More Modern Media Manipulation
Chaim Dovid Zwiebel

by Chaim Dovid Zwiebel

My essay in the Adar/March edition of Coalition ("Observers vs. The Observer: A Case Study in Modern Media Manipulation") took note of the tendency, "especially pronounced in the modern media, ... not to take things at face value, to seek ulterior motives where none in fact exist ... to perniciously foster disunity in the guise of reporting on it."

Little did I know when I drafted the essay that this unhealthy tendency -- let's call it MMM syndrome -- was about to target Agudath Israel once again.

Beware the Ides of March

The setting this time was the March 15, 1996 Forward -- an increasingly popular Anglo-Jewish weekly -- where the following appeared in a column devoted to political matters:

"Once upon a time, Orthodox Jews were looked upon as exotic creatures in the political whirl. Candidates went to visit local rebbes for blessings, treating the event like a little adventure. Now, thanks to fund-raisers ... who have pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the GOP and the Democratic part[ies], the Orthodox community is seen as a money tree.

"The religious Jewish establishment isn't thrilled with the new image, which may explain why Agudath Israel took the extreme step of dissing President Clinton -- an almost unheard act by a Jewish group.

"For nearly a year, the leaders of Agudath had been requesting a meeting with Bill Clinton. The invitation they received on Thursday wasn't exactly what they had in mind. The president's scheduling office called to say the president would meet with leaders of Agudath for a few minutes Monday night at the St. Regis Hotel, the same night another Orthodox group from Lakewood, N.J., was scheduled to have a private session with Mr. Clinton.

"While Agudath's counsel, David Zwiebel, insists his group was in no way miffed, he confirms it turned the White House down flat: 'After thinking about it, the decision was that it would not reflect the dignity of our organization or for the president to pull together one such meeting on top of another', he told the Forward. 'We felt it would look a little silly for the president to walk from one room of long beards to another.'

"In fact, sources tell the Forward that Agudath leaders were secretly mortified. The group had been lobbying to meet with the president at the White House, or hoping he would attend the annual dinner. Agudath leaders decided they couldn't afford to be seen as tilting toward Mr. Clinton, or even worse, risk being hit up for cash."

A Model Lesson

Forward's masterful touch on this story, particularly its concluding paragraph, deserves close study by all students of MMM Syndrome. In fact, aspiring modern media-niks will see in this textbook example of the genre three important rules of manipulation:

-- MMM Rule No. 1: Announce that you have exposed a scam and uncovered the truth. The Forward story's final paragraph opens with the words "In fact". The not so subliminal message is that the immediately preceding paragraph -- in which some Agudath Israel apologist mouths the organization's official diplomatic line in order to deceive the public and preserve its reputation with the White House -- is pure fiction. Kudos to Forward for uncovering the truth and exposing the phonies!

-- MMM Rule No. 2: Disclose anonymous whispers. The final paragraph relies on unnamed "sources" who are privy to Agudath Israel's "secret" reactions. Implicit in the anonymity is that this journalistic expose is so "hot" that the sources who came clean to Forward's relentless truth-seeker could not afford to disclose their identities. Nixon may be dead, but Deep Throat lives on!

-- MMM Rule No. 3: Play to your readers's pre-existing stereotypes. The Forward story concludes on a note that will cause many of the newspaper's loyal readers to nod sagely: Yup, if there's anything those Orthodox right-wingers despise more than a liberal Democrat, it's a liberal Democrat who may ask them to part with some of their precious money!

Neither Miffery Nor Dissery

When I read the Forward story, I immediately wrote a letter to the editor, responding to the allegations of the paper's anonymous sources. As of this writing, however, my letter remains unpublished.

For the record, therefore: When we declined the White House's offer to have the President spend half-an-hour in dialogue with Agudath Israel's leadership, concerns about Clinton-tilting and cash-hitting never crossed our minds. Our decision was based on one consideration only: the fact that the President was scheduled to meet that same evening with the leadership of Beth Medrash Govoha. We did not want to be involved in an event that could be seen as undermining the Lakewood Yeshiva's special moment with the President.

We were not miffed when the White House offered to make President Clinton available to an Agudath Israel leadership meeting; we were honored. Nor did we "diss" the President when we turned down the opportunity at this particular time. When the White House schedulers realized that Agudath Israel and Beth Medrash Govoha work hand-in-hand and represent substantially overlapping constituencies, they fully concurred with our judgment that it simply didn't make sense to go forward with a separate Agudath Israel meeting on the immediate heels of the Lakewood function.

Indeed, had we accepted the White House offer, there would have been a notable overlap in attendance at the two gatherings. Not only would have the President proceeded "from one room of long beards to another," as Forward quotes me; he would have recognized some of the very same beards (and yarmulkes, and hats, and sheitlach) in the second room.

Yellow Journalism Fever

In the political arena, Agudath Israel is issues-oriented and non-partisan, and has always maintained high level contacts on both sides of the political aisle. We enjoy excellent relationships with both President Clinton and Senator Dole. With the advent of the 1996 presidential campaign season, we have every reason to expect that both major parties will make active outreach to the Orthodox Jewish constituency, which is seen as an important "swing vote" in a number of key electoral states, and that we will have frequent occasion to engage them in dialogue.

Agudath Israel will survive Forward's muck-raking yellow journalism. But MMM Syndrome is becoming more and more pervasive, and can sometimes be deadly. An alert general public would do well to watch for its symptoms.