Commentary

Fight Back Against ABC 7′s Reportage of Anti-Semitic Occupy Chicago and Occupy Wall Street


CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–October 28, 2011.  

Dear friends and supporters:

We are calling on folks to take a few minutes to respond to ABC 7 reporter Chuck Goudie’s inaccurate and irresponsible reportage on Occupy Chicago, Occupy Wall Street in general, and the Palestine support movement, as well as his continued attacks on Hatem Abudayyeh, Palestinian community organizer.

The direct link to Goudie’s October 26 2011 report is http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=8407349

Take action!

Below is a letter you can send to Goudie and others on the ABC 7 news team or you are welcome to draft your own letter.  Please BCC [email protected] so we can get an accurate estimate of the movement’s response to this alert.

Email Chuck Goudie at [email protected]

Email Carleen Mosbach, assignment editor at [email protected]

Email Jeff Marchese, night-side assignment editor, [email protected]

Email Assignment Desk, [email protected]

Email Jennifer Graves, news director, via news desk, [email protected]

Telephone: General assignment, 312-750-7381

Call WLS TV / ABC 7 Chicago Assistant News Director Joyce Fisher on Friday, October 28th, 2011 9 AM to 7 PM at 312.750.7380

Fax: General news assignment, 312-899-8019

See the letter below and demand that she pull the piece off the web and apologize for the inaccurate statements and borderline libel against the Occupy Wall Street and Palestine support movements.

Thank you,

Shirien Damra (Coalition for Palestinian Rights)*Joe Iosbaker (Committee Against Political Repression)Maureen Murphy (Palestine Solidarity Group) Rocky Pyskoty (OccupyChicago)Shira Tevah (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network)

* organizations listed for identification purposes only

Copy, paste and email the letter below to the list above, including a BCC to [email protected]

WLS-TV / ABC 7 Chicago

190 North State Street

Chicago, Illinois 60601

To Whom It May Concern:

On October 26, 2011, you broadcast an irresponsible and uninformed report by Chuck Goudie (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=8407349).

Goudie asserted that the Occupy Wall Street movement has a “vein of anti-Semitism flowing through [it],” and used the presence of Palestine solidarity activists in the movement to “prove” his argument. The Occupy Wall Street movement has the support of tens of thousands of Americans in cities across the country, and is growing rapidly, because Americans are suffering from an economic crisis brought about by Wall Street and big banks. As the Occupy Wall Street movement describes it, the “99%” experience extreme economic inequality, where millions are unemployed without meaningful help, while bankers in trouble are bailed out.”

While there have been unfortunate anti-Semitic statements made by individual protesters at Occupy Wall Street actions that should and have been challenged as dangerous and divisive, the vast majority of the movement does not espouse these opinions. Media reports, including Goudie’s, have inflated these unrepresentative views for the purpose of discrediting two movements—Occupy Wall Street and Palestine solidarity. Instead of substantiating his false claim that anti-Semitism is a pervasive problem in the Occupy Wall Street movement, Goudie uses the presence and involvement of Palestinians and Palestine solidarity activists at Occupy Chicago and elsewhere to “prove” the movement anti-Semitic.

By smearing the Occupy Wall Street movement and Palestinian community and solidarity activists, Goudie blatantly avoids discussing the real issues that are bringing tens of thousands of Americans to the streets in cities and towns across the country.

For example, some Occupy Wall Street protestors, including American Jews, have brought to the protests Palestinian flags and signs condemning US military aid to Israel. The US gives $3 billion a year in aid to Israel, which is used to carry out its policies of military occupation, inequality and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.

And in an ad hominem attack, Goudie also falsely accused Palestinian-American community organizer Hatem Abudayyeh of advocating for the destruction of Israel because he spoke in support of Palestinian freedom and self-determination at a Chicago anti-war rally earlier this month.

Holding a Palestinian flag and advocating for Palestinian human rights, civil rights and equality should never be equated with anti-Semitism. By doing so, Goudie attempts to smear a just movement and evade discussing the real issues: unequal economic policies in the US and unrestricted military and diplomatic support to the human rights-abusing state of Israel.

Finally, Goudie also claimed last night that Occupy Chicago did not provide a response to his emailed questions, but as an example of how disingenuous and unprincipled his whole process behind this piece has been, the questions were not sent to Occupy Chicago’s spokespeople until after 8 PM, less than 2 hours before the broadcast. Occupy Chicago did eventually respond, and WLS-TV posted the statement on the page linked above.

We call on Goudie and WLS-TV/ABC 7 Chicago to immediately apologize for the story’s false statements about Hatem Abudayyeh and mis-characterization of the Palestinian flag and struggle for freedom as symbols of anti-Semitism.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[City, State]

Source: www.occupychi.org


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