By Ray Hanania

Journalism is supposed to be about pledging your allegiance to fairness. But, based on recent coverage of the Middle East, it seems that some journalists, including those in Chicago, have allegiances to other principles. Be it due to patriotism, political bias or even failure to do their jobs, coverage of the Middle East conflict has been one-sided.

For example, in nearly every instance when an Israeli civilian is murdered by a Palestinian suicide bomber, the attacker is decried as a "terrorist" and the victims are portrayed in the most personal way possible. We learn everything about the Israeli victim.

In contrast, Palestinian Arabs who are murdered by Israeli government hit squads, or who are killed while protesting against Israeli's occupation of their homes and land, are portrayed as little more than statistics. And the actions of the Israelis who are behind the murders, from soldiers to settlers to Mossad agents, are described as "retaliation."

Shamefully, most journalists have forgotten that their allegiance should be to truth and fairness in reporting, rather than to political bias or patriotism. And while the reporters are miscuing their principles, their editors are even more shameless in their activism, advocating one-sided causes to the point of demagoguery.

Where is the truth? Right in the middle, where both Israeli and Palestinian civilians equally suffer as a result of poor foreign policies, and where the extremists on both sides must equally share the blame for the violence.

The Chicago Sun-Times is a perfect example of this imbalanced coverage. While the news side of the paper struggles to achieve professionalism, the editorial pages have eagerly been transformed into political advocates for the right-wing government of Israel. In the past year, the Sun-Times has published more than 50 commentaries by individuals who support the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. These commentaries have been given marquee status, appearing in the higher circulation Sunday and weekday papers. During that same period, the Sun-Times has published only six commentaries by pro-Arab writers, almost all printed in the lower circulation Saturday papers.

I can't blame the Sun-Times editors for pandering to the political idiosyncrasies of their right wing publisher, Conrad Black. After all, many editors shrug that they are just taking orders. But in a recent discussion on the Society of Professional Journalists internet discussion list, the issue of unbalanced reporting and editorial/commentary page coverage was generally ignored by many of the SPJ's listserve members. And those few who did comment said they didnÕt see the issue as "a legitimate journalistic concern."

The journalism world has come a long way from the days when it led the charge against right wing extremism in the Nixon administration, and exposed the crimes of Watergate. I entered the journalism profession in the late 1970s, inspired by the Washington Post idealism that truth and justice exposed does more to serve society than newspapers and journalists who anoint themselves as the judge, jury and executioner.

There are two sides to the Middle East conflict. You wouldn't know it from the coverage offered by most media outlets or reporters. Biased and imbalanced journalism is a disservice to the public that journalism is entrusted to serve. By presenting issues in a one-sided manner, the news media is basically saying that the public isn't smart enough to recognize the truth if it hit them in the face.

I have faith not only in the public's ability to see through this unprofessionalism, but also in the strength of the truth itself. Even if the news media fails to present both sides, truth always forces its way out from under the demagoguery of self-proclaimed protectors of our society.

Ray Hanania is the executive director of the National Arab Journalists Association. His columns are archived at www.ArabAmericanView.net