AFP Goes to the Dogs
June 23, 2011 9:11 by Simon PloskerAFP was one of those media outlets that we took to task for publishing a false story claiming that a Jerusalem rabbinical court had sentenced a dog to death by stoning. But could AFP make a bad situation worse?
Most of the press employed illustrative photos of cute and vulnerable looking dogs, presumably to elicit support for our furry friend in the face of Jewish religious brutality. AFP, however, chose this photo and the accompanying caption:
What relationship has a photo of a dog outside Gaza to the (false) story of the death sentence dog? None whatsoever unless AFP is inferring that Israelis also mistreat dogs or perhaps even demonstrate a lack of appreciation for living things in general.
Considering that the dog story also involved a lawyer, perhaps AFP might have chosen to illustrate the story with a photo of a Jewish lawyer, which would not have been too difficult to find.
AFP’s inability to unwillingness to separate a story from Israel (even an erroneous one) from the conflict through the use of subliminal association demonstrates a particularly malevolent attitude.
AFP really has gone to the dogs.
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AFP geht vor die Hunde « Medien BackSpin
4:02 pm
Jun 23, 2011
[...] HonestReporting Media BackSpin, 23. Juni 2011 [...]
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Elliott A Green
4:07 pm
Jun 23, 2011
This story about “evil” Jewish rabbis sentencing a poor dog to death reminds me that 170 years ago, most of the French press supported the attempt of Prime Minister Thiers and the French diplomat on site in Damascus to smear Damascus Jews for a murder that they had not committed. This in order to build up French influence in Syria and the empire of Muhammad Ali of Egypt who controlled Syria at the time. This is another bizarre expression of prejudice which sees Jews as perpetrating exotic evil, as in the Damascus affair. French PM Thiers told the Jewish leader, Adolphe Cremieux, “Those people are guilty. They wanted a priest’s blood and you do not know how far the fanaticism of the Eastern Jews goes.” The AFP is expressing the same prejudice in the dog story. See link:
http://www.think-israel.org/green.damascusaffair.html
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dog lover
4:55 pm
Jun 23, 2011
What is the real story?
All I received was the fictionalized one. I was appalled that the rabbis were that primitive but skeptical of the story at the same time.
I would like the truth as I don’t think a dog would be stoned for superstitious reasons.
The Israelis have advanced beyond superstitious mumbo-jumbo, right?
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SA"K
5:14 pm
Jun 23, 2011
@Doglover:
The true story can be read here:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thejc.com%2Fnews%2Fisrael-news%2F50487%2Fno-dog-stoned-death-jerusalem-court&h=4fedf
Kol Tuv
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Barry
6:41 pm
Jun 23, 2011
Given that the Israelis have also been accused of controlling sharks in the red sea in such a way as to be able to command their attacks on beach goers on the sinia, does this story come at all as a surprise?
Ponder this:
A fish will sometimes with pleasure rise out of his element, and spring into ours: so a man will sometimes with pleasure rise from prejudice and falsehood, into the sphere of reason and truth. But the fish will most naturally and joyfully dive again into his element of water; and the man as joyfully and naturally into his element of prejudice and falsehood.
FULKE GREVILLE
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michal adler
11:33 pm
Jun 23, 2011
So, the AFP published a FALSE story about a poor dog being sentenced by a Jewish rabbinical court to death by stoning. I wonder how many times has AFP published a TRUE story about a raped or allegedly unfaithful woman being sentenced to death by stoning by the religious courts of Israeli neighbours. Needless to say, plausibility of both scenarios, as well as simple experiential evidence of prevalence and incidence, are in both cases persuasively incomparable. And yet… Is there any way to get any coherent explanation from anyone responsible from AFP? I expect it would be very enlightening!
Michal
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Abu Nudnik
12:02 am
Jun 24, 2011
“Treat Gazans like dogs” is the obvious inference of AFP. But their guy got the bloodlust from Nablus on film at least, though he begged to re-enter on the promise of never reporting anything about the PA in a bad light… “following the rules” was how he put it if I remember rightly.
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