great article on news bias during this "war"
darkcrow
Posts: 1,102
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,1836743,00.html
"Keeping your balance
TV news teams face a tricky balancing act in covering the Lebanon crisis, with cries of pro-Israeli bias sitting side by side accusations that broadcasters are flying the flag for Hizbollah. But what are the networks actually saying?
John Plunkett
Friday August 4, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk
O'Reilly: 'Why is the world against Israel?' Photograph: AP
Sky News's Colin Brazier is in Jerusalem, ITV's Mark Austin is in Tyre, the BBC's Huw Edwards is back in the studio, while Bill O'Reilly on Fox News is asking: "Why is the world against Israel?"
Welcome to 24-hour TV news coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Accusations of bias are never far from broadcasters' coverage of the conflict. The BBC is pro-Israel, according to contributors to the Media Lens media watchdog.
Oh no it's not, says Times columnist Stephen Pollard, who argued that some of the corporation's coverage was so biased it could have been edited by the leader of Hizbollah.
The Guardian's Washington correspondent, Julian Borger, meanwhile, has said Britons and Americans are watching two different wars, with the US media concentrating on Hizbollah attacks on Israel, while their British counterparts were preoccupied by the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon.
So who's reporting what? Wednesday night's main evening news bulletins all led with the bullish statements on the progress of the war by the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, while pointing out that Hizbollah had just fired a record number of rockets at Israel - more than 200 in a single day.
A contradiction? Huw Edwards thought so on BBC1's 10pm bulletin.
"Hizbollah fired more rockets than ever before, some of them reaching as far as 45 miles into Israeli territory, and yet the Israeli prime minister claimed his forces were making good progress," he said.
ITV1's 10.30pm news took a similar line.
"On the day hostilities resumed with a vengeance, the Israeli prime minister claimed his nation is winning the war, but with Hizbollah firing more rockets across the border than ever before, what chance of peace?" asked the ITV news anchor, Mark Austin.
Channel 4 also appeared sceptical about the Israeli claims, pointing out that "thousands of reservists had been called up as the Israeli government prepares its citizens for a campaign that may last many weeks".
Gavin Esler on BBC2's Newsnight offered perhaps the bleakest assessment of them all.
"Once Israel took out three armies in six days. It is now in day 22 of its crisis with Lebanon and risks becoming bogged down in an expensive and costly conflict without so far achieving any of its objectives," he said.
By yesterday morning, BBC News 24's Jonathan Charles was reporting from the Israeli port of Haifa, where "yet more Hizbollah rockets are falling".
The focus, not just on News 24 but across all news channels, appeared to be fairly evenly split between the on-going attacks on either side of the border.
"Israel reports 56 dead, 580 wounded", said CNN International.
"The Lebanese prime minister says 900 Lebanese killed and 3,000 wounded, one million forced out of homes," reported Sky News.
Of particular interest on the Wednesday night network bulletins was Israel's deepest raid so far into Lebanon, a commando attack on a hospital in Baalbek.
The BBC, which had exclusive pictures from the site, reported claims it was being used by Hizbollah as a logistics base.
ITV went further, quoting sources that said Israel "had intelligence that one or maybe both of their two captured soldiers were being held there".
Over on Sky News yesterday morning, Brazier sounded rather more upbeat than Newsnight's Esler the previous night.
"Nearing its goal," Brazier announced to Sky News viewers, "Israel says it is close to reaching its military aims in Lebanon."
But another Sky News correspondent said the "relentless attacks" by Israel were continuing.
"But after three weeks of seemingly relentless attacks, it's hard to imagine that there is very much left to go at. Their targets are simply not clear." Not so upbeat, then.
"The Iranian president has weighed in with his customary sensitivity," added Brazier. "[Saying] the solution to the Middle East problem is to destroy Israel."
On CNN, it was Larry King Live. Except it was not, as a graphic in the corner told viewers it was recorded. Anyway, King was hosting a debate between Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor and author of The Case for Israel, and James Zogby, the Lebanon-born president of the Arab American Institute.
"The blame for all these civilian deaths [in Lebanon] lies squarely at the feet of Hizbollah," said Dershowitz. "That's their tactic. When you blame Israel completely that only encourages Hizbollah to kill more civilians and to hide behind more civilians, because they win a double victory."
Dershowitz, said Zogby, was a "good lawyer for guilty people".
Not much sign of a debate on Fox News, though, where the former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, was the guest on The Bill O'Reilly Factor.
"Why is the world against Israel?" asked O'Reilly.
"It's a combination of blaming a lot of their problems on America and Israel," opined Giuliani.
"But all over the world, after Qana [the Lebanese village bombed by Israel in which a number of civilians died], there were eruptions of anti-US and anti-Israel feeling not just from the Arab world but Europe, Asia, why?"
To which the obvious answer was: the clue's in the question, Bill.
"If you look at the Middle East you have a lot of incompetent, irresponsible oppressive governments and the leadership there has been able to get away with blaming their problems on us," said Giuliani.
"Look at Yasser Arafat - most of the money that should have been invested in Palestine is probably sitting in France somewhere ... ."
O'Reilly: "Yep, his widow's spending it ... ."
It is not all about conflict in the Middle East, though. Flipping over to Euronews, the Lyon-based news channel that was formerly run by ITN, it was reporting that 99.3% of people in Luxembourg take their holidays abroad.
It was followed by a report about agricultural inspectors in France investigating the pesticide used on locally grown apple crops.
