# Media bias towards Isreal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 1, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-bias-towards-isreal/101275 "2002-04-01T21:45:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-bias-towards-isreal/101275/21 "2002-04-04T14:42:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jackmannii \* > **What you’re citing is still anonymous third-hand stuff from someone who throws the word “murder” around in a highly casual fashion. If there are specific charges to be leveled, provide specific cites so they can be analyzed.** It’s not anonymous, it’s from a guy I know and it’s quoting (or referring to) AFP wire. This guy is a journalist, he has no reason to invent these stories, he just emailed details of them as he was shocked and distressed when he saw them on AFP. Like the OP’s friend was when she watched Al Jazeera. > [@](#): > > **It’s unbelievable how “death toll ratios” are being held up as evidence of which side is in the right in the Mideast.** No one is doing that here. Have you read the thread properly? This is about media bias, and whether or not there are disproportionate accounts of casualties in different newspapers etc. > [@](#): > > **And RTFirefly, we must be reading different press accounts. I’ve heard comparative figures of Israeli and Palestinian casualties provided constantly and prominently (it’s obsessively utilized by many pro-Palestinian press sources). It’s difficult, in fact, to find any front-page story on the conflict that doesn’t list comparative casualty stats.** I have read a myraid of news articles on this recently, and - as to be expected with the varied world media - there is a huge variation on who reports what. As you point out, it is “obsessively utilised” by pro-Palestinian press sources. Which means the reverse is likely true for pro-Israeli ones. Of sources I have read, I have found the [url=“[http://news.bbc.co.uk](http://news.bbc.co.uk)”] **BBC** to be the most neutral in its reporting and it does mention the death toll, but not in all of its articles. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-bias-towards-isreal/101275/22 "2002-04-04T16:05:40Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by istara \* > \*\* > It’s not anonymous, it’s from a guy I know and it’s quoting (or referring to) AFP wire. This guy is a journalist, he has no reason to invent these stories, he just emailed details of them as he was shocked and distressed when he saw them on AFP. Like the OP’s friend was when she watched Al Jazeera._\* Names…dates…places, Istara. That’s how we work to establish the facts here. Until you provide specifics, we are basically dealing with rumor. Comparative casualty figures have been brought up as though they represent some important revealed truth that has been suppressed by Western media. My point is that in itself, the fact that more Palestinians have been killed than Israelis in the recent upsurge in violence is not a reliable indicator that Palestinians hold a proportionate moral edge over their opponent - and that Western news sources commonly quote such figures. You’ll find them readily in a search of AP and network news accounts. You don’t need to seek out the BBC, or Arab media for that matter. To expand on something CK Dexter Haven said, it’s long been obvious that network news shows and newsmagazines present a distorted demographic view of Palestinians and Israelis. Interviews of Palestinians are heavily weighted towards salt-of-the-earth worker-types, while Israelis are portrayed almost entirely as wealthy suburbanites (recent American emigres are favored interview subjects). Israeli farmers and shopkeepers? They apparently don’t exist, at least in the minds of network news editors. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-bias-towards-isreal/101275/23 "2002-04-04T17:24:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by istara \* > \*\* > Like the OP’s friend was when she watched Al Jazeera. > \*\* The name is deceiving, I’m a he, he’s a he:cool: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-bias-towards-isreal/101275.md?page=1)