# How media can maintain balance when covering a conflict **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 31, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529 "2014-07-31T22:04:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/61 "2014-08-08T04:42:58Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > like the Gaza one where because of the “conditions” (that is, full control of Hamas over the journalists inside Gaza) they have no way to present the photos of one of the sides? > > Here it is from NYT: > > [http://www.jta.org/2014/07/31/news-opinion/nyt-on-why-no-photos-of-hamas-fighters-we-dont-have-any](http://www.jta.org/2014/07/31/news-opinion/nyt-on-why-no-photos-of-hamas-fighters-we-dont-have-any) > > "Our photo editor went through all of our pictures recently and out of many hundreds, she found 2 very distant poor quality images that were captioned Hamas fighters by our photographer on the ground. It is very difficult to identify Hamas because they don’t have uniforms or any visible insignia; our photographer hasn’t even seen anyone carrying a gun. > > I would add that we would not withhold photos of Hamas militants. We eagerly pursue photographs from both sides of the conflict, but we are limited by what our photographers have access to." > > Somehow I doubt that their photographer in Gaza “hasn’t even seen anyone carrying a gun”. There are plenty of stories of Hamas threatening journalists to report what Hamas wants - so the photographer probably just conveniently blinked whenever he saw a Hamas fighter. > > So here is a question: let’s say there is some conflict where you have plenty of pictures/videos of one side’s soldiers but for some reason, systematically and for the duration, lack pictures/videos of the other side. To me it seems obvious that by publishing the pictures/videos of one side and not the other you are creating bias. Wouldn’t the media ethics (yes, I know, LOL and ROTFLMAO etc) require either withholding the visuals for the time being until you get some to create at least some kind of balance, or publishing a disclaimer every time that says “we cannot bring you the photos or videos of the other side’s fighters because our personnel are being threatened when they try to take them”? We were able to cover the Iraq war with journalists embedded with US troops and almost nobody on the other side. Frankly if we put a guy with a camera that streamed to the internet (with a 1 day lag) with every IDF platoon, I don’t think we would need the other side’s perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/62 "2014-08-08T04:51:22Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > That is certainly not the impression I get. But I do get the impression, [which appears to be the truth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel%E2%80%93Gaza_conflict#Casualties_and_losses), that the Israeli bombs are killing more civilians than fighters. IIRC, Israel has been able to maintain a relatively good civilian casualty ratio for this type of fighting. You might be able to criticize them for responding like this but their civilian casualty ratio isn’t really that bad. War is horrible and it is the price that Gazans seem willing to pay to stand up to their oppressors. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/63 "2014-08-08T04:55:49Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I think a fair, balanced way to cover a conflict would be for the media to cover \*why \*each side is fighting. > Motives, grievances, etc. There was a debate on NPR a few days ago and I think it was a professor and an author. It went along smoothly for about 20 minutes until they got their first caller and then all hell broke loose. Each guy was basically ended up saying the other guys was either lying or stupid. These guys were basically reduced to hurling bumper sticker sound bites at each other. All the while trying to maintain an air of calm reasoned objectivity. I have no doubt that after the segment was over a cage descended from the ceiling and Tina Turner yells “Two men enter, One man leaves” ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/64 "2014-08-08T18:04:02Z")
And here is the [BBC statistician report](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28688179) supporting all I posted about the Gaza casualty figures. Yet still, even today, the media keeps reporting “X Palestinians killed, most of them civilians”. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/65 "2014-08-08T18:16:27Z")
> **[Why Everything Reported from Gaza is Crazy Twisted](http://www.thetower.org/article/why-everything-reported-from-gaza-is-crazy-twisted/)** > > Under the thumb of Hamas, journalists are told what and where to report, and those who break the rules risk abuse or death. Veteran AP reporter MARK LAVIE … basically confirms what I have been talking about in this thread, but to take it further than the Gaza context: A Palestinian reporter duly relayed an official Palestinian story from an Israeli army roadblock near Ramallah in the West Bank, where a pregnant woman had died after heartless Israeli soldiers refused to let her go through to the hospital. The reporter went to the hospital, where a doctor confirmed the report. Uneasy, the reporter climbed on foot to the primitive encampment where the woman lived, and there, her husband refuted the whole story. The delay, he said, was getting her to the main road and finding a taxi. Once they got to the roadblock, he said, the soldiers cleared everyone else out of the way and sped them through to the hospital—but it was too late. The reporter then confronted the doctor, who admitted that he lied “for the cause.” ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/66 "2014-08-08T19:50:51Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > [Why Everything Reported from Gaza is Crazy Twisted - The Tower](http://www.thetower.org/article/why-everything-reported-from-gaza-is-crazy-twisted/) > > … basically confirms what I have been talking about in this thread, but to take it further than the Gaza context: > > A Palestinian reporter duly relayed an official Palestinian story from an Israeli army roadblock near Ramallah in the West Bank, where a pregnant woman had died after heartless Israeli soldiers refused to let her go through to the hospital. The reporter went to the hospital, where a doctor confirmed the report. Uneasy, the reporter climbed on foot to the primitive encampment where the woman lived, and there, her husband refuted the whole story. The delay, he said, was getting her to the main road and finding a taxi. Once they got to the roadblock, he said, the soldiers cleared everyone else out of the way and sped them through to the hospital—but it was too late. The reporter then confronted the doctor, who admitted that he lied “for the cause.” Which of your claims does this confirm? That the Hamas controls what reporters say? Apparently not. That reporters are afraid to report what they think Hamas won’t like? No, not that either. This was a Palestinian reporter who dug out the truth. What does it prove other than, “Sometimes people lie to reporters?” ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/67 "2014-08-11T20:43:53Z")
> **[Foreign Press Association blasts Hamas for threatening journalists](https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Foreign-Press-Association-blasts-Hamas-for-threatening-journalists-370755)** > > Hamas has threatened to punish journalists who record Hamas firing rockets. Hamas is using threats and pressure to prevent journalists from providing objective reports, the Foreign Press Association in Israel and Palestine said in a statement Monday. The organization said it “protests in the strongest the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza over the past month.” “The international media are not advocacy organizations and cannot be prevented from reporting by means of threats or pressure, thereby denying their readers and viewers an objective picture from the ground,” the FPA added. According to the FPA, several members of the foreign media in Gaza were harassed, threatened or questioned about stories they reported. … On Sunday, Paul T. Jørgensen of Norway’s TV2 reported that "several foreign journalists have been kicked out of Gaza because Hamas does not like what they wrote or said. “We have received strict orders that if we record that Hamas fires rockets or that they shoot, we will face serious problems and be expelled from Gaza,” Jørgensen added. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/68 "2014-08-21T22:10:11Z")
A long, meticulously researched, very in-depth article documenting amazing media pro-Hamas bias: > **[The Media Intifada: Bad Math, Ugly Truths About New York Times In...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2014/08/21/the-media-intifada-bad-math-ugly-truths-about-new-york-times-in-israel-hamas-war/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it)** > >   It's a "media intifada," notes Gary Weiss, an old colleague and one of the world's top business investigative reporters. He is referring of course to the ongoing war in Gaza, where journalists working for American news outlets have, he says,... ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/69 "2014-08-22T20:26:02Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Why **should** they “maintain balance”? That’s Fox News thinking. Fox News tries to maintain balance? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/70 "2014-08-22T20:37:41Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Fox News tries to maintain balance? That explains the wild flailing. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529/71 "2014-08-28T03:05:14Z")
> **[Media are Hamas’s main strategic weapons, says visiting US historian](https://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Media-are-Hamass-main-strategic-weapons-says-visiting-US-historian-372579)** > > Expert who famously coined the phrase “Pallywood” to describe Palestinian obfuscation and lying in reporting news, weighs in on Hamas tactics in latest war. He defined a three-prong strategy used by Hamas to control public discourse: “Arouse protest in the West to stop Israel; feed Lawfare (law warfare) attacks that severely restrict Israel’s use of weapons; demonize and delegitimize Israel in the world community [with events such as] Israel Apartheid Week and BDS.” … Landes stressed that “intimidation [of journalists] is the huge story” coming out of Operation Protective Edge. … Landes sees a brand of advocacy journalism unfolding in the Israel- Palestinian conflict. He cited a BBC reporter who announced in 2001 at a Hamas rally, “We journalists stand shoulder to shoulder with you in your struggle against Israel.” For Landes, the unintended consequences of Hamas’s war strategy and its connection to global jihad is “lethal journalism“ and the blood libel that Israel targets Palestinian children. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-media-can-maintain-balance-when-covering-a-conflict/694529.md?page=3)