==>MISREPORTING ISRAEL'S WAR
Undaunted Infidel
Joel Himelfarb
In the last few weeks, CNN has suffered a series of embarrassing
incidents calling into question its news judgment and ability to meet the
most basic standards of fairness in reporting on Israel. CNN boss Ted Turner
made the following statement about the ongoing war between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority. "I would make the case that both sides are engaged in
terrorism," he told the Guardian newspaper. Although Mr. Turner subsequently
apologized for suggesting that Israel was behaving this way, the damage had
been done.
Then, a few days later, Eason Jordan, CNN's president of newsgathering,
admitted that the network had made a "mistake" by giving more prominence to
the suffering of the family of a Palestinian suicide bomber than it had to a
relative of one of his victims, who included a one-year-old boy. Mr. Jordan
said CNN had put into place a new system in which it would refuse to air any
statements or videotape distributed by suicide bombers unless there was an
"extraordinarily compelling" reason to do so. He said that the network
hadn't done "enough" to show what the victims of terror are forced to
endure.
If CNN actually follows through on Mr. Jordan's promise, it could be a
major step in the right direction. During Operation Defensive Shield - the
five-week-long military campaign Israel launched March 29 in response to a
devastating series of suicide bombings by Palestinian terrorists operating
out of areas controlled by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority - CNN and
other major news organs in the United States consistently portrayed Israel's
actions in the most malevolent light possible while ignoring serious
misconduct from the Palestinian side.
During one CNN broadcast, for example, anchor Carol Lin demanded to
know why the United States should press Mr. Arafat to rein in terrorist
violence without simultaneously demanding that Israel agree to the creation
of a Palestinian state. "What sense does that make?" Mrs. Lin indignantly
demanded. Apparently, she didn't know that opposing terrorism was something
Mr. Arafat had repeatedly promised to do since signing the Oslo peace
agreement with Israel in 1993, only to renege again and again. Mrs. Lin also
seemed ignorant of the fact that Israel had offered Mr. Arafat such a state
20 months earlier at Camp David, but he rejected the offer and launched a
wave of terror. Mrs. Lin's on-air broadcast partner, Tony Karon of Time,
warned darkly that any effort to halt Palestinian violence would fail
"unless it's linked to a political process" (i.e., concessions to Mr. Arafat
which, in effect, would have rewarded his terrorist campaign).
CNN had plenty of company when it came to getting the story wrong. On
NBC's "Today" Show, Katie Couric, ignoring the fact that Israel would never
have launched a military offensive in the West Bank if it hadn't been
attacked by suicide bombers, unsuccessfully attempted to goad British Prime
Minister Tony Blair into placing the lion's share of the blame for the
violence on Israel. On MSNBC, Martin Fletcher allowed suicide bombers and
their defenders to argue without challenge that suicide bombings were a
purely defensive response to unprovoked Israeli attacks.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
(CAMERA), a media watchdog group, noted that one day after a member of the
terrorist group Hamas killed 29 people at a seder in a Netanya hotel, ABC's
"Nightline" ran a report on suicide bombings, during which it failed to
interview any Israeli survivors of the bloodbath. Dan Harris of "Nightline"
did, however, find time to talk to a few of the tiny percentage of Israeli
Jews who were opposed to military action against Palestinian terrorists.
Host Chris Bury spent close to six minutes lobbing softball questions to
Saudi Arabian spokesman Adel al-Jubeir, who suggested that Israeli soldiers
who targeted terrorists were morally equivalent to suicide bombers. On the
Fox News Channel, correspondent Geraldo Rivera suggested that Israel was
"not fighting terrorism" but "inflicting terrorism" by attacking terrorists
operating out of densely populated civilian areas.
When it came to the print media, The Washington Post seemed to
specialize in portraying Israeli actions in Ramallah in the darkest possible
light, and Mr. Arafat's behavior in the most bizarrely positive way. One
article was headlined "Israeli Tanks Enter Ramallah After Arafat Calls for
Cease-fire." For emphasis, The Post's story was accompanied by a Reuters
photo of an Israeli soldier with his gun aimed at women and children.
In their reporting on the siege at the Church of the Nativity in
Bethlehem and its aftermath, the Times and The Post gave virtually no
attention to the fact (which was reported on the front page of The
Washington Times) that clergymen and other personnel were in effect held
against their will by a local Palestinian gang known as the Abayat family,
who terrorized local Christians, desecrated the church and hoarded food
intended for the clergymen hostages there. All too often, the only news fit
to print seemed to be that which portrayed Israel in the darkest possible
light.
