top five media fails, gaza conflict edition
TRANSCRIPT
2014 Gaza Conflict Edition Defending Israel From Media BiasHonestReporting
Top Five
Media Fails
Casualty Figures as Moral Barometer
Reporters often relied on figures provided by the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry even though Hamas has a strategic interest in inflating the numbers.
Casualty Figures as Moral Barometer
“The list was done hastily and later changes were made. There were a number of false names listed; the details of the dead are only partial, making identification suspicious. There are names used more than once and some might have been killed by their own fire rather than by the Israeli army. The list doesn’t differentiate between civilians and terror operatives. All the dead are listed as ‘shahids’ [martyrs].”
Col. (Ret.) Reuven Erlich of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center checked 152 names supplied by the Gazan Health Ministry:
Source: http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=40501!
Casualty Figures as Moral Barometer
Media outlets often claimed a civilian count as high as 80%. But a New York Times report found that a suspiciously high number of casualties were males aged 20 to 29 –- the primary age of Hamas terrorists.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/world/middleeast/civilian-or-not-new-fight-in-tallying-the-dead-from-the-gaza-conflict.html!
Mainstream media often presented a casualty „scoreboard‰ –– Palestinian numbers
next to Israeli numbers.
These numbers have moral undertones. Reported without context, they suggest that Israel was the aggressor or that the threat against Israel was exaggerated.
Casualty Figures as Moral Barometer
But „the score‰ is not the whole story.
Casualty Figures as Moral Barometer
It does not reveal the efforts Israel made to protect its civilians, and it doesnÊt take into account the ways Hamas endangered civilians by turning residential neighborhoods into battle zones.
Casualty Figures as Moral Barometer
“The real utility of the body count is that it offers reporters and commentators who cite it the chance to ascribe implicit blame to Israel while evading questions about ultimate responsibility for the killing.”
As Bret Stephens wrote in The Wall Street Journal:
Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/bret-stephens-palestine-makes-you-dumb-1406590159!
The “Battered Journalist” Syndrome
Hamas intimidates journalists. The situation in Gaza was so severe that the Foreign Press Association (FPA) issued a scathing condemnation of HamasÊs behavior towards journalists:
The “Battered Journalist” Syndrome
From the Foreign Press Association’s statement:! “The FPA protests in the strongest terms the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza over the past month.
…
“In several cases, foreign reporters working in Gaza have been harassed, threatened or questioned over stories or information they have reported through their news media or by means of social media.”
Source: http://www.fpa.org.il/index.php?categoryId=73840!
Amazingly, the response from some of the most influential journalists covering Gaza was that the entire issue was over-blown. The New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Jodi Rudoren even called the FPA statement „nonsense‰ on Twitter.
The “Battered Journalist” Syndrome
The “Battered Journalist” Syndrome
Because if reporters were transparent about the challenges they faced, they would have to admit that Hamas exerted some level of control over the stories that came out of Gaza.
Why go out of the way to downplay something that had an obvious impact on the stories that emerged from the conflict?
The “Battered Journalist” Syndrome
“The Gaza war was a huge story, of course, and it had to be covered, but it could just as easily have been covered from the Israeli side of the line. Covering both sides of the story is of course preferable whenever possible, but providing balanced coverage from Israel alongside censored coverage from Gaza is a form of journalistic malpractice. Stop it.”
As journalist Michael Totten wrote following the publication of the FPAÊs statement:
Source: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/hamas-threatened-reporters-gaza!
Failure to Disclose Missing Information
Many journalists and photographers insisted their work was unhindered by Hamas but could not explain credibly why there were so few pictures of Hamas fighters in action.
The New York TimesÊ star photographer Tyler Hicks said he didnÊt see any terrorists or rocket launchers.
„ItÊs as if they donÊt exist,‰ he said.
Failure to Disclose Missing Information
ThatÊs how most photo sections treated the issue – as if rocket launchers and the people firing them at Israel didnÊt exist.
Source: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/looking-
for-the-enduring-photo-in-gaza/!
Failure to Disclose Missing Information
But there was no shortage of photos of Palestinians reacting to Israeli airstrikes. In numerous photo galleries of Gaza, it was hard to tell that there were two sides fighting, not just one.
Media outlets have an obligation to let readers know whatÊs missing.
Over-Emphasis on Grisly War Photos
While there were virtually no pictures of Hamas fighters during the days of heavy fighting in Gaza, there was an abundance of pictures of children and babies hurt in Israeli airstrikes.
But it badly misrepresented the fighting in Gaza. Taken together with the absence of photos of Hamas fighters, the message is clear: Israel is an aggressor that targets children.
Over-Emphasis on Grisly War Photos
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zQIFCKJlXg!
In reality, Israel was fighting to protect its citizens against rocket attacks and terrorist tunnels under its borders.
Failure to State Hamas’s Real Goals
Throughout the weeks of fighting, and especially during the periods of negotiations for a cease-fire, the media claimed that HamasÊs main motivation was either to ease the blockade around Gaza or to open a port or airport. So why did Hamas spend years building a complex of tunnels and bunkers that reached across the border and into Israel?
Failure to State Hamas’s Real Goals
It would be more honest to point out that Hamas is committed to IsraelÊs annihilation. Its charter says so clearly.
Failure to State Hamas’s Real Goals
Source: http://archive.adl.org/main_israel/hamas_charter.html#.VBVhqC6Swpz!
“The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders. It goes back to 1939… and Muslim Brotherhood in the 1948 war and the Jihad operations of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1968 and after.!!“…the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realization of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:!!“’The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him…’”!
The media has an obligation to present the conflict as it is: the aggression of a terrorist group working for the destruction of Israel, and IsraelÊs efforts to defend its citizens.
Failure to State Hamas’s Real Goals
Failure to State Hamas’s Real Goals
“Rarely is it mentioned in a news report that Hamas’ primary objective, its main goal, what it really wants and what its military arm is designed and determined to get, is the total destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Jews. “It’s a crucial component that’s regularly left out of news reports. But any story that does not mention this among Hamas’ chief demands is not an intellectually honest or complete one.”
As S.E. Cupp wrote in The New York Daily News:
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/clearest-sign-bias-omitting-hamas-goal-article-1.1892360!
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Image Credits: (Slide 1) CC BY flickr/Karl Frankowski; 2) CC BY-SA flickr/Martin Fisch; 6) CC BY-SA flickr/idfonline; 7) Newspaper textureXII by real live lover; 8) CC BY-NC-SA flickr/ShellyS; 11) CC BY-NC-SA flickr/Free Press; 13) CC BY-SA Wikimedia Commons/Jedudedek; 16) CC BY flickr/Surian Soosay; 18) CC BY-NC-SA flickr/Free Press and flickr/Michael Kötter; 19) CC BY-SA flickr/idfonline.
Defending Israel From Media BiasHonestReporting