Unbalanced media coverage for Lebanon and Paris attacks

Former USA president Franklin D Roosevelt once said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. But the fact is, this attack on Paris has pulled Americans to the forefront of a broader picture of terrorism throughout the world. In both cases, ISIL, an Islamic extremist group, claimed responsibility, just as it had in the attacks on Paris.

Baghdad has seen near-daily attacks in recent years, mainly targeting the security forces and the country’s Shiite majority.

“Many Lebanese people living here weren’t immediately informed of the attack [in Beirut] by American media, about what exactly happened and why”, says Lina Beydoun, executive director of the Lebanese American University’s NY Academic Center.

The district, a Shia Hezbollah stronghold, was similarly targeted in June 2014, when a auto bomb went off, killing one person. There, government warplanes regularly carry out raids using so-called barrel bombs that demolish entire apartment blocks and insurgent groups shell government-held neighborhoods. But when tragedy strikes somewhere we can relate to – somewhere we believe to be safe and in a country that has been our unwavering ally – we are more inclined to grieve. They were quick to criticize Facebook for creating a profile picture flag filter for the victims of Paris, but not of Beirut, or attacks in Iraq, Kenya or other countries.

Zuckerberg tried to clarify his stance, saying it was a new feature that was just implemented and would be available going forward. “There has to be a first time for trying something new, even in complex and sensitive times, and for us that was Paris”, Facebook executive Alex Schultz wrote.

What matters is that we in the Middle East understand the pain of Paris more than anybody else and we also condemn that tragedy because we know how it feels.

Shultz said the function was less useful in areas experiencing ongoing wars and epidemics because, without a clear end point, “it’s impossible to know when someone is truly ‘safe'”.

“Nobody cares, and that’s just how it is”, he says with a sigh.

People across the world have been articulating their grief after at least 129 were killed and many more injured across Paris. All over social media, there had been silence amongst my non-Arab friends, though I am not entirely blaming them, because it is largely the fault of the media. However, I care more about Paris than about Beirut, because Ive been to Paris, and love it. The 2004 Madrid bombings affected me more than last weeks attacks on Paris, because Ive visited the Spanish capital many more times, and love it more. Various monuments around the world were lit in red, white, and blue to show their condolences for France’s losses.

The reaction from a couple friends was swift, including a fellow woman of color. Civilians should never be explained as political items; they are human beings with stories and families who do not deserve such atrocious deaths.

She was declared a “media sympathizer” for failing to name the local student whose death had moved her and not sharing the student’s photo.

All over the world, people are tied to news they can relate to. “She is of Latin/Hispanic heritage and it became a “brown” issue”, said Motta, who is of Mexican heritage.

While media agencies are competing with each other for live updates and breaking news on the Paris attacks, the news reporting on the Beirut attacks is drastically lower. Newspapers, including the NY Times, were openly sympathetic in their headlines after the Paris attacks, one reading “Paris attacks kill more than 100, border controls tightened”. “Don’t complain that the media didn’t tell you about a tragedy on the other side of the world”, Kelly wrote. Does she think social media makes it too easy to over-simplify outrage and grief?

Within a few days of the carnage in the French capital, I was asked if it would change my feelings about Canada’s plan to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees into this country this year.