September 1989, Page 18

Media

Franklin-Trout's Postponed "Days of Rage" Will Have Its Day on PBS

By Richard H. Curtiss

"By all means show her film, and let it stir argument. There's nothing fake about the problem depicted. Every foreign journalist who visits the West Bank hears variations of the same stories: homes blown up to punish whole families, rubber bullets that maim on impact, a criminal justice system that can jail without rudimentary safeguards, the shuttered schools and curfewed houses that abet extremism." -Karl Meyer, New York Times, Aug. 4, 1989

In almost any other field, heavy-handed attempts at television censorship generally backfire. But not when it comes to depictions of the plight of the Palestinians or questioning of Israel. Then, nine times out of ten, attempts at suppression have succeeded. They range from withdrawing funding before the script is written or the first frame shot, to cancelling a scheduled showing of a completed program, as happened June 5 to Washington producer Jo Franklin-Trout's "Days of Rage: The Young Palestinians."

Perhaps, however, the odds on the censors are changing to something like four out of five, which means the chances of an American viewer seeing a film fitting into either of the categories above has doubled in the past 12 months. Notable examples within that time period were CBS "Sixty Minutes" segments on the Israel lobby's campaign to unseat Senator John Chafee (R-RI) and on Israeli lawyer Lea Tsemel, who defends West Bank and Gaza Palestinians in Israeli military occupation courts.

Ms. Tsemel's Palestinian clients have never, repeat never, won a case in any of the dozens of hearings in which she has participated, she told interviewer Morley Safer. When the segment was shown early this year and repeated in July, however, the Israeli defender of human rights may have won some American hearts and minds for the Palestinian victims of an unjust system. They can be shot, teargassed, thrown into jail and beaten to death and no one is answerable. Their houses can be blown up and their land confiscated. Their only recourse is Ms. Tsemel, who, despite obviously good faith efforts, cannot get their houses rebuilt. their lands restored, or their lives put together again.

Similarly, Mike Wallace's "Sixty Minutes" expose of illegal steering by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of pro-Israel PAC campaign contributions to Senator Chafee's opponent, aired just a few days before the November 1988 elections, didn't put the rascals into jail. But, Chafee has told friends, it saved his Senate seat.

Rhode Islanders were unaware until CBS told them only two weeks before the election that Israel's American lobby was backing his opponent (with $168,600 in PAC contributions), former Governor Richard Licht. Last minute polls then registered a dramatic surge for Chafee, who was reelected.

Look into the Congress and Human Rights columns in this issue of the Washington Report and see who just introduced into the Senate successful legislation calling upon Israel to reopen schools on the West Bank. It's a newly confident John Chafee, who beat the lobby and clearly feels that from now on he can speak and vote his conscience-thanks to an increasingly independent media and Mike Wallace, a reporter who's never backed away from a fight.

Cancellation of "Days of Rage"

This summer there has been a brouhaha over cancellation by WNYC-TV, the PBS affiliate owned by the City of New York, of its planned June 5 showing of Ms. Franklin-Trout's 90-minute examination of the first year of the Palestinian intifada. It meant that without a sponsoring station, PBS outlets across the nation would not be scheduling the film.

WNYC station Vice President Chloe Aaron, who has been described by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting as more of a political censor than a news programmer, cancelled the documentary on political grounds. She publicly compared it to a Nazi propaganda film. As it turns out, however, American viewers from coast to coast may yet have an opportunity to decide for themselves between the viewpoints of Ms. Franklin-Trout and Ms. Aaron.

Franklin-Trout has produced two previous Middle-East related films: a five-part series on Saudi Arabia and a three-part series on "The Oil Kingdoms" of the Gulf. Both were shown on PBS television affiliates and the Saudi series was repeated a year later.

In short, nothing like what happened to her film on the Palestinians had ever happened before to Ms. Frankliin-Trout, a former producer on PBS's nightly "Mac-Neil-Lehrer Report." Then, when she scheduled June showings of "Days of Rage" to let live audiences on both coasts judge her film for themselves, nearly every showing was cancelled at the behest of local Jewish leaders who intimidated sponsoring peace activists, Christian and Jewish organizations, and even theater owners.

It appears, however, that there may be a happy ending for "Days of Rage." It will be available for presentation by PBS stations around the nation, under sponsorship of New York station WNET, on Sept. 6. It will be accompanied by a one-hour "wraparound," meaning that it will be preceded and followed by a critical discussion.

Americans who haven't givien up entirely on television, radio and mainstream press see and hear passionate presentations of pro-Israeli themes many times a year. Any sympathetic presentation of the Palestinian case, even with a critical "wraparound," can therefore only contribute much needed "balance" to the perceptions of American viewers. Unless, that is, they have to sit up until well after midnight to see the Franklin-Trout film. That's what happened in early 1988 when ABC's Ted Koppel presented five hours of meticulously balanced programming from Jerusalem. He let prominent Palestinians and Israelis, of various political persuasions, state their cases live for American audiences and his historical background was fair. Perhaps it was a harbinger of things to come, not just after midnight, but also on network prime time.