#766 Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert

To:       Brith Sholom Media Watch Subscribers
From:   Jerry Verlin, Editor  (jverlin1234@verizon.net)
Subj:    Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert #766, 9/6/15

Coming Perhaps Soon to a Hometown Newspaper Near You:  An Anti-Israel Pogrom in Reporting the Next Israel-Hamas/Hezbollah War

WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG:  One thing on which everybody agrees about the Iran deal is an increase in Iran-fostered attacks in the region.  Summarized below is the Philadelphia Inquirer’s (Inq’s) imbalanced coverage of two rounds of the Israel-Hamas wars.  It’s fanciful to suppose that its reporting of the next round will be fairer.  Time to start thinking about how to respond to such reporting’s poisoning of public perceptions?  (Emphasis added throughout)

 I want to give you two illustrations – last summer’s and a few years before that – of severely imbalanced Philadelphia Inquirer reporting of Israel-Hamas wars.  That there will be another such war with Hamas, and/or Hezbollah, seems inevitable, as does the imbalance with which the mainstream Western media, our hometown Inq in the van, will miscover it.  What remains undetermined is whether, ahead of this near-certainty, we will prepare in any way to challenge the mainstream media’s, including our Inq’s, misportrayal of this next war to the public.

2008:  Hamas Escalation Utterly Ignored in Inquirer Headlining

BSMW #375, 3/9/08, covered a period in which Hamas escalated from lobbing media-monikered “homemade” rockets at Sderot to launching full military scale Iranian-made Grad rockets at Ashkelon and Ashdod.  The Conf. of Presidents’ Daily Report captured Israeli headlines like:

Thursday, 2/28: “Fifty Palestinian Rockets Bombard Israel, Israeli Killed at Sapir College, Ashkelon Hospital Targeted.”

Thursday, 2/28:  “Ashkelon Residents Realize: We’re Just Like Sderot.”

Thursday, 2/28:  Editorial in Ha-aretz [sic]:  “The dozens of rockets that were fired Wednesday from Gaza – one of which killed Roni Yihye – have placed the IDF on the threshold of a major raid into the Palestinian territory.  Responsibility for the escalation lies entirely with the Palestinian side: the Hamas government.”

Friday, 2/29 (AP/International Herald Tribune):  “The Israeli city of Ashkelon [pop. 120,000], located 17 kilometers (11 miles) from Gaza, was hit by several Iranian-made Grad (Katyusha) rockets on Thursday, fired by Hamas militants in Gaza.  One hit an apartment building, slicing through the roof and three floors below, and another landed near a school, wounding a 17-year-old girl.”

Friday, 2/29:  “Ten Palestinian Rockets Hit Ashkelon

Monday, 3/3:  Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:  “The 122 mm Grad rockets (also known as Katyushas) fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza against the Israeli city of Ashkelon are a standard military artillery weapon, equipped with a weapons-grade high explosive fragmentation warhead.  The range of the rockets fired against Ashkelon is over 20 km., an upgraded capability which places about a quarter of a million Israeli civilians in constant danger of Hamas attack.”

None of this, none of it, not “Hamas,” not “escalation,” not “Ashkelon,” made headlines in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which began that period by oozing moral equivalence between Hamas rocketing Israeli civilians and Israel striking back at Hamas:

“Israelis, Gazans Swap Fire; Death on Both Sides; The Bloodshed Heighted Fears of a New Wave of Violence….” (2/28/08)

Violence Escalates; Israeli Says Gaza Action an Option ….” (2/29/08)

Less Violence in Israeli, Gaza Clashes” (3/1/08)

and ended it with Abbas righteously suspending peace talks “broken off over Israel’s incursion into Gaza”:

“Mideast Peace Talks Off; Palestinians Suspend Discussions; Israel Vows To Keep Up Gaza Attacks ….” (3/3/08)

“Abbas Declines To Set Time for Resuming Talks; He Met with Rice, Who Pushed for the Resumption of Negotiations Broken Off Over Israel’s Incursion into Gaza” (3/5/08)

“Mideast Talks Back on Track, Rice Says in Visit to Region; Abbas Had Halted Them After Israel’s Incursion into Gaza. No Date for a Restart was Announced.” (3/6/08)

Ask yourself how fully and fairly these “Violence Escalates” and “Negotiations Broken Off Over Israel’s Incursion into Gaza” Philadelphia Inquirer headlines informed readers of what was actually happening:   “Fifty Palestinian Rockets Bombard Israel … Ashkelon Residents Realize: We’re Just Like Sderot . . . [Ashkelon] hit by several Iranian-made Grad (Katyusha) rockets on Thursday . . . Ten Palestinian Rockets Hit Ashkelon . . .  . an upgraded capability which places about a quarter of a million Israeli civilians in constant danger of Hamas attack.”

