[1:53 PM] A point of consternation from the American standpoint is why there are such sympathies among Europeans toward the Palestinians. U.S. officials and pundits alike seemed baffled at how so many Europeans can tolerate Yasir Arafat when he is viewed by the U.S. as the obstacle to peace. Perhaps Europeans see the conflict a little for balanced than it is portrayed in the U.S. media – that is an oppressed people living in an occupied land struggling for existence against Israel.
However, the U.S. media tends to portray the entire conflict as Israel versus Palestinian suicide bombers. There seems to almost be a line of reasoning that if one portrays innocent Palestinian civilians and their plight, the implication is condoning of suicide bombers. I am not a particular aficionado of the game of “Spot Bias in the Media.” But I do notice a relative imbalance of stories about the plight of ordinary Israelis versus the ordinary Palestinians caught up in a region of conflict. My general litmus test is to count the number of times the phrase “suicide bomber” appears in stories which purport to be not about the conflict per se, but about the effects or the lives of ordinary Palestinians. That said, this story in the New York Times about Palestinian-Americans living in the West Bank is very good. Suicide bomber count: 2.
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posted 1:56 PM
However, the U.S. media tends to portray the entire conflict as Israel versus Palestinian suicide bombers. There seems to almost be a line of reasoning that if one portrays innocent Palestinian civilians and their plight, the implication is condoning of suicide bombers. I am not a particular aficionado of the game of “Spot Bias in the Media.” But I do notice a relative imbalance of stories about the plight of ordinary Israelis versus the ordinary Palestinians caught up in a region of conflict. My general litmus test is to count the number of times the phrase “suicide bomber” appears in stories which purport to be not about the conflict per se, but about the effects or the lives of ordinary Palestinians. That said, this story in the New York Times about Palestinian-Americans living in the West Bank is very good. Suicide bomber count: 2.
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