By Dave Lindorff

If you want to really know what's going on in Gaza, you cannot rely on the US Media, which, along with the rest of the world's media, have been barred from the battle zone by the Israeli government.

The only international reporters in Gaza now who can show what is actually happening there are the ones from Al Jazeera.

Under pressure from the Bush administration, the major cable providers in the US have not offered Al Jazeera in the US. The number of communities that have it in their available cable offerings can be counted on one or at most two hands.

But you can watch Al Jazeera's English channel's live feed free by downloading Livestation, a program that also offers the BBC, Deutschewelle (Germany) and French TV.

Incidentally, as I watched a young woman from Al Jazeera, dressed in a flak jacket prominently labeled "PRESS" and wearing a military helmet, gingerly walk towards the scene of an Israeli massacre of a Gaza family, doing her standup into the mike as she walked, I was struck by the shamelessness of our own corporate media. Does anyone think that if Wolf Blitzer or Brian Williams took a network helicopter and announced to the Israeli government that they were flying into Gaza, they would be shot down? Of course not! It would be the end of US support for Israel. They'd be able to fly in at will and report on what is happening. So why aren't they doing it? It can't be fear. At least not fear of the IDF. Fear of criticism here at home maybe, for being too even-handed on this story?
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Dave LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and now available in paperback). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net