Saturday, July 22, 2006

Puzzler



Here's an odd thing. Reports are that from 700 to 1500 missiles have been fired into Israel in the last week. But most images coming out of the war zone show damage in Lebanon. Coverage of the people seems to be about even though. I see lots of Lebanese children, and lots of Israeli soldiers. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Israel had done more damage than Hezbollah, but I can't believe Hezbollah has done none. Why does the camera always run out of film when there is an Israeli child crying and hurt after an attack? Or could it be that those 700-1500 rockets just haven't come down yet?

***Update:



Ah, found it. I knew there had to be some coverage of Israeli hardship among all the depictions of doe-eyed Lebanese children. I wonder if American support for Israel is the reason coverage is so one-sided. George Bush supports them? Ack! War crimes! Get pictures of the victims.

4 comments:

Dalai Dahmer said...

you could be forgiven for thinking someone is trying to pretend the fight is even, couldn't you?
i cant imagine who would, though.
certainly not the US governmenet, ho-no-no-no-no, no.

it must just be, as you say, a lack of film in the cameras of the average israeli onlooker.

Papa Ray said...

You should know by now that the media is controlled by the Islamic Fascists and the Western Left, not only in the Middle East but even more here in our country.

Many of the "True Believers" [of Islam] are graduates of our best universitys and have taken the lessons and instructions of the Qur'an very seriously.

They are the second most danger to this world. Second only to Islam.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

lumberjack said...

Ah, that was refreshing. And informative.

Dalai Dahmer said...

hatred often is.
i certainly feel more informed regarding the characters of the half wits, sabcd and papa ray.

my own initial comment was failry glib, and i feel i should make a more articulate one.


i feel that your question is based on problematic assumptions.

i don't think it's a fair fight in the slightest, and that would be the main reason why you haven't got anything like as many pictures of israeli victims.
have you looked at the casualty figures on either side of the war?
if you do so for the lebanon war( or the ongoing domination around the gaza strip, etc) you will see that israel likes to kill at least four or five people for every person with israeli citizenship killed. israel creates more 'collateral damage' than either lebanon or palestine can, and so you will be able to find more footage of them doing so.

the idea that the media is in some way biased has some merit, but i don't think it's fair to say that israel is underrepresented , certainly not from where i am standing.
the only bias i see in the corporate media is that it represents the interests of a few wealthy men who own papers and television stations, and as such we often see it used to bolster or tear down their own vested interests(fox is a good example of this, being as much a government mouthpiece as a news gathering organization). i don't for a second think that their bias is anything other than a tactic in the quest for power, in this case the support of the incumbent and related factions.

but yeah.
i think the deaths on either side of the war are unacceptable, but i feel one has to recognise that israel is killing more people than lebanon.

look at some figures for civilians deaths:
Lebanese civilians:
1,191 dead
4,409 injured

Israeli civilians:
44 dead
1,350+ injured

less than fifty israeli civilians were killed, and almost twelve hundred lebanese civilians were killed. i can't find any figures for how many of those were children.

given that the area was a warzone at the time and access was therefore restricted, i think that may account for the lack of dead israeli children pictures for you to look at.

the notion that there is an anti israel bias is one that unfortunately holds up quite well, due to the comments of braindead hate freaks like the one above.
i think this sad reality, that there are some rabid antisemites who will hate anything even remotely allied with judaism, shouldn't be allowed to distract us from a fair assessment of coverage of the israeli government, though.

i believe the israeli government has been and is engaged in actions i find indefensible. i believe they are not effectively challenged for this in my national press.
i suspect you'll make your own decision on that(as would i), and i would recommend doing so as objectively as possible.

To that end, you might look at the study entitled 'bad news from israel' which examines the media bias from a british perspective.

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