Look at the following picture. What words or emotions come to mind?
This is the picture that the New York Times chose to accompany a story on the death of Muhammad Hani al-Kasba, a Palestinian teenager who was hurling rocks at an IDF vehicle. When he ignored warning shots and continued his violent attack, he was subsequently shot and killed by the soldiers in that vehicle. In the article, he is identified just as a “teenager.” We previously reported how the NY Times stripped out all the meaningful content from the incident in its headline (“Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Teenager in West Bank.”)
Clearly anyone who reads the article about a Palestinian “teenager” who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers and then sees a picture of his family, crying at his funeral, is going to feel a certain amount of sympathy.
Now look at the following picture:
This and other images have surfaced showing that al-Kasba was not just an innocent teenager. According to Israellycool, these pictures were posted by his friends and are widely available over the Internet. In other words, it would not have been difficult for the New York Times to have found a picture that showed the true nature of this man even if it had decided not to republish such an image. Readers would have certainly formed a different impression of the incident in question if they had been shown this picture.
Instead, however, the NY Times chose to run a picture of his family. When combined with the headline, the article does more to mislead than to report factually.
[sc:graybox ]Tell the New York Times Public Editor that its current photo selection is extremely misleading to its readers.
