Posted on 04/24/2002 5:34:36 AM PDT by SJackson
| "He kept bleeding" was a large front-page headline in the April 4 Washington Post. The story was about a wounded Palestinian who died in Bethlehem after Israeli forces refused to let ambulances into the fire zone. The Israelis said snipers were still active. Also they may have been suspicious of the local ambulance corps after explosives were discovered under the stretcher of a 3-year-old boy.
Maybe the Israelis were just being monsters, as the press increasingly seems to think. But the level of "he kept bleeding" and "they've killed my wife" coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli war is quite high. Another Washington Post headline was "Father, son dead; family wonders why." This is a very unusual way to cover combat, particularly when there are no neutral observers around to back up stories supplied by angry partisans.
The British press is filled with this stuff, and the hostility to Israel is impossible to miss. American reporters are more professional, but focusing on highly emotional "they've killed my wife" coverage is dicey. It tells us nothing about what we need to know-whether the killing of civilians was incidental or intentional, massive or minor. After all, "they've killed my wife" journalism can be churned out after "collateral damage" in almost any battle in any war.
In contrast, I don't see much emotional coverage of the Israeli civilians intentionally blown up by Palestinian bombers. Most attacks pass without any notice in the press. The coverage we do get is dry and matter-of-fact. In February, for instance, CNN's Web site mentioned the "killing of two Israelis" by a suicide bomber. The bomber was identified, but there were no names of the 15-year-old victims, no details about the horrific damage to other teens by flying nails embedded in the bomb, and not even a mention that one of the two dead was a U.S. citizen. Palestinian bombers, on the other hand, tend to get more vivid treatment, often with endearing photos and warm, human-interest touches. The New York Times reported that one bomber "raised doves and adored children," though this adoration apparently did not extend to the children being bombed.
Old news. Part of the problem is that the attacks on Israeli civilians are too common to be considered news. Also some reporters think Israel should shut up about suicide bombers and just learn to live with the problem.
....snip....
Another underreported topic is the new alliance on U.S. campuses between Muslim militants and conventional hate-America, hate-Israel lefties. The militants failed in a recent attempt to silence a pro-Israel speaker (Daniel Pipes at the University of Washington). But they will get more skilled, particularly with the help of the lefties, who are experienced at this sort of thing.
Some odd attitudes are now on the loose among our media and our intelligentsia. Astonishingly, human-rights groups are calling for a divestment campaign against Israel like the one that targeted racist South Africa. Israel equals South Africa? Get serious. An open and democratic nation, Israel deserves our respect-and honest coverage from our media.
...Which is exactly why the left hates Israel. Islamic extremism is more in line with the ideology of the left (thought police, no freedom, small group of tyrants in control of society...). I really cannot stand these college "students". They are incredibly naive and ignorant about the world in which they live. It's usually a dose of reality that awakens them from their ignorant bliss. I only hope that this awakening doesn't come to them in the form of a homicide bomber on a crowded commuter bus.
And the desperate attempts to get out the propaganda, at all and any costs, on every medium of communication, is amazing!
Liberal media bias is the reason why I stopped subscribing to any newspaper years ago, and why I no longer watch ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN or MSNBC (except Alan Keyes). I get my news from Free Republic and Fox News.
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