ZIONAZIS SUPPRESS SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS COLUMNIST JULIO NABOA

Anti-Palestinians claim another free American voice!
Palestine Media Watch
April 17, 2003
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/mediocrity/displayCall.asp?essayID=136

PMWATCH - April 17, 2003 -- Yet another brave rare American columnist standing up for the truth about the plight of Palestinians has been fired from his post by weak-kneed editors unable and unwilling to stand up to the relentless anti-Palestinian Macarthytes that continue to choke the already very smothered discourse about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict here in the United States.

The latest victim, Julio Noboa of the San Antonio Express, has stood firmly on the side of truth and has courageously spoken up when the vast majority of his colleagues have kept silent, lest their comfortable, cushy columnist spot be yanked from them. And so, now he is made to pay the price for daring to speak his conscience.

Below is his latest column explaining what happened.

Please take the time to contact the San Antonio Express to share your feelings about this unjustified firing. Clearly, this is a case of unconscionable censorship mingled with editorial cowardice.

You can send letters to the San Antonio Express at:

letters [at] express-news.net

Editor, Robert Rivard
rrivard [at] express-news.net

Managing Editor, Carolina Garcia
cgarcia [at] express-news.net


You can send a quick email via:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/mediocrity/displayCall.asp?essayID=136

And if you really want to have a bigger impact, please take the time to call the editorial department. The person to speak with is Robert Rivard and his number is 210 - 250 - 3476.

Mr. Noboa was one of literally a handful of writers in the United States at his level who has deviated from the usual uninformed, and usually mindless, anti-Palestinian stand. Let's show our strong support for him.

For more on the destructive and vicious anti-Palestinian censorship campaign that continues unabated, please visit:

Fighting anti-Palestinian intimidation tactics: http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/volunteer/intimidation.asp

Victims of Cyber Terrorism Form A National Coalition
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/volunteer/ncact.asp

Palestine Media Watch
http://www.pmwatch.org
(610) 993 - 0608

============================================================

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=1160&xlc=974385


Julio Noboa: More progressive voices are needed

By Julio Noboa
San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 04/06/2003 12:00 AM

Dear readers, friends and allies:

During my nine years as a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, I have covered a wide variety of topics related to issues of justice, peace and equity, especially as they impact people of color here and abroad. My column, I've been recently informed, has been discontinued.

It was just over a year ago that a heated controversy erupted over my columns, mostly those critical of U.S. and Israeli policy toward Palestinians. A prominent rabbi accused me of anti-semitism and disparaged my writings in a sermon, demanding I be terminated for, among other reasons, suggesting that certain constituencies have more media power than others in our nation.

At that time, the Express-News to their credit, refused to terminate my column, citing not only freedom of the press, but also explaining that to do so would prove that constituency does indeed have more media power.

Now, as a response to my last two articles, "Jenin survivors ending the silence" (March 1); and "Israel gets billions while Americans tighten belts" (March 15), the editors confronted me with the charge that I relied too heavily on one source.

That, according to them, is grounds for terminating my column. It's important to note that there were few or no questions regarding the truth or the facts as I presented them, nor about the credibility of the source itself. Neither were there any charges of plagiarism.

In response I submitted copies to the editors of the various sources I had consulted for both articles, including the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Times, Human Rights Watch, the U.N. Report on Jenin, as well as The Independent, a respected British newspaper.

For the Jenin column, I deliberately relied more heavily on an article in the Independent, an April 25 piece by two British journalists, Justin Huggler and Phil Reeves, who had been writing from within Jerusalem and Jenin. They were the most direct source on the scene.

Nevertheless, I also consulted and submitted to the editors the other above mentioned sources which verified much of what the Independent said.

It was obvious from the very beginning that someone had marked in yellow, entire sections of my column and of that Independent article, and had given both to the editors in an effort to discredit me.

Thus, within those long marked sections, I underlined for the editors only the specific words and few phrases in my column taken from that source to demonstrate that what I had utilized were simply the facts, the numbers, the dates, the details of the events surrounding the Israeli incursion into Jenin last year.

Despite my best efforts, the editors decided to discontinue my column.

Many of you are already familiar with my writings and realize that the progressive perspectives I bring are rarely expressed in this, the only newspaper in town.

In fact, barely 11 percent of all the columns I have written over the past three years even deal with the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

This means that one of the few progressive views on a whole variety of topics including the war on Iraq, Latino issues and educational concerns, among others, will no longer be available to Express-News readers.

This is more profoundly an issue of free expression and political censorship.

http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/mediocrity/displayCall.asp?essayID=136