now on a ning site (the dreaded Palestine Israel Crossroads, which I will be writing about along with MePeace) one can submit comments "anonymously", but only the moderators know who it is. Isn't that comforting? The moderator (one of them) who puts up racist jokes about Arabs and thinks they are funny, is able to have something to blackmail anyone else with… that is, comments they "really" think, but don't want anyone knowing it is them who are saying it. Is she building up a file on someone? Probably not, but all the same, why allow a networking group to have a confusion of identities (she claims it is to protect Palestinians!) and also allow comments that no one will have to take responsibility for, but that someone has on record for you and may be able to use it as she wishes.
I advise people to be very careful of those tricks. If you want to say something, say it without games. This is what truth in activism is about. We have to be willing to assume full responsibility for actions and words. It is a sacrifice, but if we don't like it, FIND ANOTHER THING TO TAKE YOUR TIME, not activism.
All points have been well made by Iqbal and Mary, but i would like to add that the New Fourth Estate:
-which was born after THAT DAY we call 9/11 when the paid media went MIA as Big Brother manipulated we the people of America with FEAR of 'the other' and drove Common Sense out the window-
But citizen journalists/muckrakers -and I credit Rachel Corrie with being the Mother of the New Fourth Estate- rose up to fill the vacuum;
To go, seek and report the truth without taking assignments from editors or paychecks from conglomerates.
The first Gilded Age came to an end due to muckrakers who exposed corruption in high places.
Only time will tell what the New Fourth Estate will accomplish, but one thing for certain- "Anonymous" is NOT one of our numbers, for Truth Tellers are open books.
PS- I am heading back to occupied Palestine for my 6th trip this November to commemorate Nakba along with global ecumenical justice and peace Christians on a Sabeel reality tour and i will report all i see, hear, learn and feel in my gut/heart, like any persistent muckraker would.
Iqbal Tamini's, " Journalism signed by "anonamous" thinks about who would craft an opinion or write and article and not want credit for it. Candor in journalism is always refreshing, telling the truth rewarding ,and useing a pseudonym ,a tradition that goes back as far as language, but the use of " anaonamous as ones signature is a new way of "hiding" from ones work,for which ,if we do it well, we should be happy to let others know who we are.
The reasons for anonimity in blogs are many. Some very influential people frequent blogs who see themselves as so important that they cannot risk their reputations by shareing their true feelings, when in their life, they live lies to please others, or for money.
Others ,useing "anonamous" have been harrassed when using their names on line, so they hide behind a very thin veil of anonimity and usually this ends the harrassment becasue their ctitics cannot be sure whom they criticise.
One more type of "anonamouse" is the sewer of hate,discord and fear, whose words are always designed to disrupt thoughful conversations or derail tracks . These moles in the dirt sometimes are so disturbed by others meaningful truths that they sew misery in hopes of finding some company.
Anonamous is perhaps here to stay. There is however a discipline which enables those intent on discovering whom these ananomous writers are to discern their identity through means used by cryptographers. Always look for intention, which is often evident and how this intention is construed in words. Look at phrasing, punctuation,also at what the writer may be supporting of others comments, which brings up an intersting "anonamous"……
Some writers or bloggers use a psuedonym as a constant and write what they feel are acceptable comments in this name. They post their inner hate messages which they know to be unacceptable useing"anonamous" which indicates a mild or severe case of either sociopathic tendencies or advanced psychosis. or perhaps just a malicious streak in an ordinarily responsable person.
Whatever the case with anonamous, his or her reasons for hiding obscure one very important aspect of their work, it's power. Writers do what they do for many reasons, some for the glory, some for the ability to feel as though they control public opinion by their words, and yet others write as an expression of their hearts, with an upfront and reality based projection of their personality, and still others write just to earn their living, but all of them lose power when they omit their name at the end of their work.
Writers, and journalists of activist causes need a name to show their hearts to the world, they use who they are as their fearlessness,unafriad to expose themselves to critics and rebutt cricism with thoughtful, well reasoned responses to challenges. The absence of fear is evidence of faith and the inherant power of faith in both our lives and our words. If we are courageous enough to take full responsibility for what we write, this shows that we trust God to be our protector and empowerment, and not ourselves. With this open front of resistance against the pricks of hate, lies and thievery, we, with our faces and names before our work for God, country or community, project a power that show our faith, our love and our work to be both divine,and if flawed to be correctable with our works of tomorrow, and thus we are alive and kicking for all to see, which is our "art", our science and our wide open spirits flying wild and free to work as God ordains us.
wow Jerry! That was really great. More "power" to you!
SHOWING One's HEART and
IMAGINE:
Media as a Sanctuary for Dissent
"I strongly believe that media can be a force for peace. It is the responsibility of journalists to give voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken and beaten down by the powerful. It is the best reason I know to carry our pens, cameras and microphones out into the world. The media should be a sanctuary for dissent. It is our job to go to where the silence is."-Amy Goodman upon receiving The Alternative Nobel Peace Prize 2008
This just so happens to be my essay/blog for today if you want to read more:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1078&Itemid=211