Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Media lies

I have always been aware of the power of the media to mis-represent the truth and make people believe lies. Like life being un-biased in journalism is practically impossible. Richard of Sicilian Notes makes an excellent point about how the Irish Times ignored the fact that a beach in Gaza attacked by Israel did not lead to the explosion that killed many civilians. How many people in Ireland will believe this. I would say not many Times readers. See people there is an example of how the media can spin a story and as Richard says it really does show up the Anti-Israel sentiment here. Maybe he should write a letter to the paper.

I remember reading someone remarked that the left tends to always believe that the terrorist freedom fighter is right. Think about it Palestine, Iraqi insurgency, PIRA. Now I am sure that many people would give out to me for putting the provos in with the Palestinians but outside of Ireland that is often the case. Why? Because here in Ireland we know about the North. Unlike with Palestine where our news is a biased in Ireland we know more of the truth, we know the history, we know the culture, we know the real IRA from the official IRA, the provisional IRA from the continuity IRA and the low fat IRA from I can't believe it is not the IRA when you know the facts you stop seeing war and death in black and white.

Richard also in a way shows how much of the Pro-Israel side sees it in black and white as well.

The fact that Israel is more effective at killing Palestinian terrorists than Palestinian terrorists are at killing Israeli civilians neither lessens the moral outrage of Palestinian terrorism nor impugns the Israel's reasonable policy of zapping terrorists engaged in attacks.
Not all Palestinian killed are terrorists. People you can see the wrong on both sides of a conflict not everything is balck and white. Sometimes I feel I am shouting into an empty hall, a hall that sometimes I am not even in.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

As someone that recently visited the Palestinian Occupied Territories I can say when you treat humans as criminals every day of their lives it is understandable when some start acting like criminals.
Imagine a Large wall is erected around Cabra and the only way out of Cabra was to have a passport type ID with work visa and then you had to go through airport style security checkpoint nearly stripping each time (Sometime actually stripping). One out side you were constantly stopped by security , questioned , searched and treated as a second class citizen.

This is what happens to the residents of Bethlehem ( or those lucky enough to be allowed out ) each and every day. It does not matter to the Israeli’s whether they are Muslim or Christian. On a twenty minute bus Journey back from Bethlehem I was barked at three times by IDF despite them seeing my Irish Passport.

Not all Israeli’s are bad and for sure some are very nice but for certain all Palestinians are treated like criminals.

Simon said...

badman if something happened in Northern Ireland. Lets say a catholic is shot. Who would give more accurate reporting. a.) the Newsletter (Pro-Unionist paper) b.) The San Francisco Gate

Stephen_Boyle said...

Given that a former Pentagon analysist with a specialistation in explostion sites said that it was nearly certainly an Israeli shell, I don't agree with calling the Irish Times report a 'media lie' in this case. Among the evidence he found was a piece of shrapnell stamped with 155mm (the gague of the weapon Israel says it used in the attack) and that Israel also says that one of its exploded shells was unacounted for. To me that would seem to show something entirely different.

However I do take on board your point about people not seeking out the middle ground. My opinion is that people will often seek to portray the enormously complicated situation there in terms of Black and White, when in reality such definitions cannnot possibly be applied.

Anonymous said...

What is this guy on about? The beach explosion was initially reported as an Israeli shell by most international and Israeli papers, not just the Irish Times. The result of the IDF inquiry was only published yesterday. And the Irish Times reported on it today. What's more, while the IDF said it wasn't their shell, they've still not accounted for the sixth shell, or provided a definite explanation for the explosion. Not to mention the fact that the UN, Human Rights Watch and the Palestinians are all disputing the IDF conclusions.

Godwhacker said...

I think it is important to distinguish between a terrorist and a freedom fighter, and that such a distinction is possible. When you intentionally target civilians, you cross the line and become a terrorist.

It is immoral to expect Israel (or any nation) to suffer under a constant barrage of rocket attacks and not respond. Who are those rockets targeting? The answer, of course, is Israeli civilians.

I will admit that the response of Israel is sometimes heavy-handed, but Israel does not intentionally target civilians. If they did, given the strength of their military, there would not be any Palestinians left.