U.S. press missed a lot in Gaza, producer says

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"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visits Israel and the West Bank this week, giving the U.S. media another opportunity to tell the story of the 22-day war between the Israeli military and Hamas in Gaza in December and January. To San Francisco-based Middle Eastern media watcher Jalal Ghazi and other analysts, few Americans saw as many of the devastating images from Gaza as the rest of the world did.

Ghazi did. He is an associate producer for "Mosaic," a Peabody Award-winning daily aggregation of Middle Eastern news programs produced by San Francisco's Link TV. "Mosaic" culls broadcasts from 36 stations in 22 countries in the region.

With U.S. news organizations cutting their overseas operations over the past several years, viewers have to surf online and throughout the satellite TV universe to find substantial and sustained international coverage. Analysts say with more foreign reporters "parachuting" into an overseas location during a crisis, coverage is more likely to rely too much on official government mouthpieces.

"We didn't see the (Gaza) war at all here. We didn't see the destruction," Ghazi said. "The war may have ended, but the suffering is continuing there." This week, U.S. reporters can use Clinton's Middle East visit in the wake of the Obama administration pledging $900 million in reconstruction aid to Palestine to vividly show the aftermath of the war, which killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. And, suggested Ghazi and "Mosaic" producer Jamal Dajani, journalists can press U.S. officials on how the aid will find its way to those living in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. The U.S. government considers Hamas a terrorist organization and has no official contact with it."

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