American Media Distorts the Way Palestinians are Viewed !

• American media distorts the way Palestinians are viewed! 
  by James Zogby, http://www.thenational.ae 
  Media coverage of the ugly war on Gaza has only served to remind us of the fundamental problem that has plagued the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the beginning: Israelis are seen as real individual people, while Palestinians are an abstraction – objects of contempt, scorn, or pity – but not people to whom Americans can relate.
  –
  Because Israel knows how important it is to maintain this unbalanced equation, in any battle they rely on their ability to dominate and shape media messages and images. And because the Israelis have cultivated all-too-compliant partners in the press and in politics, their narrative of events often trumps reality.
  –
  This past week’s coverage of the war in Gaza by the Washington Post can serve as a case in point. Each day, we have been presented with moving stories of Israelis who have lost their lives or those who are living in fear. Last Sunday, as the Israeli ground offensive was beginning, the Post featured a front-page headline, in large type, reading “Two Israelis Killed in Gaza Clash”. In smaller type there was a subheading, “Death toll tops 330 as Hamas militants step up attacks”.
  –
  The impact of this presentation is quite clear. The loss of the two Israelis trumps the deaths of 330 Palestinians. While the Israelis are “killed”, the 330 dead are presented as a body-count – we are not even told that they are Palestinians. To add to the confusion, the 330 died “as Hamas militants stepped up attacks” – making Hamas appear as the sole responsible agent.
  –
  Then on Wednesday, as the casualty toll grew, on two facing pages the Post featured stories that added insult to this injury. Page 9 featured two moving human-interest stories. The first was about a grieving mother whose son, an Israeli soldier, had perished in battle. Below this appeared profiles of two young Israeli-Americans, both soldiers who died fighting in Gaza. The accounts were personal and touching.
  –
  On the facing page, the Post provided a diagram of the war’s total casualties, using little stick figures – one for each person who died. Adults were presented in black, while children and babies were in red. Not only did the 406 Palestinians figures dwarf the two Israeli figures, but especially poignant were the number of tiny little red figures – 129 in all. There were no pictures, no names, no stories and no interviews with sobbing Palestinian mothers.
  –
  Above this obscene chart was an account of the difficulties Gazans were having finding places to bury their dead. Again, no touching stories to put flesh on the bones of the stick figures. The story had a picture of a man, who was said to be “overcome by emotion” but who looked like he was shouting in anger.
  –
  This is the way the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been presented – the Israelis are real people whom you can see and know, versus an amorphous Palestinian mass.
  –
  In defending themselves, American reporters will argue that while the Israelis provide them access to the stories and will bring them to the grieving families, they don’t have the same access to the Palestinian side of the story. But that simply won’t wash. There are a number of courageous souls covering the situation within Gaza. The remarkable website Al Monitor features reporting from Asmaa Al Ghoul. Every day, at great personal risk, Asmaa walks the streets of Gaza telling, in heartbreaking detail, the personal stories of families who’ve lost loved ones or survivors whose homes were destroyed. Her writing deserves a wider audience. And even US outlets NBC and CNN’s international team have also been on the ground in Gaza showing the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
  –
  read more!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O3eaXCxRUM]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVmiAR5nvJE]
end