Appropos of media bias….

As we were saying: Yesterday’s article on rockets being fired into Israel was headlined “Rockets in Israeli Town Cause Minor Damage.”

Today’s article on Israel’s raid to prevent this from happening in the future: “Israelis Attack Militant Base in Lebanon.”

Because the AP is an unbiased, objective media outlet. Sure. Honest. I swear.

The lead from the rockets-land-in-Israel article:

JERUSALEM (AP) – Three rockets landed in a residential area of a northern Israeli town near the Lebanese border late Tuesday, damaging some property but causing no injuries, the army said.

The projectiles landed in the town of Kiryat Shemona. It was not clear whether the explosions were caused by katyusha rockets or mortar fire.

Channel Two television showed the remains of what appeared to be a katyusha, along with pictures of holes in the ground and in the side of a home.

The lead from today’s article on Israel’s response:

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) – Israeli jets blasted a Palestinian militant group’s base a few miles outside the Lebanese capital Beirut on Wednesday, hours after rockets fired from Lebanon hit a northern Israeli border town.

In their deepest strike into Lebanon in 18 months, the Israeli planes attacked a base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a small, Syrian-backed group that has been fighting the Jewish state for decades. Two guerrillas were lightly wounded, the group said.

Really, there’s no difference between the two, is there? Rockets simply land in Israel of their own volition, causing no injuries and “damaging some property.” In response, Isareli jets “blasted a Palestinian militant group’s base a few miles outside the Lebanese capital Beirut.”

Besides the fact that there should be a comma between “capital” and “Beirut,” what’s wrong with that sentence? Well, do you see how the reporter or editor subtly added the menace to poor, innocent Lebanon by big, bad Israel? There’s much more of that in the rest of the article.

I should also like to point out that even though the article quite clearly quotes an Israeli spokesman by name, the AP still manages to use the impersonal “the Israeli army said” in the article.

The Israeli army said the attack was in response to rockets fired at the northern Israel town of Kiryat Shmona on Tuesday night. It said it views such attacks with “extreme severity” and holds Lebanon responsible.

The PFLP-GC commander in Lebanon, Anwar Raja, denied the group was responsible.

The top general for northern Israel, Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, vowed to retaliate against future attacks from Lebanon and did not rule out targeting installations in Syria.

“If Kiryat Shmona residents don’t sleep quietly, then the residents of Beirut won’t sleep quietly. This is an unequivocal message,” Adam told The Associated Press.

Asked whether Israel would also bomb Syrian targets as it has done in the past when rockets have been fired by Damascus-backed groups, Adam replied: “I won’t answer that … We reserve the right to retaliate anyway we see fit.”

Notice too how the PFLP is not quoted impersonally. Common, subtle, and slowly dehumanizing terms for Israelis. Always humanize the palestinians. This is how the media has affected public opinion on Israel.

By the way, the article also contains a history of Israeli retaliatory raids into Lebanon after rockets or attacks were launched. Yesterday’s article on the rockets launched from Israel had no such history, and was only an unbylined brief eight paragraphs long.

This is the reason the AP media bias against Israel has its own category.