Summer 2014 Israel-Hamas War

 

***  Beneath an Inq “Call For Gaza Truce Unheeded” headline, 7/13/14’s Inq’s front-page AP article led off

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Ignoring international appeals for a cease-fire, Israel on Saturday widened its range of Gaza bombing targets ….

There wasn’t one word in that lede paragraph 1 about Hamas “ignoring international appeals for a cease-fire,” just Israel.  In fact, Hamas launched “nearly 700 rockets and mortars at Israel during the week, and said it wouldn’t be the first to cease fire,” not that you gleaned an inkling of that from lede paragraph 1 on page 1.  For that, you have to wait until paragraph 9 on continuation page 14.

***  Tens of thousands of both Israeli and Gaza civilians were displaced by the war.  The Inq headlined its 7/14/14 Washington Post article “Tens of Thousands Flee Homes in Gaza.”  On 8/26/14, the Inq ran an AP article reporting that “tens of thousands of Israelis have fled the area [southern Israel] in nearly two months of fighting.”  But our Inq didn’t headline: “Tens of Thousands Flee Homes in Israel.”  That would have been, what’s the term?, “balanced.”  Our Inq headlined: “Israelis Leaving Gaza Border,” which could have meant a pull-back of soldiers.

***  The vast majority of Inq photos of “the Gaza war,” as though Israel weren’t part of the battlefield, rockets, tunnels and all, were of damage in Gaza.  Even the Inq’s photo gracing its 7/23/14 article on a rocket landing within a mile of Israel’s airport was of damage in Gaza.  And, oh, yes, that Inq article on tens of thousands of Israelis fleeing their homes in southern Israel?  The Inq’s photo with that?  Damage in Gaza.

***  The Inq headlined its 8/8/14 McClatchy article as “Hamas Threatens More War.”  The article quoted an Hamas official, repeated in the Inq’s own photo caption: “Our fingers are on the trigger, and our rockets are trained on Tel Aviv.”  To a newspaper obsessed with Israel causing civilian casualties in targeting rocket launchers embedded in civilian areas, there’s an asymmetrical absence of media righteous outrage here in quoting Hamas targeting Israeli cities from which Israel is not launching attacks at Hamas, let alone at Arab civilians.

***  Israel has steadfastly hotly contested the media-repeated Arab claim that “the vast majority” of Arab casualties were civilians.  Algemeiner had an article 10/2/14 titled “Leading American Journalist Slams AP Claim That ‘Vast Majority’ of Gazan Dead Were Civilians.”  In an interview with Algemeiner, Forbes.com contributor Richard Behar, whom the article called “a leading American journalist and political commentator,” offered “trenchant criticisms of American media coverage” of this summer’s Israel-Hamas war, in particular expressing “grave concern about the AP’s reporting of the conflict.”  Behar:

“AP has enormous power and influence in the media world …. As long as they keep shooting this stuff out, they are doing damage.  They should not be saying in their stories that the vast majority of casualties are civilians.  They could at least mention that there are other sources reaching different conclusions.”

AP, that very day, 10/2/14, A4, AP, in the Inq:

More than 2,100 Palestinians – the vast majority of them civilians – and more than 70 Israelis were killed during the 50-day war in Gaza.

And the Next War?

 

It would be foolish to think that the mainstream Western media’s, including our hometown Inq’s, coverage of the next Israel-Hamas, and/or Israel-Hezbollah, war will be any fairer.  Thought should be given now, and hopefully responsive plans made, for counteracting the deleterious impact such reporting will have on the public.  Frankly, I have difficulty envisioning this happening.  But if any of you in a position to bring organizational resources to bear on such an effort think we could mount it, I think the time’s come to bring it.

Regards,
Jerry