Addressing Anti Israel Media Bias

Introduction

The mainstream Jewish community argues that it is the exposed to systematic bias in many institutions and forums in today's world. It is an important topic, and this is why this material is posted here on a Jewish web site - I hope visitors here will factor in this material when forming your opinions...

Palestinians are masters of putting forward their position, which means presenting themselves as the 'David' in the David and Goliath battles they are engaged in. As you see here, they have such sympathy, on average, in the media to allow a photoshoot such as this 'street theatre' to be reported as news. Journalists here have breached their own standards of professional conduct - but this is acceptable it seems if the cause is good enough. Many journalists and editors involved in reporting the conflict are open activists of the Palestinian position, and this shows up in not just opinion pieces but in supposedly objective news reports as well. This seriously politicises public discourse, and acceptability of media activism then spills over into other conflicts and issues.

Here are some examples of the steady stream of claims Palestinian officials have made on the public record, that the media reports on, most often leaving their credibility unchallenged.

Representative Samples

Second Draft - Richard Landes, a professor of history at Boston University, documents the "street theatre is news" phonomenom in the short documentary "Pallywood". It deals primarily with the fabricated Muhammad Al-Dura news story, a pivotal event in the Arab-Israeli conflict. It seems to have been the most credible outtakes of a day of obviously manufactured footage from a Palestinian cameraman. Also details the unsuccessful legal actions taken by the French TV station trying to hide what had they had done.
Amnesty and HRW Claims Discredited in Detailed Report - Amnesty and Human Rights Watch - two well funded with both public and private money - high profile human rights organisations play a special role in the conflict, and like virtually all other actors in this space disproportionally focus on sometimes real or accidental; but most times alleged Israeli human rights violations, to the exclusion of other conflicts in the world. Here is a detailed responses to their reports, with military photographs to discredit their reports.
Zombietime's 2006 Lebanon Red Cross Ambulance Hoax - it 'only' took an amateur blogger to uncover this particular Lebanon War media fabrication. It would be an amazing read of the contradictions in reporting a crudely executed hoax, if it stopped there. After much to and fro (mostly denial) in the media, Human Rights Watch attempted to buttress these claims (and tie their credibility to the incident) with a major report - about a rusted old ambulance missing the dinner plate sized red light on top - that was hit with an Israeli 'missile', of enormous proportions, that miraculously severed the leg of the occupants but left the ambulance intact, finally vapourising into a small hole in the road, right in front of the Qana memorial... Read it yourself and make up your own mind - Israeli war crime or cock and bull story?
The Eye on the UN YouTube clips of the UN Human Rights Commission in action, demonstration the politicisation of Human Rights in the UN.
MEMRI translates the Arab media into English. A technique pioneered by Yasser Arafat, was to say one thing in English 'We denounce all forms of terrorism', and another in Arabic 'Congratulations to the family of the martyr (suicide bomber)'. The news media was interested in carrying the English sound bite, but not interested (or often capable) of translating the Arabic. Thus was born the ability to communicate two different messages to two different audiences. MEMRI attempts to bridge the gap Westerners have in accessing the Arab world's media.
An article that appeared in the Guardian Online on May 17, 2001: Israel compared with apartheid South Africa, in what is now described as the 'Durban strategy' of demonizing Israel.
An editorial summarising the Sydney Morning Herald's position on terror and human rights; and on the legitimacy of presenting a peace prize to Hanan Ashrawi. Demonstrates the sympathy and rationalisation much of the media engages in when it comes to Palestinian terror.
A prominent report in the New York Times, showing 'Israeli brutality', which turned out to be an example of Palestinian brutality. Shows the predisposition of the mainstream media to believe Israel is always the aggressor, and a demonstration about how the media, on average, unsatisfactorily handle complaints of this nature when they're caught out.

Pro Israel media advocacy organisations: