Libya Coverage Exposes Media Double Standards
June 19, 2011 16:19 by Simon Plosker
With the turmoil and upheaval in the Middle East, it is always interesting to examine how the media is covering events compared with coverage of Israel. Particularly in a situation where Western nations are involved in a military campaign, as in the case of Libya, it can be enlightening to contrast how the coverage stands up to comparable situations that Israel has found itself in.
A few deliberate changes to this original Associated Press article that cites a NATO spokesperson talking about Libyan human shields, illustrates the point:
“We are saving countless lives every day across the country,” she said. “We are conducting operations with utmost care and precision to avoid civilian casualties. Civilian casualty figures mentioned by the Libyan regime Hamas regime are pure propaganda.”
… government forces Hamas terrorists “have been shelling cities, mining ports and using mosques and children’s parks as shields.”
Lungescu’s The IDF Spokesman’s comments also counter allegations from Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who accused NATO the IDF on Friday of a “new level of aggression” and said the military alliance has intentionally targeted civilian buildings in recent days, including a hotel and a university.
“It has become clear to us that NATO the IDF has moved on to deliberately hitting civilian buildings. … This is a crime against humanity,” he told reporters in the capital.
Sound familiar? Replace references to NATO and Libya in the story with the IDF and Hamas and the story bears remarkable similarity to that of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead.
But here’s where the similarity ends. During Operation Cast Lead and the fallout from the Goldstone Report, Israel also made it clear that Hamas was hiding behind the civilian population, while the world media parroted accusations that the IDF was deliberately targeting civilians and carrying out “war crimes”.
Why is it that the media is prepared to accept the concept that an enemy could be so cynical as to store weapons in a house of worship or fire missiles from the vicinity of a school when that enemy is the Libyan regime but not when Hamas is accused of the very same thing by Israel?
Why does the media rightly question the veracity of Colonel Gadaffi’s claims over casualty figures yet have have little problem publishing casualty figures provided by Hamas terrorists?
NATO acknowledged Saturday that its aircraft had mistakenly hit a column of rebel military vehicles last week near the Libyan oil port of Brega, and early Sunday morning the Qaddafi government showed reporters a destroyed cinder-block house that neighbors and the government said was hit by an errant NATO airstrike in the capital. …
It was the first time in three months of airstrikes that the Qaddafi government has presented credible evidence of what appeared to be direct civilian casualties of NATO attacks. Although the government has often claimed large numbers of civilian deaths, it has never previously presented bodies or consistent facts about the dead.
The destroyed building was far from any obvious military facility, in the Souq al Juma area, which is known for its hostility to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and some neighbors who said they opposed him nonetheless confirmed the government’s account of an airstrike. Still, journalists visiting the site found no pieces of a bomb. NATO could not be reached for comment, and it was impossible to rule out another explanation.
So reads a report from the New York Times. In the fog of war, it is unclear the exact circumstances behind the incidents mentioned above. Clearly though, there is a level of acceptance that even the most sophisticated militaries can make mistakes and that enemies can engage in deliberately misleading propaganda.
As Sky News reports:
It could not be immediately verified whether the three bodies had come from the destroyed building in the Arada district.
Arada is a neighbourhood in the Souq al-Juma district, which is known for anti-Gaddafi sentiment.
One man told reporters at the scene that anti-aircraft guns were located nearby, fuelling suspicions that the strike may have been aimed close to the actual impact zone.
Two weeks ago, Libyan government officials were accused by a staff member at the same hospital in a note passed to journalists of falsely labelling a child hurt in a car crash as the victim of a Nato attack.
Yet, nobody (other than the Libyan regime) is accusing NATO of deliberately targeting civilians or calling for a Goldstone-style inquiry. Likewise, NATO suffered similar errors in Afghanistan with regard to “collateral damage”.
So why the double standards?
Libya isn’t the only example. Take a look at the media’s treatment of Israel when Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin was killed compared with the US killing of Osama bin Laden. (Courtesy of The Israel Project)
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Libya Coverage Exposes Media Double Standards «ScrollPost.com
6:25 pm
Jun 19, 2011
[...] it can be enlightening to contrast how the coverage stands [...]Original article can be viewed at Libya Coverage Exposes Media Double Standards on HonestReporting. Source: Europe & OECD BlogsPublished: 19 June 2011Site: [...]
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Libyen-Berichterstattung: Doppelmoral der Medien « Medien BackSpin
9:47 pm
Jun 19, 2011
[...] HonestReporting Media BackSpin, 19. Juni 2011 [...]
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Bernd Dahlenburg
3:43 am
Jun 20, 2011
http://castollux.blogspot.com/2011/06/merkwurdige-medienberichterstattung-des.html
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Ari
4:04 pm
Jun 20, 2011
The above pdf really does an amazing job in exposing the double standard. It’s laid out perfectly. The world definitely has some explaining to do.
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Mark
10:33 pm
Jun 20, 2011
What’s first reported almost always becomes THE truth, no matter what is later found to be the actual truth. Jenin = massacre by Jews; Mavi Marmara = massacre by Jews; Sabra and Shatila = massacre by Jews; Cast Lead = massacre by Jews; killing of Yassin = murder of poor, innocent, defenseless old cripple by Jews.
Virtually any Jewish/Israeli act is ALWAYS reported as evil, unjust, repressive…by now the drill is obvious, the Pavlovian anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli knee-jerk reporting. It has been almost 45 years since the ‘New Left’ re-cast tiny besieged Israel as the Lesser Satan (the US being the Great Satan). 45 years of lies and slanders, deliberate untruths, pumped daily into civilization’s veins by an all-pervasive media. Those “New Leftists” are now the editors, the professors, spreading their vicious poison, prating in self-congratulation their ‘heroism” in speaking “truth to power,” i.e., lies about Jews, lies about Israel.
Since the media, the universities, the elite politicians, even many so-called ‘progressive’ churches, spew their untruths in unison, often unchallenged, it is up to each one of us, as individuals, to fight the smears every day – to our friends and neighbors and co-workers, to teachers and school boards (you might be shocked to discover what is being force-fed to your children), in letters to newspapers and television stations and networks, in the new media such as YouTube and blogs, comments sections in web news outlets, etc. We must take the time to fight back, not just shake our heads and sigh at the stupidity and evil. Spend at least 10 minutes a day educating people, fighting the lies and smears, being the alternative voice that is truly speaking truth to power.
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Jon
6:52 pm
Jun 21, 2011
this pdf needs to make it out into the mainstream media. Without such a direct comparison, it is often difficult to notice the hypocrisy of one’s views. But the clarity of these contrasting statements will make it difficult even for Israel’s enemies in the media to argue about the double-standards.
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anonymous
11:08 am
Jun 30, 2011
Jon, In principle I fully agree with you. Problem is, they will not publish it, for the simple reason that it proves our point, and disproves theirs. They don’t want to be seen to look bad, so they will not publish anything that makes them look bad, thus the anti-Israel lies and propaganda will continue.
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Beverly Kurtin
9:44 pm
Jun 22, 2011
Mah nishtono ha yom hazeh? (Why should today be any different?)
It occurred to me the other day that the blasted world swallows all the BIG LIES of the Arabs while not even considering the truth about anything concerning Israel. For example: The world swallowed whole the lie that Israel is apartheid yet never bothers to consider that each and every ARAB country is not only apartheid but Judenfrei! OTOH, consider that their Grand Mufti spent a considerable amount of time during WWII in Germany with the Nazi elite. That is where the Arab countries, particularly those Arabs who call themselves Palestinians, mastered the art of the BIG LIE. They learned from Gobbles how to never deviate from their lies, but to tell them over and over and over again until the world believes them. Heck, the name Palestinian itself is a BIG LIE. There has never been a Palestinian people. An Egyptian named Arafat was the one in 1967 who slapped that label on those people. And even the Israelis buy the big lie. It is disgusting. Arafat did that so the world would believe another BIG LIE: That the Palestinian Nation existed for thousands of years until the Jews kicked them out of their land. Here in Texas we call that steer stool.
There never has been a Palestinian Nation. Show me their currency, their ancient flag, their government, etc. It doesn’t exist and never has, yet…yeah, the world accepts the lies while refusing to honor the truth.
Here we are, 27 years beyond 1984 and “Newspeak” is alive and well in the Middle East. The next scream you hear will come from me, ready?
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Brent Pudsey
1:18 pm
Jun 23, 2011
It is unfortunate that the press uses different standards when reporting the news in different nations. It seems after demonstrations for democracy in the Arab world that these nations are portrayed as just while Israel , an old democracy and western ally is seen as corrupt and injust.
Thus in the recent removal of Osama Bin Laden , the world rejoices over democracy winning. However when Israel attacked Hamas and removed Sheik Yassin as ditactor the world was critical and rebuked Israel for her intervention in this nation.
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Karen
8:24 pm
Jun 25, 2011
The double standard is even more outrageous when you consider that Libya has not even attacked NATO or any of the countries involved in NATO’s bombing campaign of Libya. The incidents in which Israel is attacked by the media are brought on either by actual or imminent attacks on Israel and are therefore in self-defense to a great degree! In this sense, NATO is not acting in self-defense, though it is, of course, in its own interest to carry these bombings out. What hypocrisy!
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