When it comes to reporting the Palestinian-Israel conflict you can almost bet on it that the new will be slanted that it is the Palestinians at fault - or at least the initiator of whatever conflict is being reported. The NY Times is a particular bad offender at this - as this piece from FAIR so graphically shows.
"A headline in yesterday's New York Times (4/10/11):
Violence Rises as Israel and Hamas Trade Blows
This "blow trading" has resulted in 18 deaths, all in Gaza--roughly half civilians and half militants. On the Israeli side, one boy was seriously injured. The Times account tells us:
The Israeli military said that if civilians were hit, it was because militants shot from among them.
But the deaths on Friday of 19-year-old Nidal Qudeh, who was studying to be a medical secretary, and her mother, Najah, 40, outside the southeastern city of Khan Yunis did not fit that pattern, witnesses said.
It would be difficult to imagine how to present such fighting as somehow "balanced," but the Times manages to pull it off.
In a story in today's Times (4/11/11), Isabel Kershner presents the timeline of the current violence, which--as is often the case--we're told began with an attack from the Palestinian side:
The most recent escalation began when the military wing of Hamas fired a Kornet antitank missile at the school bus from a distance of about two miles. It was the first time the group used an advanced, laser-guided weapon against a civilian target.
To make things more confusing, the very next paragraph would seem to undermine that:
Hamas said the attack was meant to avenge Israel's killing of three of the group's militants on April 2, an act that Hamas said violated an earlier cease-fire.
That would suggest that the "escalation" did not begin with a Hamas attack, but with an Israeli attack that broke a week-long cease-fire. But, as FAIR once pointed out, "In U.S. Media, Palestinians Attack, Israel Retaliates."
"A headline in yesterday's New York Times (4/10/11):
Violence Rises as Israel and Hamas Trade Blows
This "blow trading" has resulted in 18 deaths, all in Gaza--roughly half civilians and half militants. On the Israeli side, one boy was seriously injured. The Times account tells us:
The Israeli military said that if civilians were hit, it was because militants shot from among them.
But the deaths on Friday of 19-year-old Nidal Qudeh, who was studying to be a medical secretary, and her mother, Najah, 40, outside the southeastern city of Khan Yunis did not fit that pattern, witnesses said.
It would be difficult to imagine how to present such fighting as somehow "balanced," but the Times manages to pull it off.
In a story in today's Times (4/11/11), Isabel Kershner presents the timeline of the current violence, which--as is often the case--we're told began with an attack from the Palestinian side:
The most recent escalation began when the military wing of Hamas fired a Kornet antitank missile at the school bus from a distance of about two miles. It was the first time the group used an advanced, laser-guided weapon against a civilian target.
To make things more confusing, the very next paragraph would seem to undermine that:
Hamas said the attack was meant to avenge Israel's killing of three of the group's militants on April 2, an act that Hamas said violated an earlier cease-fire.
That would suggest that the "escalation" did not begin with a Hamas attack, but with an Israeli attack that broke a week-long cease-fire. But, as FAIR once pointed out, "In U.S. Media, Palestinians Attack, Israel Retaliates."
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