A richly-deserved victory — finally. May it receive the publicity it deserves, and may Richard Landes be lionized for carrying on his admirable work.
In my view, the most important aspect of this case is not the fact that “Palestinian” sources are willing to lie, cheat, and fabricate fake news. It is not even that Western media (that’s a plural noun, BTW) are willing to accept and broadcast the propaganda. I am most impressed by the reaction of France 2, Enderlin and the other media to exposure and criticism.
It seems obvious to me that news and commentary in the West are to a large extent in the hands of an establishment that considers itself above reproach, above the petty values of the population, and in some sense a kind of governing (or at least truth-mediating/defining) body. The media gatgekeepers too often behave as a kind of theocratic elite. Yes, that’s a broad generalization with exceptions, but it does describe an aspect of reality. It applies not just to France 2, but to the censorious print and electronic media across the Western world.
The media too often filter the news, spike stories, hammer on slogans and try to influence the electoral process, and there is a pattern to their misbehavior. Many in the news business are corrosive elements within Western Civilization, even cultural Quislings. When challenged and held to account, Western journalists too often react with contempt for the truth and a punitive anger at their critics. To this day, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes claim the fake documents that ended their careers have never been definitively discredited (the debunking “did not hold up,” Rather said recently), and they are bitter about having been exposed. How very like the behavior of a profoundly offended Enderlin. The difference: unlike France, the UK and Canada, the USA does not offer such rascals the jurisprudential means to savage, intimidate and silence the whistle-blowers.
True freedom of speech and press are alien concepts almost everywhere; I can’t think of another judicial/political system that holds them in the same regard as does the USA. (Australia and New Zealand, perhaps? I don’t know.)
Enderlin/Mapes/Rather types are genuinely dangerous. Any legal code that protects them from exposure of the truth badly needs reform. How terrible that Enderlin was able to put his critic in danger…in the courts of the nation that gave the world the Enlightenment.
