The thrust of the article is that the American news networks are "blaming the victims" for the famine. (Apparently the manner in which Africans run their governments cannot be criticized by white, Western -- or, here, "Northern" -- journalists.) With regards to Zimbabwe, here's FAIR's take on the issue:
According to the London Guardian (4/3/00), "About 4,500 white farmers own 11 million hectares of Zimbabwe's prime agricultural land, while about 1 million blacks own 16 million hectares, often in drought-prone regions." In other words, this is a country where a minority of less than one hundredth of one percent owns almost two-thirds as much land as the majority--and owns the choicest land, because they once ruled the country.
These whites were generally portrayed as hard-working, honest farmers who just wanted to till their land, rather than as giant land-owners who had usurped the most productive territory--although they were surely that, given the amount of starvation that such a small number of farms was reportedly able to cause.
Mugabe's administration in Zimbabwe has been thoroughly criticized by his own citizens, and the subject is clearly newsworthy. However, the omission of basic facts such as the skewed land ownership turned a potentially useful examination of the motives of Zimbabwe's land reform program into a one-dimensional promotion for a single message: It's their own fault they're starving.
And a basic fact omitted here is this: "Land reform" may be history's most savage political euphemism. It can be easily translated to mean "political famine," as it was in the Ukraine in the 1930s. Another glaring omission is any concern for those who must actually pay the price for a more equitable distribution of choice farmland. FAIR's complaint is akin to observers of a sinking ship complaining that the vessel fails to meet the standards of a luxury liner. The criticism may be apt, but the passengers are going to drown just the same.
Elsewhere in the article, we learn that Zambia could have helped alleviate its famine by accepting a shipment of genetically modified grain, but refused to do so. If that isn't government mismanagement on a massive scale, I don't know what is. We also get the usual discussion about "global warming" caused by "Northern" pollution.
But what we don't get is something pointed out in this BBC article -- the AIDS epidemic in the region that has decimated its most productive citizens. Surely AIDS is more than a "backdrop" to the crisis. Indeed, it may be the main cause, along with a sustained drought. And AIDS in Africa is one story that has NOT been ignored by the media. (Note this Google News search that reveals 1,980 links.)
I understand that FAIR comes at the question of media bias from a left-wing perspective. It would be nice if it would do so in an intellectually honest manner.
