Say Hello to "News and Views from Jews Down Under"

Mike L.

I am exceedingly happy to announce the launch of a brand-spanking new on-line Jewish news magazine from Australia, published by none other than our friend Shirlee Finn, entitled News and Views from Jews Down Under.

What is News and Views about?  Shirlee writes:

We are sick and tired of left-leaning media, leftists and others who trump up issues about the Jewish Community, Jews and Israel, with little or no regard for facts or truth, and whose blind followers lambaste anyone who dares challenge them.  

This forum seeks to set the record straight, to facilitate open and genuine dialogue on issues that are important to Australian Jews, both within Australia and Israel.  

We see this as somewhere to be able to air views and to ask the hard questions which cannot be done elsewhere and which may at times touch a few nerves.

News and Views is a fledgling operation, but it is precisely the kind of fledgling operation that we should support.  People often wonder if engagement in social media advocacy is actually helpful.  I have very often wondered that myself.

Nonetheless, social media influenced my understanding of how others view the Arab-Israel conflict and that is important to know if you care about the issue.  I never realized the degree of malice coming out of certain quarters of the political landscape until I saw it emerging in poisonous ways from the grassroots / netroots.

The recognition of that bias and malice and what Boston University historian, Richard Landes, calls Lethal Journalism in turn effected my own views of the conflict.

I want to encourage you guys to check out News and Views, which is at the beginning of a work-in-progress.  If any of you folks would like to write for the magazine the editors can be reached at jewsdownunder@gmail.com.

We need to help one another when we can and if we can.

Good luck to Shirlee, David, and News and Views!

{Added to the blogroll, by the way.}