Disproportionate Reporting, Selective Outrage

Posted: 8/3/2006 8:05:00 PM
Author: Jack Engelhard
Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com


Disproportionate Reporting, Selective Outrage
by Jack Engelhard
Aug 04, '06

You'd hardly know that all of Israel is under siege and that entire cities like Haifa are near desolate. The networks would rather you stay tuned to their pictures from Lebanon. According to ABC TV, CNN and other "Friends of Hizbullah", never mind who started this, and forget the million and a half Israelis who've been made homeless.

As usual, NPR Radio is serving as propaganda minister for terror and, also as usual, Israel is at war with the press.

Or rather, the press is at war with Israel.

Any mention of the 150 bombs that were falling on Israel from day to night? Hardly. What about the thousands of Israelis wounded in flesh and in spirit - meaning shell-shocked today and perhaps for the rest of their lives? No, there's no time for this. Forget Haifa's Rambam Hospital, where beds are filled to overflowing with wounded Israelis.

CNN would also like the world to forget the Arab bombs that fell on Nahariya Hospital and wiped out the entire ophthalmology ward. No footage here, either, except for Israeli journalist David Bedein crying out for some proportionate coverage. The pictures from Lebanon are better, much better than pictures from Meron, Israel, where seven-year-old Omer Pesachov was murdered along with his grandmother as the result of Hizbullah missiles.

Is Qana another hoax and blood libel, as were the Mohammad Al-Dura caper and the "massacre" in Jenin? We have reason to be suspicious. Perhaps we have been manipulated once again (and once too often) by a news media that uses crooked words and false pictures to further bloody the Jewish State.

But leave it to the New York Times to cynically portray itself as dispassionate and neutral. On July 27, it ran a story - "Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hizbullah" - that subtly, as subtle as a snake, makes the argument that Israel is at fault for failing to make friends and influence people.

We are asked to believe that because of the IDF's "disproportionate response", Israel's terrific friends in Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- well, they are friends no more. Yes, that's the gist of this piece - that at the outset, Israel had the Arab world on its side, but then those Jews did something bad. They got serious about defending themselves.

Therefore, if only those Israelis would quit fighting back, think of all the friends they would have. Even Mel Gibson might come around.

Memo to the New York Times: Saudi Arabia was never a friend of Israel and neither was Egypt. Please, not all of us are so stupid.

Quick question to all those reporting from over there: How do you know those casualties in Lebanon are "civilian?" Has this been verified by your fact-checkers, or are you simply buying Hizbullah as a reliable source? Another memo: Your reporters keep saying that Hizbullah may be bad news, but they do provide social and humanitarian services to the Lebanese.

Really?

Have you seen these schools and hospitals you say Hizbullah builds and maintains? Are these facts, or do these scoops arrive at your desk from the Hizbullah ministry of information? NBC's emotional Richard Engel, for example, who praises Hizbullah for its (alleged) humanitarian deeds, makes no pretense of being impartial. He has plainly (or so it surely seems) thrown himself in with Hizbullah.

Engel is not the only hot-head who romances terror at Israel's expense. He belongs to a tradition that goes back to CBS's Bob Simon, to name but one among hundreds, actually thousands, in print and broadcasting who may one day have to answer to the Big Editor up in the sky. Yes, HaShem will sort this out.

Thank you CNN, NBC, the BBC and all other Hizbullah-Hamas cheerleaders for letting us know that Ehud Olmert has apologized for Qana. But you may have noted that Hizbullah, which started all this along with Hamas, routinely positions itself right there in the middle of the population. Even the UN's Jan Egeland has called them cowards for hiding among women and children.

But obviously, Islamic terrorists never have to say they're sorry.

Someone, somewhere, did (reluctantly) concede that Hamas and Hizbullah do their dirty work behind human shields. Such as the news media, perhaps?