Joel Himelfarb is assistant editor of the editorial page for The
Washington Times.
amigocabal
Undaunted Infidel <is...@dumb-ideas.com> wrote in message
news:Fg7W8.63$yC4...@typhoon.nyu.edu...
Spithas
> Misreporting Israel's war
You are fooling yourself.
Of the 6 billion people living on Earth, 5.999999 billion are on the
side of the Palestinians because even in the Western Jewish run media
they can see that a militarily powerful and oppressing nation is
trying to bully a poor, homeless people who (having no tanks) are
fighting back the only way they can.
> Although Mr. Turner subsequently
> apologized for suggesting that Israel was
> behaving this way, the damage had
> been done.
This article should be re-written. It should read:
"Mr. Turner said the truth. However, after the extremely powerful
Jewish groups in the US told him and showed him what they can do to
him if he didn't take back what he said, Mr. Turner was forced to
apologize for suggesting that Israel was behaving this way, but the
damage had already been done."
Of course, "apologizing" doesn't mean he changed his mind. He was just
forced to lie about what he believed.
And if Jews can do that to Ted Turner, imagine the power they have.
The "poor", "persecuted", "misunderstood" and "misreported" Jews...
Get real....
Spithas
Adam Littman
>"Undaunted Infidel" <is...@dumb-ideas.com> wrote:
>> Misreporting Israel's war
>
>You are fooling yourself.
>
>Of the 6 billion people living on Earth, 5.999999 billion are on the
>side of the Palestinians because even in the Western Jewish run media
>they can see that a militarily powerful and oppressing nation is
>trying to bully a poor, homeless people who (having no tanks) are
>fighting back the only way they can.
Your knowledge of people is as poor as your math skills. 0.000001 billion (6
billion - 5.999999 billion) is 1000.
There are far more Jews than that. Since more than half of America supports
Israel and realizes, _despite_ CNN's efforts to distort the situation to make
Israel look bad, that people who deliberately blow up busses full of children
are the bad guys, no matter what their supposed cause that also means more
than 150 million Americans know your pals the Palestinians are a bunch of
murdering psychopaths.
While _you_ are a supporter of murdering psychopaths.
*plonk*
--
___________
Adam Littman / ^ \
AL...@cornell.edu /\ / \ /\
/__\__/___\__/__\
/ \( ) ( )/ \
\ /\ o /\ /
\ / \( )/ \ /
"Four minutes twenty-two seconds, \/____\_/____\/
Baldric, you owe me a groat" \ \ /
--Blackadder \ / \ /
---------
Undaunted Infidel
"Spithas" <cer...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:6d66cd5d.02070...@posting.google.com...
Undaunted Infidel
"Adam Littman" <al...@nospam.cornell.edu> wrote in message
news:agcghl$f8l$1...@news01.cit.cornell.edu...
Spithas
> Since more than half of America supports
> Israel and realizes, _despite_ CNN's efforts
> to distort the situation to make
> Israel look bad, that people who deliberately blow up
> busses full of children are the bad guys, no matter
> what their supposed cause
How about people who enter Jenin camp and kill people with tanks ? Is
their "supposed cause" better than "no matter what it is" ?
Look, I'm Greek. In Greece, I am the single most America-friendly
person you will find. Most people consider me extremely biased towards
Americans and the West in general. My "dislike" of what Israel is
doing is very weak in comparisson with 99% of other Greeks. For
example, a very well known director here, who is a Jew, stated to the
Newspapers "I want to kill Sharon".
So what you are hearing from me is the most non-biased view you will
get.
Greece is typical of most of the rest of the world. Everyone here
believes CNN is totally biased towards Israel and is being run by Jews
like all other American media. This is what the rest of the world
(outside Cornell and USA) is actually like. Living in a "virtual
reality" where you don't recognise these facts is not healthy.
I am also completely against what Palestinians are doing. No doubt
about that.
But that still doesn't change the fact that Israel is the bully here
and that all this started up again when Sharon went to that Holly
place (I don't remember what) and when Israelis decided to elect him.
You say you are in a war, and then demand that the other side not
fight.
> While _you_ are a supporter of murdering psychopaths.
No, I said I do *not* support what Israel is doing.
Spithas