Media Disinterest in Bombings of Israelis?
February 10, 2008 4:42 AM Subscribe
Continuous Bombardment of Kassam missiles on the Jewish neighborhood of Sderot in the Western Negev, and nary a peep from the media.
Destruction of homes, injuries, trauma inflicted, Jeiwsh families forced from their homes, all currently ongoing in the neighborhood of Sderot, Western Negev, south of Gaza, Kassam missiles are being fired by Palestenians relentlessly now for over 2 years. Why doesn't the media report this? When anything happens in Gaza - the news agencies are all over the story. Now genocide is taking place against Jewish families - the latest being a 8 year old boy who had his leg amputated due to one of the Kassam attacks and the media is hiding its head in the preverbial sand. Is Jewish blood spilled not news worthy? Seems a whole lot of bias is going on. Just wondering. Thanks.
Destruction of homes, injuries, trauma inflicted, Jeiwsh families forced from their homes, all currently ongoing in the neighborhood of Sderot, Western Negev, south of Gaza, Kassam missiles are being fired by Palestenians relentlessly now for over 2 years. Why doesn't the media report this? When anything happens in Gaza - the news agencies are all over the story. Now genocide is taking place against Jewish families - the latest being a 8 year old boy who had his leg amputated due to one of the Kassam attacks and the media is hiding its head in the preverbial sand. Is Jewish blood spilled not news worthy? Seems a whole lot of bias is going on. Just wondering. Thanks.
This post was deleted for the following reason: this is a rant posing as a question. -- jessamyn
A further answer to your question lies in the fact that for a great many people living outside Israel and Palestine, the conflict seems never-ending, and each tit-for-tat attack seems like just another chapter in a story that will never reach a conclusion. That may also explain why it seems that this "isn't being reported", even though it obviously is.
In the daily avalanche of news in the world, stories that are long-continuing (like the Israel/Palestine conflict, Iraq, Darfur, Afghanistan, etc) are reported not in a minute-by-minute style as more unusual, one-off events are (the Benazir Bhutto assassination, or the snow-related travel chaos in China over Lunar New Year, for example).
So the news is out there; it gets reported eventually. But not, perhaps, the way you want it to be.
posted by mdonley at 5:07 AM on February 10, 2008
In the daily avalanche of news in the world, stories that are long-continuing (like the Israel/Palestine conflict, Iraq, Darfur, Afghanistan, etc) are reported not in a minute-by-minute style as more unusual, one-off events are (the Benazir Bhutto assassination, or the snow-related travel chaos in China over Lunar New Year, for example).
So the news is out there; it gets reported eventually. But not, perhaps, the way you want it to be.
posted by mdonley at 5:07 AM on February 10, 2008
Response by poster: Just as a reference - when I googled Gaza in News - this was the result of the search - News results Results 1 - 10 of about 31,928 for gaza. (0.63 seconds)to find any news about the Jewish city of Sderot (a few km away from Gaza) - News results Results 1 - 10 of about 3,294 for sderot. (0.20 seconds). So is this just the media being weary of a long drawn conflict or is this nothing less than bias against Israel? BTW this is just once instance,, with Gaza and Sderot. I'm sure there are countless others, but since this is now a full-blown war zone, it surfaced as being most relevant.
posted by watercarrier at 5:36 AM on February 10, 2008
posted by watercarrier at 5:36 AM on February 10, 2008
You've chosen to assume that there's media bias instead of assuming that your own search skills are poor. I can assure that, media bias or no, your search skills are indeed very poor.
A search in English on Google News for Gaza Sderot Kassam returns 252 results for the period covering February 1st and February 10th.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:48 AM on February 10, 2008
A search in English on Google News for Gaza Sderot Kassam returns 252 results for the period covering February 1st and February 10th.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:48 AM on February 10, 2008
So the loss of a leg is a genocide now?
posted by claudius at 5:51 AM on February 10, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by claudius at 5:51 AM on February 10, 2008 [1 favorite]
The Economist has a continual stream of articles on or around the subject but tend to portray it as asymmetrical in Israel's favor, which I guess I would agree with.
