This could easily go under the category of “Beating my head against the wall” (now there’s an idea for a new category!), but here we go again. Let’s look at the facts according to Reuters, and the facts as they, well, actually are. And we’ll throw in some AP for kicks and giggles.
GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli forces backed by tanks killed four Palestinians in northern Gaza on Thursday, two of them civilians, medical officials said, as the army pressed on with one of its biggest operations in the strip in months.
[…] The latest casualties bring to 13 the number of Palestinians killed since Israeli troops entered Beit Hanoun on Wednesday in an operation aimed partly at halting militant rocket fire from the area into the Jewish state.
One Israeli soldier has been killed in the raid. More than half the Palestinians killed were militants.
Got that? More than half. That means at least seven out of thirteen were terrorists, right?
AP:
Israeli troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, killed at least eight Palestinian militants early Wednesday in one of the military’s largest strikes since re-entering the Gaza Strip over the summer.
One of the Palestinians killed in the clashes in the town of Beit Hanoun was a 70-year-old civilian, Palestinian hospital officials said. The other two were militants in their 20s, relatives and officials said.
Their deaths raised to 11 the number of Palestinians killed since the operation began on Wednesday. At least nine were militants.
Now we’re up to nine out of eleven, which is still more than half.
Ynet:
[…] Four people were killed in the area since the morning hours. According to Palestinian reports, two youths aged 20 and 22 were shot to death, after military forces killed earlier two people – a 75 year-old man and a 15 year-old youth.
Funny how those “youths” always turn out in the end to be terrorists. That’s what they are in this article. We are now up to two civilian deaths (the old man and the 15-year-old) and two more terrorists.
On Wednesday IDF soldiers killed 10 Palestinian gunmen and wounded dozens more in the first day of operation Autumn Clouds, aimed at reducing the number of Qassam rockets launched at Israel from that area.
I believe a woman was also killed in the raid. That leaves the total at 15 dead, three of whom were civilians—an elderly man, a teenager, and a woman.
Twelve out of fifteen is definitely more than half—but you see how Reuters manipulates the facts to make Israeli actions seem far worse. The flip side, of course, is that they downplay any attacks against Israelis.
The media bias is a large part of what has changed world opinion against Israel. Reuters and the AP contribute to that.
Something needs to be done about this.
They also usually note that the Israeli was “lightly-wounded” by some rocket attack. The Palestinians are never “lightly-wounded”.
I’m sure this is a stupid question, but Meryl, have you ever shot off an email to someone at the AP or Reuters and asked about some of these things?
It’s not like you’d get them to completely change their philosophy, or that the editor you reached would convince you of anything, but there’s an outside chance of a decent dialogue. I for one would be interested in hearing a response.
All of the above is worthless, of course, if you have emailed them before.
Andrew, these guys do, regularly.
I’m working on a different angle myself, but I have a bit of work to do before I can mention it.
I think one reason for reuters’ hesitancy is because Israel has in the past distorted the militant/civilian status of those that it injures or kills. Especially during the last intifada.
Granted this is often a difficult distinction to make, but in such situations I would think it would be better to err on the side of conservatism (i.e. more than half). There are risks in both directions. If you under-represent the militant levels killed then I guess you risk under-representing the accuracy and efficiency of the israeli army. But if you over-represent, you make the opposite error.
Cite a source or two about those “distortions,” please. I have given you three different media outlets that prove my case that Reuters is deliberately mislabeling the number of terrorists killed as “more than half” when it is more accurately “most” of the people killed.
If you’re going to make a charge like that, you need to back it up with facts.
Meryl,
Hang in there. The job you are doing is one which spreads the word about the biases of the media. You are figting the good fight by getting the information out there.
At least now with the internet, we can share information so responsible people can research different sources and make INFORMED decisions based on FACTS instead of being spoon fed what they should think by networks trying to sell the sexy news.
Makes me wonder how bad the anti-Israel bias would be if the media weren’t controlled by Jews after all.
/sarcasm
L’il Mamzer,
Well if they were Jews like Antony Loewenstein, Tony Judt or George Soros it would probably be even worse.
To my mind the media (in genearl) has an anti-Israel bias and to be quite candid I do not trust their “journalistic” efforts in the reportage of hard news !!