Soccer Dad

Getting strung along; what a riot!

Two recent excellent posts covered similar areas of media bias in general and specifically how it relates to Israel.

Working off a recent Ralph Peters column on Iraq, Daled Amos noticed a similarity between the use of (ex-)Baathists and the tendencey of news organizations to rely on highly compromised stringers (or, if you will, fixers) in Israel and the Palestinian Authority controlled areas. As he puts it

Unfortunately, in the case of reporters stationed in Israel, this reliance often sinks into absurd intellectual and professional laziness.

But he doesn't just diagnose the problem, he suggests what Israel (and the United States must do) to rectify the situation

Both the US and Israel find themselves isolated among the West, a situation intensified by a persistant media bias based on a constant stream of unreliable information. Both need to realize the extent and source of the media bias--and if it's 'fixed', break it.

AbbaGav who seems to be spending way too much time surveying Yahoo! news photos noted something interesting.

Two different photographers, two different news services, lots of different photos from several different locations, both in the street and on a rooftop. But one "boy" featured in all of them.

AbbaGav concludes

Sure, there are clashes between Palestinian crowds and Israeli soldiers. I don't dispute that. But you might start to wonder if it really means what you're being told it means.

(AbbaGav also links to Mensa Barbie who has a link to a "Pallywood" video from Second Draft.)

Whenever a news organization is accused of doctoring the news, it usually protests that it is only showing what happened. Both posts offer up examples that cast that claim as dubious.

Technorati tags: media bias, Palestinian Authority, Israel.

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Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.