Habib Battah in Al-Jazeera English:
The images of two women on the front page of an edition of The Washington Post last week illustrates how mainstream US media has been reporting Israel's war on Gaza.
On the left was a Palestinian mother who had lost five children. On
the right was a nearly equally sized picture of an Israeli woman who
was distressed by the fighting, according to the caption.
As
the Palestinian woman cradled the dead body of one child, another
infant son, his face blackened and disfigured with bruises, cried
beside her.
The Israeli woman did not appear to be wounded in any way but also wept.
To understand the frustration often felt in the Arab world over US
media coverage, one only needs to imagine the same front page had the
situation been reversed.
If an Israeli woman had lost five daughters in a Palestinian attack, would The Washington Post
run an equally sized photograph of a relatively unharmed Palestinian
woman, who was merely distraught over Israeli missile fire?
When the front page photographs of the two women were published on
December 30, over 350 Palestinians had reportedly been killed compared
to just four Israelis.
This may qualify as "No, duh" for some people, but it just hit me that if Palestinian Arabs were as light-skinned as northern Europeans, I do not think that the West would be standing idly by, irrespective of any religious or cultural factors.
your'e a mensh phil, a real mensh.
The al Jazeera article by Habib Battah provides a very detailed account of U.S. media bias, with numerous specific references.
He explains that the Arab world is getting a 24-hour feed of Gaza coverage, often unedited live footage. Whereas U.S. coverage is heavily condensed and messaged to feed American preconceptions and bolster U.S. policy.
What is the intended result of Americans getting a skewed understanding of the world? After 9/11, it allowed George Bush to exploit the inchoate rage of Americans who had no comprehension of bid Ladin's grievances, to start a completely irrelevant war in Iraq.
Presumably more of the same is underway. With no inkling of why Iraqi, Taliban and Pakistani resistance is becoming fiercer, Americans are naively going along with Obama's futile Surge II into Afghanistan, in response to what they imagine are unprovoked attacks.
They'll be equally shocked — SHOCKED — when the decrepit U.S.-backed Mubarak regime goes down in a bloody revolution.
You'd think that our top three broadcast networks were Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric. Which may not be far from the truth.
more "terrorists":
Wait, is that a portable rocket launching device that kid on the left is imagining he's holding?
:)