As Israel struck Gaza in a massive bombing campaign, CNN today featured what appeared to be drone footage of Gaza City reduced to rubble, but the reporter on air was in Israel, Jeremy Diamond in Ashdod.
MSNBC was little different. Josh Lederman was in Tel Aviv. Ali Velshi was in Ashkelon. So was Raf Sanchez.
PBS News Hour last night featured both anchor Amna Nawaz and reporter Leila Molana-Allen — reporting from Tel Aviv.
BBC was similar. Correspondent Nick Beake reported from Tel Aviv. While Jeremy Bowen was in southern Israel. Asked by an anchor about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Bowen said, “It sounds like it’s absolutely dire.” But he said he was a few miles away.
Where are the network reporters in Gaza? There appear to be no English-language news network reporters, with the exception of Al Jazeera English. This reflects an unpardonable double standard for Palestinian and Israeli subjects. During the Iraq invasion in 2003, for instance, Peter Arnett was in Baghdad for NBC.
What is certain from the network coverage is that the numbers of network reporters in Israel are contributing to a profound bias on the part of the networks, a focus on Israeli victims in the fighting. CNN and MSNBC’s coverage has been unapologetically Israel-centric.
Andrea Mitchell interviewed former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren on MSNBC. While Boris Sanchez of CNN interviewed an Israeli former official, Michael Milshtein, saying that the onslaught is not a “blind attack,” and Israel has “no interest in harming civilians.” CNN also interviewed an adviser to rightwing Israeli politicians, George Birnbaum, likening Hamas attacks to Nazis. CNBC interviewed Nada Zafrir, an Israeli high-tech executive, calling for the flattening of Gaza.
Dana Bash of MNSBC interviewed former Israeli ambassador Danny Danon and allowed him to claim that Israel does not target civilians. Anderson Cooper reported for CNN from Tel Aviv.
Today BBC and MSNBC both featured videos from inside a Gaza hospital– but MSNBC said the video came from “our team,” while BBC ran footage a surgeon took of himself, describing desperate conditions.
And those network reporters have focused on the reports of Israeli children killed by Hamas militants, more than they have on the report by the Gaza Ministry of Health that Israel has killed 447 children in Gaza.
It appears that several network reporters are sympathetic to the Palestinians in Gaza. Ali Velshi, for instance, explained that “For the moment nobody can get out of Gaza,” so the Israeli army’s practice of leafleting neighborhoods is meaningless.
But such reports would be far more compelling and factual if the reporters were inside Gaza. Right now the coverage feels like: Israelis are human beings, but Gazans are beneath human empathy.
This is because U.S. networks are not in Gaza to tell the full story.
Of course noticed the extremely lop sided reporting since day 1. Richard Engel really trying hard to pretend he is balanced…become so clear he is not. Not an ounce of real compassion towards Palestinians while rightfully showing and saying everything he can about the massacre while not providing any information about the possibility that Hamas has something to be pissed of about. Engel not showing the suffering of Palestinians while he reports just on the border of Gaza. Not even whispering about how he cannot get in.
So realizing one can be completely horrified by what Hamas has done, the pain and suffering their heinous acts have caused at same time can still feel the outrage and condemnation of Israel for all o the war crimes they have committed over 7 decades.
When are we going to hear a piece about how many Palestinians have been killed by Israel over the decades and how many 9/11’s that add’s up to in proportion to their population
I have been especially alarmed by the complete arrogance of Mka Joe Scarborough, Willie on Morning Joe. Of course the moral outrage about the heinous acts, however, they express no compassion at all towards Palestinians in the Gaza being pummeled in the Gaza. Nothing out o the arrogant bigots.
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This interview is worthwhile listening to
American woman from Utah trying to get out of Gaza. Reported going to the Rafah border and said Israel was bombing on both the Egyptian and Palestinians sides. She was told to go back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XylAYj8kTY
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The answer is simple. Israel has imposed a de facto media blackout on Gaza and is actively stopping the media and humanitarian aid and monitors from entering the strip.
They’ll no doubt claim this is for security and the safety of the media and these aid groups. However, we all know that they simply don’t want the narrative to shift to the atrocities in Gaza and they certainly don’t want the evidence of their blatant war crimes and collective punishment getting out to the world.
Mondoweiss has Yumna Patel reporting from the West Bank and Tareq S.Hajjaj in Gaza. No reports from the devastation and massacre in southern Israel.
Today’s PBS News Hour had Leila Molana-Allen reporting on life “for people on both sides of the border” between Israeli and Lebanon:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/hospitals-overwhelmed-as-gaza-siege-intensifies-and-israel-vows-hamas-will-be-crushed
From the Lebanese side, “incoming fire killed and wounded both Israelis and Arab Israelis“. Those are her exact words. I didn’t realize that Arab Israelis are not considered to be Israelis, but thank you, PBS, for pointing out that there is a distinction.
Also, the only people they talked with are on the Israeli side of the border. As a viewer who trusts PBS, I suppose that’s because Israelis have more to worry about than the people on the Lebanese side do. Such as an invasion or air strikes from the other side. After all, who ever heard of an invasion of Lebanon or air strikes on Lebanon from Israel? Not anyone on this program, it seems, or at least there are none that they’re telling us about.
Oh, she does tell us that “Human Rights Watch have just confirmed that they’re reporting says that white phosphorus was used by Israeli forces in both Gaza and on the Lebanese border in the last few days.” She describes how horrifying a weapon that is. Then concludes: “So, if this is the case, that’s a major escalation in the fighting and also a terrifying prospect for people on both sides of the border in terms of how angry that kind of weaponry being used could make people.” Right: a weapon that is used only by Israeli forces on the Lebanese side of their border is a terrifying prospect for people on both sides. Why is it a terrifying prospect? By her account, not because of the direct damage caused by the weapon, but because it could make people angry.
https://www.facebook.com/mantsurrr/videos/714529323827738