Dateline Jerusalem — The oldest trick. As Mark Twain borrowed from an old proverb 150 years ago, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” With the advent of instant worldwide communication, lies are spread across the planet in seconds. Dishonest, deliberately misleading practices of journalists and the media unfortunately are commonplace, especially by those covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When terrorists are portrayed as victims and innocent murdered and maimed Israeli women and children are blamed for the terror carried out against them, then Palestinians have won the war with bias, manipulation, and lies.
I am not referring to editorials or blogs or personal opinions. Those are expected to be biased. I am writing about yellow journalism, the exaggerated, biased reporting disguised as fact. Abbas, the Palestinian leader, and media around the world claimed a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who attacked a 25-year-old man and stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli boy in the neck was “executed” on the street by Israelis. However, photos of the stabber in his hospital bed, recuperating from injuries sustained from a vehicle accident when fleeing the scene, were posted by Israel to prove the story was false. The Palestinian boy has been released from the hospital, but the Israeli boy is still there, fighting for his life. During the war with Gaza last year, videos surfaced of scores of “dead” Palestinians covered with sheets. One video, though, showed a foot and an arm moving under the sheets amid laughter. Palestinian media freely used photos from other conflicts around the world and tried to pass them off as incidents in Gaza.
Blossoming of Manipulation
Doctored photos and videos of fake events are not the only methods in biased reporting. Misleading headlines and terminology are other ways to disseminate propaganda. Unfortunately, most people never read beyond the headlines. A Wall Street Journal’s headline “Two Palestinian Teenagers Killed, Two Injured by Israeli Police,” makes one think the Israeli police are on a killing spree against Palestinian youth. The headline should have indicated that these teenagers attacked innocent Israeli civilians with knives. Or the BBC’s headline, “Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two.” They neglected to say the Palestinian was the one committing the attack that killed two Israeli citizens. It is as though Palestinians can do no wrong and Israelis deserve to be murdered.
Propaganda Language
What about describing terrorists as “militants” and “resistance fighters” or “moderates?” Lord Grade, former chairman of the BBC, criticized the BBC for implying “equivalence between Israeli victims of terrorism and Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the act of carrying out terror attacks. Although Seamus Milne is leaving the Guardian to become communications chief for new British Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Milne’s professed belief that Israel does not have the right to defend itself against Palestinian terror does not bode well.
The most anti-Israel reporting comes from England, the United States, and Canada. In England, besides the BBC, there is the Guardian, Sky News, Reuters, the London Independent, Evening Standard, and the Daily Mirror. In Canada, the CBC is the leading culprit. In the U.S., television news networks such as CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS are among the worst offenders. In print, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and the Associated Press are notably anti-Israel, misleading and slanted. MSNBC keeps having to apologize for their inaccuracies.
Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, was a master of propaganda. He said, “It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words. Words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.” True. When the media repeat falsehoods, they manipulate the world with their prejudice against Israel.
Manipulating public opinion is one of the oldest tricks. Irresponsible coverage is routine. Only a loud outcry for a retraction or clarification brings rectification. As the media and journalists know, large headlines on page one are remembered. Retractions, small and unobtrusively located, seldom are seen.
L’hitraot. Shachar
