Slanted Media

I hate to cry "conspiracy" and I am not prepared to believe that Israel hasn't made a few mistakes in its battles. But I also believe that this is a war, and sadly, people die in war. As evidenced by my previous posting, I do believe that Israel has a right to defend herself (that is not even strong enough language to explain how I feel!) and I am proud of her military and civilians for it. What I cannot fathom is how the world's media seems to be completely aligned against our little country, and how completely snowed over the rest of the world seems to be by this... I have always urged caution when reading the news about Israel. I regularly give out the website of CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, which regularly points out discrepancies in media coverage.

And as my husband regularly asks me, "why are you still shocked?"

But I am. And I continue to be shocked at the horribly biased media coverage. I truly am thankful for the Internet which allows me a variety of opinions and the ability to see many different sources of news. But I fear for those who only get their news from mainstream sources... because I think it's all full of a lot of misconceptions, misleading statements, and in some case, Hezbollah-created LIES....all meant to sway sympathy to their cause. (A cause, by the way, which is entirely devoted to the destruction of Israel and by extension, world Jewry.)

This article by Tom Gross in the National Review sums it all up rather well, I think.

From the article:

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson admitted that his anti-Israel report from Beirut on July 18 about civilian casualties in Lebanon was stage-managed from start to finish by Hezbollah. He revealed that his story was heavily influenced by Hezbollah’s “press officer” and that Hezbollah have “very, very sophisticated and slick media operations.”

When pressed a few days later about his reporting on the CNN program Reliable Sources, Robertson acknowledged that Hezbollah militants had instructed the CNN camera team where and what to film. Hezbollah “had control of the situation,” Robertson said. “They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn’t have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath.”

Robertson added that Hezbollah has “very, very good control over its areas in the south of Beirut. They deny journalists access into those areas. You don’t get in there without their permission. We didn’t have enough time to see if perhaps there was somebody there who was, you know, a taxi driver by day, and a Hezbollah fighter by night.”

The other disturbing trend is the emergence of blatant antisemitism in international media. Again from Tom Gross' article:

But meanwhile anti-Semitic coverage and cartoons are spreading across the globe. Norway’s third largest paper, the Oslo daily Dagbladet, ran a cartoon comparing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the infamous Nazi commander SS Major Amon Goeth who indiscriminately murdered Jews by firing at them from his balcony — as depicted by Ralph Fiennes in Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List. (A month earlier Dagbladet published an article, “The Third Tower,” which questioned whether Muslims were really responsible for the September 11 attacks.)

Antonio Neri Licon of Mexico’s El Economista drew what appeared to be a Nazi soldier with — incredibly — stars of David on his uniform. The “soldier” was surrounded by eyes that he had apparently gouged out.

A cartoon in the South African Sunday Times depicted Ehud Olmert with a butcher’s knife covered in blood. In the leading Australian daily The Age, a cartoon showed a wine glass full of blood being drunk in a scene reminiscent of a medieval blood libel. In New Zealand, veteran cartoonist Tom Stott came up with a drawing which equated Israel with al Qaeda.

At least one leading European politician has also vented his prejudice through visual symbolism. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero wore an Arab scarf during an event at which he condemned Israel, but not Hezbollah, who he presumably thinks should not be stopped from killing Israelis.

I recommend the whole article. And I recommend that you find alternative sources to the mainstream media. At least read the Israeli press such as Haaretz.com or YnetNews. It's worth your time to be as fully informed as possible.