Media Bias and the Lynch Bin
by Steven Plaut
There is the old quip that it is not news when a dog bites a
postman, but it is news when a postman bites a dog.
The principle is on display in recent days in the countless
screaming media headlines over the "lynch" of Arabs in Jerusalem by
Jews. Never mind that all involved (except for one alleged
participant) are teenagers. The headlines in Israel are calling it a
lynch (see http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4274106,00.html)
and of course these are being aped in the anti-Israel foreign media.
There is some argument over just what happened. A group of bored
Jewish teenagers, some as young as 12, were evidently hanging about in
downtown Jerusalem and perhaps looking for trouble. (The one
exception was a 19 year old, not a minor and so now under arrest.)
Possibly some passing Arab teenagers made flirtatious or obscene
comments to the girls in the group. The boys then attacked and beat
the Arabs. The "attackers" were street punks, one sporting a mohawk
haircut. One Arab was injured.
So what are we to make of this? The same media that are
turning purple with rage and screaming for retribution over this
"lynching" never had very much to say a few months back when a group
of Haifa Arabs who were NOT teenagers attempted to lynch some Jewish
soldiers out of uniform who were NOT teenagers, nor when the Arabs
involved went scot free. From the massive interest the Western media
are showing in this "incident" you would think that teenage hoodlums
of various ethnicities never ever get into street fights in any other
countries in hot weather. Haaretz has a long track record of filling
the paper with "reports," many of them fictional, of Jews
(particularly settlers) attacking Arabs or vandalizing Arab property,
while downplaying or refusing to mention acts of Arab violence. If
Haaretz had been operating in 1938 you would have learned that Germany
was filled with attacks by Jewish hooligans against poor innocent
German victims and that Kristallnacht was an anti-Christian pogrom by
Jews.
Let me translate the comments by Kalman Liebskind in today's
Maariv on this whole story.
'The insane obsession with what is being dubbed the Jerusalem "lynch"
has by now been blown completely out of proportion. This is NOT
because we should regard the actual incident lightly but because
countless incidents at least as violent are completely ignored by the
media.
'These days some graffiti on an Arab gravestone is international
headline news, while the nonstop vandalizing and desecration of Jewish
graves on the Mount of Olives gets nary a mention. When a Jew
strikes an Arab in anger this is a banner headline. Dozens of Molotov
cocktail bombs thrown at Jews by Arabs every day are never mentioned.
The excuse is supposed to be that Jews attacking Arabs are news, like
a man biting a dog. But I have two responses to that.
'First, If that is the real reason, then I want to hear it said
unambiguously on the news and in the media. The fact that the Arabs
are the violent side of the conflict is a matter about which the media
refuse to speak. Second, the media are supposed to be an intermediary
link between reality and the consumer. So when 1000 attacks against
Jews by Arabs are never reported, while one single attack by Jews
against Arabs is the focus of the front pages for two weeks, readers
will understand that the violent side in the Middle East conflict is
the Jews. One cannot overstate the importance of this bias. If the
media were to report accurately the dimensions of Arab terror, the
Israeli public would be demanding immediate military action against
Gaza. When the public is unaware that this terror exists, the public
is indifferent.
'Oh and one more thing worth noting. Even with all the press
attention to the Arab victim of street hooliganism in Jerusalem, the
simple fact of the matter is that Arabs can walk about freely in the
"Jewish areas" of Jerusalem. Try to ask the cable TV technician who
made a wrong turn into Issawiya (Arab neighborhood next to the Hebrew
University) how he felt being attacked, and then ask on which page the
incident was reported.' (SP - or the Hebrew University students who
similarly were beaten by a lynch mob in the same place last year)
There is the old quip that it is not news when a dog bites a
postman, but it is news when a postman bites a dog.
The principle is on display in recent days in the countless
screaming media headlines over the "lynch" of Arabs in Jerusalem by
Jews. Never mind that all involved (except for one alleged
participant) are teenagers. The headlines in Israel are calling it a
lynch (see http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4274106,00.html)
and of course these are being aped in the anti-Israel foreign media.
There is some argument over just what happened. A group of bored
Jewish teenagers, some as young as 12, were evidently hanging about in
downtown Jerusalem and perhaps looking for trouble. (The one
exception was a 19 year old, not a minor and so now under arrest.)
Possibly some passing Arab teenagers made flirtatious or obscene
comments to the girls in the group. The boys then attacked and beat
the Arabs. The "attackers" were street punks, one sporting a mohawk
haircut. One Arab was injured.
So what are we to make of this? The same media that are
turning purple with rage and screaming for retribution over this
"lynching" never had very much to say a few months back when a group
of Haifa Arabs who were NOT teenagers attempted to lynch some Jewish
soldiers out of uniform who were NOT teenagers, nor when the Arabs
involved went scot free. From the massive interest the Western media
are showing in this "incident" you would think that teenage hoodlums
of various ethnicities never ever get into street fights in any other
countries in hot weather. Haaretz has a long track record of filling
the paper with "reports," many of them fictional, of Jews
(particularly settlers) attacking Arabs or vandalizing Arab property,
while downplaying or refusing to mention acts of Arab violence. If
Haaretz had been operating in 1938 you would have learned that Germany
was filled with attacks by Jewish hooligans against poor innocent
German victims and that Kristallnacht was an anti-Christian pogrom by
Jews.
Let me translate the comments by Kalman Liebskind in today's
Maariv on this whole story.
'The insane obsession with what is being dubbed the Jerusalem "lynch"
has by now been blown completely out of proportion. This is NOT
because we should regard the actual incident lightly but because
countless incidents at least as violent are completely ignored by the
media.
'These days some graffiti on an Arab gravestone is international
headline news, while the nonstop vandalizing and desecration of Jewish
graves on the Mount of Olives gets nary a mention. When a Jew
strikes an Arab in anger this is a banner headline. Dozens of Molotov
cocktail bombs thrown at Jews by Arabs every day are never mentioned.
The excuse is supposed to be that Jews attacking Arabs are news, like
a man biting a dog. But I have two responses to that.
'First, If that is the real reason, then I want to hear it said
unambiguously on the news and in the media. The fact that the Arabs
are the violent side of the conflict is a matter about which the media
refuse to speak. Second, the media are supposed to be an intermediary
link between reality and the consumer. So when 1000 attacks against
Jews by Arabs are never reported, while one single attack by Jews
against Arabs is the focus of the front pages for two weeks, readers
will understand that the violent side in the Middle East conflict is
the Jews. One cannot overstate the importance of this bias. If the
media were to report accurately the dimensions of Arab terror, the
Israeli public would be demanding immediate military action against
Gaza. When the public is unaware that this terror exists, the public
is indifferent.
'Oh and one more thing worth noting. Even with all the press
attention to the Arab victim of street hooliganism in Jerusalem, the
simple fact of the matter is that Arabs can walk about freely in the
"Jewish areas" of Jerusalem. Try to ask the cable TV technician who
made a wrong turn into Issawiya (Arab neighborhood next to the Hebrew
University) how he felt being attacked, and then ask on which page the
incident was reported.' (SP - or the Hebrew University students who
similarly were beaten by a lynch mob in the same place last year)
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