The Age’s media editor, Matthew Ricketson invited both the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council and the Australian Arabic Council to rewrite correspondent Ed O’Loughlin’s coverage of Qana. See AIJAC and AAC versions. (O’Loughlin’s original report couldn’t be found at the provided link.) One of Ricketson’s conclusions:
If context is all important in writing about the Middle East then, a news report, by definition brief and shorn of context, becomes an especially fragile vessel to carry such politically and emotionally charged material.
The problem is, in the 150 or so years since the modern reporting style was invented, no one has come up with a better way of presenting breaking news.
