Time's Rees applies his `formula' to Israel
Commentary: `Cain's Field' author hails longevity for correspondents
By Jon Friedman, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 12:01 AM ET Dec. 3, 2004
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Matt Rees, Time's Jerusalem bureau chief since 2000, likes to tell the story about the American correspondent he met in Israel. The radio journalist couldn't stop gushing how his time in the Holy Land had been an eye-opener.
Rees, who has reported from Israel for the past eight years, nodded in recognition and asked him, when did you fly in?
"Yesterday," he shot back.
That reporter's impressionable impression underscores Rees's general unease about many foreign correspondents. They're in a too big of a hurry to form a conclusion.
In Israel, Rees has seen many journalists forever searching for a splashy scoop, without bothering to pay their dues and understand the nuances of the country's confluence of people, languages and cultures.
"The process is flawed," Rees, 37, told me last month during a U.S. speaking tour to promote his new book, "Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide and Fear in the Middle East."
Shaking his head, he dismissed the globe-trotting pundits who seem to believe that if you've seen one war zone, you've seen 'em all -- "as if people shooting and killing each other is a `beat,'" he said.
A bad idea
"It's a bad idea for people to be constantly changing beats and locations," he said over lunch at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
This may be a widespread problem.
"Most news organizations do have a sort of revolving door tendency when it comes to foreign posts," agreed Brian Bremner, BusinessWeek's Asia Regional Editor. A 12-year veteran of the Tokyo beat, he will soon be moving to Hong Kong for BusinessWeek.
"Three to five years tends to be the norm," Bremner pointed out. "While some very perceptive reporters do turn out some original reporting and analysis early into their tenure, that is a rarity. Oftentimes, you see very unimaginative takes on a foreign country with a kind of gee-whiz, aren't- these-folks-funny-and-different tone, which isn't often very edifying for readers."
Above all, Rees scorns what he labels "the formula," encompassing the journalists who are content to interview powerful politicians without laboring to understand the everyday people. While celebrities can generate splashy headlines, their self-serving comments don't produce much news value for discerning readers.
Savvy journalists come to recognize that political leaders, CEOs and other public figures are naturally untrustworthy as sources of information. Sadly, famous people, who have a lot to lose, inevitably feel a compulsion to tell lies or spin the news to fit their needs.
"I can't think of a more pointless exercise than interviewing Arafat at any point," Rees said, referring to the PLO leader who died last month. "You never got a straight answer."
Not that Arafat's cronies are any more reliable. "They'd tell you Arafat was still alive," Rees lamented.
Trust
"Time trusts me to go away from `the formula,'" Rees said. He prefers to describe the struggles of ordinary Palestinians and Israelis caught up in these extraordinary times.
"I'm policy-resistant," Rees said flatly. "My focus has been on the people there, rather than the institutions. I try to write what I think would be interesting and what people wouldn't see anywhere else."
Rees's strategy is paying off. Last year, he won the prestigious Henry Luce Award for Reporting, presented annually by Time Inc. (TWX: news, chart, profile) for his coverage of the battle in Jenin during the Palestinian intifada, or uprising. He and his bureau mate Jamil Hamad as well as Time's correspondent Bobby Ghosh spent nine days ensconced in the Jenin refugee camp. Rees later reconstructed the essence of such events as how bulldozers steamrolled people's houses.
"It was an amazing story," recalled Howard Chua-Eoan, Time's News Director. "He has a very good eye and ear for personal relationships and big social changes."
"Matt is very good at painting a narrative picture, and his great contacts make him unique," said Romesh Ratnesar, the magazine's World editor.
`Cain's Field'
"Cain's Field" reflects Rees's well honed view of Israel. Rather than churn out yet another 300-page book about the nation's battles and politics, Rees explained that relations are often far more fractured within the Israeli and Palestinian communities than when the adversaries are pitted against one another.
The New York Times cited Rees's "sharply detailed reporting" in its book review on Monday.
It took time for him to develop that unorthodox angle.
"I couldn't have written this book four years ago," he conceded last month during a talk sponsored by the American Zionist Movement in New York.
Perhaps it simply takes a little extra time for a reporter to come to terms with Israel.
"It's an extremely alien place to a person who grew up in most American towns," he said. "There is an undercurrent of aggression and tension."
Time's editors recognize the dangers, too. "We have taken precautions in the way we've covered the conflicts," Ratnesar said. He noted that Time bought Rees an armored car two years ago.
The land that Rees reports on may well have a greater sense of historical resonance than any other in the world.
"Since you were three years old, you were taught about the Bible and you heard about Bethlehem, Nazareth and parts of Jerusalem," Rees said.
For Rees, a turning point in his outlook occurred after his first visit to the West Bank (of the Jordan River). He was sharing an old Mercedes taxi with eight Palestinians and he could only see a winding road and olive trees in the distance.
"That valley hadn't changed since Biblical times!" Rees said
When he observed first-hand the "quiet dignity" of its people, he had an epiphany. "That was the first time I felt that journalism could be life-giving," he said.
Rees spoke those words plainly and simply with a tinge of his native Welsh accent. Long-time friends of his might have been surprised by the absence of an edge in his voice. They know well that this is a man who so revels in irreverence and sarcasm that he named his rock and roll band "Money Shot" a decade ago when he lived in New York.
"I've become more tolerant -- I guess I'm in my `Get Happy!!' phase," Rees joked, referring to the upbeat title of a 1980 album by Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
"He has mellowed," Chua-Eoan noted, "except for the colors of his socks and his mod fashions. He talks in a measured tone - even when he is irate."
Peace in our time
On his book tour, Rees was asked repeatedly if he thinks there will ever be a true peace in the Middle East. He is optimistic.
"Ultimately there are currents within both societies which are challenging the status quo of the last few decades and it's really coming to a head now," he told me earnestly. "It won't be easy and it might be bloody. It could take a decade or a couple of years. But it clearly has started. The last thing that was holding it back was Arafat. He anchored the Palestinians. Now they're cut loose and they can find the basis of a settlement."
Skeptical Middle East scholars may roll their eyes at those comments. It's not hard to blame them for questioning Rees's hopefulness. But like any accomplished journalist, he doesn't mind or care if people disagree with him.
Rees has learned to apply his own formula to covering Israel.
"The longer you stay there," he said, "the better you get under the skin of things." |
