Wed. 8 Jun. 2011 @ 09.48 - Print edition carries opinion piece, analysing the British media narrative on Israel-Palestine, by Just Journalism Editorial Manager Carmel Gould. The Guardian has published, 'The end of the media's Israel fixation', addressing how Israel is treated in the British media. Carmel Gould cites key findings from Just Journalism's recent major report, suggesting a journalistic fixation with Israel, and contends that complaints about a pro-Israel media are unfounded. On over-concentration on Israel and the battle for control of the narrative, Gould writes: 'The battle for control over the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has led to accusations that Zionists control the media. This is hard to believe, given the daily offerings of Jerusalem correspondents about settlement expansion, the Gaza blockade, loyalty oaths, racist rabbis, demolitions, checkpoints etc. If anyone is leaning on these reporters it plainly has no effect. It's a different story in Gaza where Hamas thugs recently beat a Reuters journalist with a metal pole and threatened another with being thrown out of a tall building.' The article also responds to Glasgow University Media Unit's Greg Philo, whose latest book was given ample coverage in The Guardian: 'Recently, Greg Philo of Glasgow University Media Unit complained on these pages that having pored over 4,000 lines of text from main UK broadcast bulletins during the 2008/9 Gaza war, not enough was said about Palestinians killed by Israel prior to the events being reported. Nothing could better illustrate the media obsession with Israel than the presence of such quantities of material for Philo to wade through. It is highly doubtful that 4,000 lines of text from main UK broadcast bulletins exist in relation to the closing weeks of the Sri Lanka war, also in 2009, in which up to 40 times more civilians died than in Gaza.'June 8, 2011 The Wire Just Journalism op-ed published in The Guardian
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
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