Recognizing Bias in Media Coverage of Israel F OCUS ON F ACTS

M EDIA F OCUS

I DENTIFYING M EDIA B IAS

M EDIA B IAS  Bias can manifest in a number of ways  Factual errors  Lack of balance  Omission of important facts and context  Double standards  Editorializing in a news story

F ACTUAL E RRORS  Detecting factual errors can be difficult  Follow breaking events closely  Know your Middle East history Modern and Ancient  Keep up on the many related subjects reported on by the media  Lots of information available on the CAMERA websiteCAMERA

L ACK OF B ALANCE  Focusing on only one side's point of view  Preponderance of space and/or time given to presenting a single viewpoint  Proponents of opposing points of view given equal weight?  Both quoted directly? Or…  Is one side summarized and paraphrased while the other is expressed directly?

O MISSIONS  Omissions are a frequent problem in reporting about the Middle East  Missing important facts and context 10-month settlement freeze Previous offers of statehood Egypt controls a border with Gaza Thousands of rockets and missiles from Gaza Palestinian media incites hatred of Jews Many, many more

D OUBLE S TANDARDS  One group is singled out for more criticism  Gender segregated buses in Israel condemned  State-sanctioned discrimination against women in Arab countries ignored  Different terms used to describe the same phenomenon  Perpetrators of atrocities against Americans called “terrorists”  Perpetrators of atrocities against Israelis called “militants”

E DITORIALIZING  Statements should be properly attributed, not the personal opinion of the reporter  Loaded terms and emotional buzzwords  “Occupied Palestinian land”  “Illegal Jewish settlements”  “Arab East Jerusalem”

H EADLINES

S EPARATE AND U NEQUAL  Headlines and photo captions are not written by the reporter  May not reflect the story accurately  Photos may not be connected to story  Preponderance of photos may reflect “one side”

W HAT ’ S THE P ROBLEM ?  Israeli airstrikes wound ZERO medics  Raid on smuggling tunnels and metal workshops (likely rocket factories)  Strike in response to terrorist attack from Gaza

W HAT ’ S THE P ROBLEM ?  The bus “explodes,” no one actively blows it up  The picture shows a Palestinian from Gaza, not an Israeli from Jerusalem  The Palestinian was “killed,” his car didn’t just “explode”

W HAT ’ S THE P ROBLEM ?  A warplane “blows up” a minivan but the Palestinians “respond”  In kind? Did Hamas target military targets or civilians?  Senior Hamas “militants,” not “terrorists”

M ONITORING THE M EDIA

K EEP Y OUR E YES O PEN  Analyze the headlines  Monitor the photographs  Keep track of the op-eds  Analyze the articles  Individual stories and long-term trends

A NALYZE THE H EADLINES  Are they distorted consistently?  Focused on Israel’s response to terror, not on the acts of terror that provoked the response  Passive verbs when Israelis killed but active for Palestinians  “3 Die in Tel Aviv” vs. “Palestinians Kill Mother, 2 Toddlers”  “Israelis Kill 9 Palestinians”  False moral equivalence  “4 Palestinians, 3 Israelis Killed” vs. “Palestinians Kill 3 Israelis in Home Invasion; Israeli Response Kills 4 Hamas Terrorists”

M ONITOR THE P HOTOGRAPHS  Sympathetic to the Palestinians but routinely show the Israelis only as a military presence  Pictures of Palestinian children but Israeli soldiers  After a terrorist attack…  Photo of the terror victims, their family and/or gripping scenes from the bombing or of family members of the terrorist?  If there was an Arab attack against Israel and a response from Israel, are photos only of the damage to Palestinian areas?  Are there many more photos of Palestinian children than Israeli children?

M ONITOR THE P HOTOGRAPHS  Are the photographs altered?  Cropped to distort  Photoshopped to mislead

K EEP T RACK OF O P -E DS  Are anti-Israel op-eds balanced over time with pro-Israel voices?  Are op-eds, editorials, or letters allowed to contain outright errors, fabrications or unsubstantiated claims?  Are corrections made when the newspaper is notified of the error?

A NALYZE THE A RTICLES  Are the article topics of actual relevance to the ongoing conflict?  Are there articles about the societies not just the conflict?  Daily concerns of people living there  Examples of freedom and democratic values or the lack thereof  Are terrorists called terrorists or euphemisms, such as activist, protester, operative or militant?  Are the terrorists who are killed and their families inappropriately given more descriptive, human interest coverage than the terrorists' victims and their families?  Are death tallies presented honestly?  Most Palestinians killed were combatants, while most Israelis killed were civilians killed in terrorist attacks

A NALYZE THE A RTICLES  Is there balance?  Human interest stories about both Israelis and Palestinians, or more human interest stories about Palestinians  Israeli mainstream or government position heard from, or an emphasis on fringe Israeli perspectives?  Israelis allowed to rebut specific allegations made against them in the article or are they asked about unrelated insignificant issues?  Is there context and key information provided?  The key causes of the ongoing conflict: Incitement and anti-Semitism Delegitimizing and rejection of Israel

I NDIVIDUAL S TORIES & L ONG -T ERM T RENDS  Contact the editor about individual instances of unfair or inaccurate reporting  Keep track of the coverage in a consistent way  Document at least 2 months of coverage  The editor may sincerely believe that his coverage is fair, but you will be able to educate him that there is consistently slanted presentation of the news about Israel