Canada Free Press -- ARCHIVES

Because without America, there is no free world.

Return to Canada Free Press

Media Report

Israel and the media

by Arthur Weinreb

February 17, 2003

Last week, a two-day conference on anti-Semitism was held at the University of Toronto with one of the principal speakers being former prime minister Brian Mulroney. According to Mulroney, the "new" anti-Semitism takes the form of attacks on Israel that go past the point of the normal criticism that is levelled at other countries. In other words, the unfairness arises when Israel is held to higher standards than other nations are.

There is a lot of bias in the mainstream media against Israel that takes several forms. One of the ways that this bias is shown is in headlines that are used. On January 2, 2002, a Reuters article appeared with the headline "2 Palestinians Killed by Israeli Soldiers". What the article stated, that was not discernable from the headline, was that the Palestinians involved were killed after killing four Israeli soldiers. Another similar headline of an Associated Press article on February 6, 2003 stated "Arab man killed in stabbing in northern Israel". As with the previous article, the headline omitted the fact that the Arab in question had stabbed an Israeli policeman just prior to being killed himself. These two articles illustrate a blatant anti-Israel bias, with headlines designed to inform the reader that Israeli forces committed unjustifiable murders. If a reader was looking at the headlines and not reading the accompanying articles, he or she would form a completely different opinion of what has occurred; and this is the purpose that the headlines were drawn in the manner that they were.

Another form of bias occurs when erroneous causes are given to certain events. If there is a suicide bombing in Israel, some articles will go back to a previous Israeli military attack. By doing it in this fashion, the article will imply that the Israeli attack "caused" the suicide bombing to have taken place when in all probability, the suicide attack was planned prior to the Israeli attack. But the linkage helps to pin the blame for the suicide attack on Israel.

Many news sources, like the CBC, refuse to label any Palestinian killers as terrorists, no matter who or where they attack. They are called "militants" and attacks on Israeli troops are not distinguished from bombers who kill and maim children while blowing up restaurants. By refusing to label any attacks as terrorist, the media gives justification to such actions.

A more subtle form of bias occurs by the use of descriptive terminology when describing events in the Middle East. A good example of this is when incidents take place in or near Bethlehem. Everyone knows that Bethlehem is the birthplace of Christ. Yet, in covering fighting that sometimes occurs there, the media will describe it as having taken place "in Bethlehem, near the birthplace of Christ". The effect of this kind of description is to imply that Israel is somehow attacking Christianity and/or the West.

The PLO has an excellent propaganda machine and it reached a highpoint during the incident in Jenin. By describing it as a massacre when it clearly proved not to be one, the mainstream media were quick to jump on the bandwagon and accept the Palestinian version of events. There is always a tendency in the media to paint Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinians as the victims, no matter what actions have taken place.

Perhaps the greatest disservice that the media does to the Jewish state, is to refuse to acknowledge the many groups in the Middle East who are seeking nothing other than the total destruction of the state of Israel. The fact that this is the objective of groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah is ignored and the issues becomes one of land and whether or not there should be the creation of a Palestinian state that would coexist together with Israel.

The reasons why this bias exists are several and range from a pure hatred of Israel to a lack of understanding of the complex history of the Middle East. When bias occurs, it is often difficult to know the exact reasons for it.