Think Twice Before Dry Cleaning Your Clothes ? BUSINESS ...

I don?t know many people who dislike putting on a dress, shirt, or pair of pants that has just come back from the dry cleaners. Well? unfortunately, many of us college students don?t get to experience this feeling of cleanliness. In fact, many times we must put on a wrinkled shirt or pair of pants because we have not had time to do our laundry in the past three weeks.

According to Mark Regev, spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister, wearing dirty clothes is not such a bad thing. Regev uses a dirty clothes and dry cleaning metaphor to describe his criticisms of international media coverage relative to Israel. He says Israel wears dirty clothes. In other words, media exposes any Israeli opinions. For example, if you are writing an article and ask ten Israelis their thoughts on the prime minister, you would get ten, maybe even eleven different responses. On the other hand, if you ask ten people in Gaza their thoughts on the recent bombings, you would get the same response ten times. Hamas controls their responses and quite frankly the lives of these people. Unfortunately, in this example and most others in the ?closed? countries surrounding Israel, many international reporters do not go deep enough to find the objective truth. As a result, stories tend to be one sided?one sided in a way that does not favor Israel.

Yes, Regev is right in condemning international reporters. These reporters fail to be critical and get the full story; thus they fail to uphold their jobs as journalist. But, I believe Israel and other democratic societies should view this reporting as an opportunity rather than wasting time criticizing it. Such stories provide an opportunity for these nations to promote their own media, federal, and educational institutions. In doing so, these governments exhibit trust in its human capital. Even when faced with propagated media reports, democratic nations should be confident their citizens, as a result of the countries? own reporting and education, will see the bias within the reports and create their own informed opinions.

I realize this is an extremely optimistic view. Citizens of democratic nations succumb to media manipulation everyday. By succumbing to such propaganda, these same citizens also expose areas (policy making, journalism, education, etc.) for improvement in these countries. I am saying that international criticisms of Israel and other nations should be means to exhibit the merits to a democratic society or an opportunity for them to strengthen parts of their infrastructure.

So now, picture yourself as a college student. You are standing in front of an empty drawer and a full laundry bag. How are you going to react? Well? I know I will probably still groan and my head will probably still start to hurt. But I believe that in terms of the media and inter-country affairs wearing ?dirty clothes? has a positive meaning. It signifies the opportunity to gain a full perspective on issues facing a country.

Jennifer ? Olin Business School ? Sophomore ? Pennsylvania

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Source: http://olinbizinisrael.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/think-twice-before-dry-cleaning-your-clothes/

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