Media bias roundup

A look at the anti-Israel bias of recent headlines and copy:

AP:

Israel Blasts Lebanon Airport, Air Bases
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) – Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon on Thursday, blasting Beirut’s airport and two Lebanese army air bases near the Syrian border, and imposing a naval blockade. More than 50 people have died in violence following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants.

Warplanes punched holes in the runways of Beirut’s international airport and two military air bases, attacks that could draw the Lebanese army into the conflict.

Israel’s army chief Brig. Gen. Dan Halutz warned that “nothing is safe” in Lebanon and said Beirut itself – particularly Hezbollah offices and residences – would be a target. Maj. Gen. Udi Adam said Israel had hit hundreds of targets and hadn’t ruled out sending in ground troops.

Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israeli towns and said it was using a new missile that appeared to be more advanced than previous models. One Israeli was killed and more than 35 injured.

The militant group also said it would rocket Haifa, a key port and the country’s third-largest city, if Israel hit Beirut, a strike that would be the deepest ever into Israel by the guerrillas – some 18 miles. An Israeli intelligence official said Hezbollah missiles could reach Haifa.

Comments: Headline still concentrates solely on Israeli actions. There is no AP headline that says, “Hezbullah Fires Missiles on Israeli Towns, Cities.” Body of text emphasizes Israel’s “warlike” actions, while minimizing Hezbollah’s. Also minimizes Israeli casualty counts, which, according to Israeli newspapers, are around 130, nearly all civilians. Minimizes the effect of Hezbullah’s threat to Haifa and passes along Hezbullah’s “cycle of violence” reasoning, instead of pointing out that Hezbullah, the terrorist group, initiated this action by their attack on Israel on Wednesday.

Reuters:

Hizbullah Rockets Rain on Northern Israel
NAHARIYA, Israel (Reuters) – Hizbollah guerrillas from Lebanon fired barrages of rockets into nearly 20 towns across northern Israel on Thursday, killing one civilian and wounding 42 others in their heaviest bombardment in a decade.

[…] Officials ordered tens of thousands of residents into bomb shelters and basements along northern Israel as tensions escalated with Lebanon, a day after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in cross-border attacks.

Israel earlier struck Beirut airport and began enforcing a naval blockade of Lebanon, intensifying its reprisals. Israel’s attacks have killed 53 Lebanese civilians.

Police said some 85 rockets had landed in northern Israel. Nearly 20 towns and villages were hit, Israeli media said.

Comments: Still not an accurate count of Israeli casualties. Minimizes the Hezbullah attack as “cross-border attack.”

But wait. There’s far worse Reuters to be had:

Israel blockades Lebanon, kills 53 civilians
BEIRUT, July 13 (Reuters) – Israel blockaded Lebanese ports and struck Beirut airport and two military airbases on Thursday, expanding reprisals that have killed 53 civilians in Lebanon since Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers a day earlier.

Hizbollah fighters rained more than 80 rockets on northern Israel in their heaviest bombardment in a decade, hitting Israel’s third largest city, Haifa, the Israeli army said.

Israeli ambassador to the United States Daniel Ayalon told reporters in Washington the strike on Haifa was a “major, major escalation” but Hizbollah denied it had fired a rocket at Haifa.

There were no immediate reports of casualites in Haifa, a major port of 250,000 people. One woman was killed and 43 people wounded in the other rocket attacks, Israeli medics said.

Comments: Look at the headline. Israel “kills,” and of course, Hezbullah merely “rains” rockets onto Israeli towns. Like the rockets aren’t carrying deadly explosives that have already killed. Israeli responses are “reprisals,” Israel’s are “hits” from “fighters.” Also, you almost never get the names and ages of any Israelis killed by terrorists, but you will always get information on any victims of Israeli military action.

UPI:

RABAT, Morocco, July 13 (UPI) — The scope and scale of the latest Middle East hostilities sparked by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah gunmen Wednesday has ignited a spate of renewed violence that has officials worried of a broader conflagration.

Comments: Holy cow, a balanced piece! Quick, read it before it disappears!

CNN:

Some 45 people and two soldiers have been killed inside Lebanon since Wednesday, the country’s health ministry said, while the rocket attacks killed at least one woman in Israel.

Lebanon also said 103 people were hurt by the Israeli attacks, The Associated Press reported, while the IDF said 90 people had been injured by the rockets hitting Israel.

One rocket attack Thursday on the northern Israeli town of Nahariya hit a group of journalists, the AP said.

Comments: Not bad. Close to accurate. But you lose all points in the next two paragraphs.

Both Israel and Lebanon have said the violence amounts to acts of war.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday’s attacks by Hezbollah when guerrillas killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two more were an “act of war.”

Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat called Israel’s retaliatory attack on Beirut airport a “general act of war,” saying the strikes had nothing to do with Hezbollah but were instead an attack against the country’s “economic interests,” especially its tourism industry.

Comments: When one country commits an “act of war” on another, the response by the second country is called “self-defense.” It is not a cause, it is a reaction to a cause.

The Guardian: Oh, please. I’m not up for another one.