Don't they know there's a war on?"
"Keeping your balance
TV news teams face a tricky balancing act in covering the Lebanon crisis, with cries of pro-Israeli bias sitting side by side accusations that broadcasters are flying the flag for Hizbollah. But what are the networks actually saying?
John Plunkett
Friday August 4, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk
O'Reilly: 'Why is the world against Israel?' Photograph: AP
Sky News's Colin Brazier is in Jerusalem, ITV's Mark Austin is in Tyre, the BBC's Huw Edwards is back in the studio, while Bill O'Reilly on Fox News is asking: "Why is the world against Israel?"
Welcome to 24-hour TV news coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Accusations of bias are never far from broadcasters' coverage of the conflict. The BBC is pro-Israel, according to contributors to the Media Lens media watchdog.
Oh no it's not, says Times columnist Stephen Pollard, who argued that some of the corporation's coverage was so biased it could have been edited by the leader of Hizbollah.
The Guardian's Washington correspondent, Julian Borger, meanwhile, has said Britons and Americans are watching two different wars, with the US media concentrating on Hizbollah attacks on Israel, while their British counterparts were preoccupied by the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon.
So who's reporting what? Wednesday night's main evening news bulletins all led with the bullish statements on the progress of the war by the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, while pointing out that Hizbollah had just fired a record number of rockets at Israel - more than 200 in a single day.
A contradiction? Huw Edwards thought so on BBC1's 10pm bulletin.
"Hizbollah fired more rockets than ever before, some of them reaching as far as 45 miles into Israeli territory, and yet the Israeli prime minister claimed his forces were making good progress," he said.
ITV1's 10.30pm news took a similar line.
"On the day hostilities resumed with a vengeance, the Israeli prime minister claimed his nation is winning the war, but with Hizbollah firing more rockets across the border than ever before, what chance of peace?" asked the ITV news anchor, Mark Austin.
Channel 4 also appeared sceptical about the Israeli claims, pointing out that "thousands of reservists had been called up as the Israeli government prepares its citizens for a campaign that may last many weeks".
Gavin Esler on BBC2's Newsnight offered perhaps the bleakest assessment of them all.
"Once Israel took out three armies in six days. It is now in day 22 of its crisis with Lebanon and risks becoming bogged down in an expensive and costly conflict without so far achieving any of its objectives," he said.
By yesterday morning, BBC News 24's Jonathan Charles was reporting from the Israeli port of Haifa, where "yet more Hizbollah rockets are falling".
The focus, not just on News 24 but across all news channels, appeared to be fairly evenly split between the on-going attacks on either side of the border.
"Israel reports 56 dead, 580 wounded", said CNN International.
"The Lebanese prime minister says 900 Lebanese killed and 3,000 wounded, one million forced out of homes," reported Sky News.
Of particular interest on the Wednesday night network bulletins was Israel's deepest raid so far into Lebanon, a commando attack on a hospital in Baalbek.
The BBC, which had exclusive pictures from the site, reported claims it was being used by Hizbollah as a logistics base.
ITV went further, quoting sources that said Israel "had intelligence that one or maybe both of their two captured soldiers were being held there".
Over on Sky News yesterday morning, Brazier sounded rather more upbeat than Newsnight's Esler the previous night.
"Nearing its goal," Brazier announced to Sky News viewers, "Israel says it is close to reaching its military aims in Lebanon."
But another Sky News correspondent said the "relentless attacks" by Israel were continuing.
"But after three weeks of seemingly relentless attacks, it's hard to imagine that there is very much left to go at. Their targets are simply not clear." Not so upbeat, then.
"The Iranian president has weighed in with his customary sensitivity," added Brazier. "[Saying] the solution to the Middle East problem is to destroy Israel."
On CNN, it was Larry King Live. Except it was not, as a graphic in the corner told viewers it was recorded. Anyway, King was hosting a debate between Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor and author of The Case for Israel, and James Zogby, the Lebanon-born president of the Arab American Institute.
"The blame for all these civilian deaths [in Lebanon] lies squarely at the feet of Hizbollah," said Dershowitz. "That's their tactic. When you blame Israel completely that only encourages Hizbollah to kill more civilians and to hide behind more civilians, because they win a double victory."
Dershowitz, said Zogby, was a "good lawyer for guilty people".
Not much sign of a debate on Fox News, though, where the former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, was the guest on The Bill O'Reilly Factor.
"Why is the world against Israel?" asked O'Reilly.
"It's a combination of blaming a lot of their problems on America and Israel," opined Giuliani.
"But all over the world, after Qana [the Lebanese village bombed by Israel in which a number of civilians died], there were eruptions of anti-US and anti-Israel feeling not just from the Arab world but Europe, Asia, why?"
To which the obvious answer was: the clue's in the question, Bill.
"If you look at the Middle East you have a lot of incompetent, irresponsible oppressive governments and the leadership there has been able to get away with blaming their problems on us," said Giuliani.
"Look at Yasser Arafat - most of the money that should have been invested in Palestine is probably sitting in France somewhere ... ."
O'Reilly: "Yep, his widow's spending it ... ."
It is not all about conflict in the Middle East, though. Flipping over to Euronews, the Lyon-based news channel that was formerly run by ITN, it was reporting that 99.3% of people in Luxembourg take their holidays abroad.
It was followed by a report about agricultural inspectors in France investigating the pesticide used on locally grown apple crops.
Don't they know there's a war on?"
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