For example:
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9954509
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10557131
These may not be found in the existing search because the Economist switched to spelling the rocket's name as Qassam after 2004.
posted by selfnoise at 5:52 AM on February 10, 2008
For example:
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9954509
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10557131
These may not be found in the existing search because the Economist switched to spelling the rocket's name as Qassam after 2004.
posted by selfnoise at 5:52 AM on February 10, 2008
So is this just the media being weary of a long drawn conflict or is this nothing less than bias against Israel?
CNN reported about the kid losing his leg So it's not really "nary a peep" even though you want to feel persecuted.
Who's right-- the creepy extremists who think pro-Israel jews run the media, or the creepy extremists who think the medias hates Israel?
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:57 AM on February 10, 2008
CNN reported about the kid losing his leg So it's not really "nary a peep" even though you want to feel persecuted.
Who's right-- the creepy extremists who think pro-Israel jews run the media, or the creepy extremists who think the medias hates Israel?
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:57 AM on February 10, 2008
Use of repetitive violence by both sides to attempt to oust the other side's undesired residents has been par for the course in Israel/Palestine since the 1920s. Gaza's ersatz model rocketry obsession doesn't particularly rate against sniping, car bombing, suicide bombing, tanks, checkpoints, air strikes, home demolitions, illegal settlements, bulk water theft and destruction of social infrastructure.
On the other hand, as others have pointed out, this story has actually been covered pretty extensively both within Israel and internationally. But it's been basically the same story for a couple of years now, with the militant artillerists getting incrementally better at both distance and accuracy, and the IDF apparently powerless to prevent the attacks despite incursions and blockades. Given how frequently the Israel/Palestine conflict occupies the international airwaves, I'm not sure what you're looking for -- should each media outlet be running a story every week about the equivalent of a couple mortars hitting this Israeli town?
Also, keep in mind that the rocket attacks have often been part of larger stories -- Gaza blockade stories for instance would frequently refer to these attacks as justification for the blockade. Just because media aren't running around-the-clock features on Sderot doesn't mean the attacks are being ignored.
And yeah, what Claudius said.
posted by kowalski at 6:19 AM on February 10, 2008
On the other hand, as others have pointed out, this story has actually been covered pretty extensively both within Israel and internationally. But it's been basically the same story for a couple of years now, with the militant artillerists getting incrementally better at both distance and accuracy, and the IDF apparently powerless to prevent the attacks despite incursions and blockades. Given how frequently the Israel/Palestine conflict occupies the international airwaves, I'm not sure what you're looking for -- should each media outlet be running a story every week about the equivalent of a couple mortars hitting this Israeli town?
Also, keep in mind that the rocket attacks have often been part of larger stories -- Gaza blockade stories for instance would frequently refer to these attacks as justification for the blockade. Just because media aren't running around-the-clock features on Sderot doesn't mean the attacks are being ignored.
And yeah, what Claudius said.
posted by kowalski at 6:19 AM on February 10, 2008
Also, there was genocide. Sixty years ago. That's how the Gaza Strip came to be anything other than Palestine's equivalent of Coney Island.
posted by kowalski at 6:26 AM on February 10, 2008
posted by kowalski at 6:26 AM on February 10, 2008
AP has the story.
In the future, try the search function at Google News before saying the media isn't covering a story.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:29 AM on February 10, 2008
In the future, try the search function at Google News before saying the media isn't covering a story.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:29 AM on February 10, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
Additionally, it is being reported: I get the BBC World Service on television here in Latvia and have seen their correspondents speaking to residents of a community right next to the Gaza Strip, which may well have been Sderot - the name seems familiar.
posted by mdonley at 4:50 AM on February 10, 2008