The media bias, lessening?

Soccer Dad points to a few bloggers who think the AP media bias against Israel may be easing. I’m not nearly as optimistic as they are, and here’s why. Watch the change in versions as the day progressed.

The first version I saw, out about 7:30 a.m.:

Blast flattens house of Hamas commander in Gaza, killing 3
A powerful blast flattened the two-story house of a militant commander in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing three people, including a baby girl and a boy, injuring 40 and burying an unknown number of others under the rubble, Gaza’s Hamas rulers and a Palestinian health official said.

Israel, which routinely accepts responsibility for attacks on military targets, denied involvement. But Hamas said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike and responded with a heavy barrage of rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel, wounding an Israeli woman.

The spiraling violence threatened to undermine last-ditch efforts to wrest a truce between Israel and Hamas and stave off an Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Note how the AP plays down the Israeli denial and mentions the “spiraling violence” as if Israel did have a hand in destroying the house. Notice also how the AP emphasizes that children were killed (even though in later articles they retracted the baby boy victim and changed it to a teenaged boy). The overall narrative: Big, bad Israel is killing babies in Gaza by targeting Hamas leadership.

Next version, timestamped 9:07:

Blast flattens house of Hamas commander, killing 4
A blast flattened the house of a militant commander in the Gaza Strip Thursday, killing four people, wounding 40 and burying an unknown number of others, Palestinian officials said.

Israel, which routinely accepts responsibility for attacks on military targets, denied involvement. But Hamas said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike and responded with a heavy barrage of rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel, wounding an Israeli woman.

The spiraling violence threatened to undermine last-ditch efforts to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas and stave off an Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Israel’s denial raised the possibility that the blast was caused by explosives meant for use against Israel that went off prematurely.

Now the AP raises the thought that maybe Hamas is lying. Absent is the sensationalism of the dead babies in the lead, remaining is the “spiraling violence” meme, even though the AP is now suggesting that maybe Israel didn’t blow up the house, after all.

Now, the 12:54 p.m. update:

A blast flattened the house of a militant commander in the Gaza Strip Thursday, killing seven people and wounding 40, Palestinian officials said.

Israel, which routinely accepts responsibility for attacks on military targets, denied involvement, and Hamas opened an investigation, an indication the militant Islamic rulers of Gaza believe the explosion might have been caused by accidental detonation of explosives in the house.

Earlier, Hamas blamed Israel and unleashed a barrage of rockets and mortars at Israel’s south.

The spiraling violence threatened to undermine last-ditch efforts to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas and stave off an Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Finally, we have the AP blaming Hamas for the “work accident,” but we still have the “spiraling violence” meme. Seems like the AP is heading down the right path, right?

Wrong. Three hours later:

Gaza house blast kills 7; Hamas hints at accident
An explosion flattened a house in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing seven people. After blaming Israel and unleashing a barrage of rockets and mortar shells, Hamas suggested the blast was accidental, not an Israeli attack.

By then Israel had carried out an airstrike aimed at a Gaza rocket squad, killing a Palestinian. Two other Israeli military operations in Gaza killed five more militants.

The violence threatened to scuttle Egyptian cease-fire efforts as they approached the finish line. A key Israeli envoy, Amos Gilad, was in Egypt trying to wrap up a deal, but there was no announcement of results.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said the military was not operating in the area of the house at the time of the blast.

Now the AP uses the cause-and-effect (or as they like to put it, “tit-for-tat”) violence meme. Because Hamas launched rockets at Israel, Israel fired against terrorists launching rockets. The AP treats terrorism and defense against terrorism as the same actions—all part of the “spiral of violence”—which is ruining the peace talks. Not Hamas terrorism. “Violence” by Hamas and Israel.

Those were all yesterday’s stories. Now let’s take a look at today’s article, time-stamped 8:52 a.m.

Israel OKs 1,300 east Jerusalem homes

Huh? What? Where’s the Hamas explosion story?

Oh. Five paragraphs down. You know, in the grafs that are most likely not to make it into the World News section of your local paper. Take careful note of what is omitted from these next four paragraphs.

Hamas, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for a house explosion in northern Gaza that killed seven Palestinians, one of them an infant girl.

An announcement Friday on the official Web site of Hamas’ military wing said the group’s “martyrs” died “while putting the final touches on a plan to carry out a special holy war mission.”

Five militants were among those who died in the explosion that flattened the house Thursday.

Immediately after the blast, Hamas blamed Israel. But Israel denied involvement.

What’s missing? The rocket barrage that Hamas launched immediately following the explosion. It’s gone down the AP memory hole, obviously yesterday’s news.

Funny, the BBC managed to put this news into a separate story. Reuters thought it was worth a mention of its own (though they buried the Hamas rocket barrage deep below the cutoff point). Even Monsters and Critics, a vehemently anti-Israel site, managed to run an article that focuses on Hamas’ responsibility for the blast. But not the AP.

I see no reason for hoping the anti-Israel media bias, or the narrative, is changing. I see only the reluctant admission of an anti-Israel writing and editing staff that yesterday’s explosion wasn’t Israel’s fault, and the continuance of the anti-Israel narrative and the whitewashing of Palestinian crimes against Israel. And keep in mind that I am a glass-half-full kind of person.

Update: And now (2:23 p.m. timestamp), all mention of the explosion is gone from AP updates. Move along, nothing to see here.