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June 16, 2006

More media bias

If the mainstream media has a target that it loves to condemn more than the United States, it is Israel. Last week, an explosion on a beach in Gaza killed 7 people. Everyone was quick to blame the IDF, especially the Palestinians because they know that the MSM won't fact-check anything they say. Problem was, the IDF stopped firing 15 minutes before this particular explosion. Forensic and military experts now say that a week after Israel apologized and promised to make ammends to the families of the victims, all evidence points to this explosion as being caused by a mine, probably planted to thwart a perceived marine assault threat, and not an artillery shell after all.

So the press reports that "Hamas fired at least 15 Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel on Saturday, ending a tattered 16-month truce with Israel, a day after eight Palestinians were killed on a Gaza beach, apparently by an errant Israeli shell." I guess that is accurate if your idea of a "truce" involves firing over 1000 rockets at Israel over the past 10 months...

The world press, very much including the mainstream U.S. media, tends to take the word of Palestinian spokesmen about civilian deaths, although experience should have taught them by now to be more guarded. In 2005, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by gunfire. U.N. and Palestinian officials blamed her death on Israel until it was determined that a bullet fired by Palestinians shooting into the air to celebrate their pilgrimage to Mecca hit her. Muhammad al-Dura, the 12-year-old Palestinian boy supposedly shot by Israelis has become a worldwide symbol of Israeli brutality, though it has since been firmly established that Israelis could not and did not kill him. And, of course, the "Jenin Massacre" proclaimed by Palestinians high and low (5,000 innocents were slaughtered, they claimed) and condemned by the United Nations, turned out to be a complete lie (only 52 were killed, along with 23 Israeli soldiers who went house to house to avoid civilian casualties).

And here is the saddest, yet most telling paragraph on how the world views the only true democracy in the Middle East (hopefully Iraq will be solidly in that club soon).

In the aftermath of the Gaza incident, Prime Minister Olmert spoke by phone with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Annan demanded an explanation for the Gaza deaths. When Olmert asked why Annan had not shown similar concern about the scores of missiles hitting Israel, Annan was nonplussed. "What missiles?" he asked.

Posted by TJ at June 16, 2006 06:16 PM

Comments

Just makes my blood boil! Nevermind all the times I've had to point out the media's bias to people who believe all that they read or hear.
When are they going to get that these people lie and use set ups to further their "cause"?
Great posts, TJ!

Posted by: yankeemom [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 18, 2006 09:29 PM

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