On Wednesday evening, a Palestinian deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people disembarking Jerusalem’s Light Rail, killing a three-month old baby and injuring several more, in what was clearly a terror attack.
Initial reports produced some jarring headline fails. Take the Associated Press’s first headline, which has caused widespread outrage:
That the AP changed the headline within an hour and eventually arrived at the more accurate, “Palestinian kills baby at Jerusalem station” indicates that the wire service acknowledged that it had got it wrong with its initial headline. But the AP is still responsible for the immense damage that this headline can cause. For example, while AP may have updated its headline, what about those media outlets who had no qualms in keeping the original such as Turkey’s Daily Sabah? (H/T: Richard Behar)
HonestReporting contacted AP Jerusalem directly for an explanation and this was the response:
The headline in question was short-lived, written when confirmed details of what happened were scarce. The headline was replaced in just over a half hour as AP continued to publish updates about the incident, the driver and the victim. The final version of the story, and its headline, made clear what had happened.
If AP corrected its error, then Agence France Presse‘s treatment of the terror attack is potentially even worse by comparison. Some 17 hours after its first report at this time of writing, AFP is still running with this headline:
So, for AFP, it’s still all about the shooting of a driver rather than the actions of a terrorist. While AP also made a similar error, it was, at least, corrected. AFP’s inaction is indicative of a media outlet that seemingly has no problem with its anti-Israel bias. Indeed, AFP has previous form. Compare the above with this headline from a July 2008 terror attack when a Palestinian bulldozer driver rammed an Israeli bus in Jerusalem:
Another repeat offender is the BBC. In typical fashion, the BBC cannot bring itself to attribute a Palestinian with responsibility for a terror attack:
Even as it became perfectly clear that this incident was not a simple road traffic accident, the BBC continued to place the emphasis on the vehicle rather than the driver, even questioning whether this was a deliberate act with the use of quotation marks around the word “attack”:
A look at the BBC’s prior coverage of bulldozer terror attacks, like in the case of AFP, reveals a consistent trend. Check out the evolution of these BBC headlines from a bulldozer attack in March 2009:
And the same thing only weeks before that.
In every case, including the latest, the BBC headlines question whether it was a terror attack and place the emphasis for responsibility on a vehicle rather than a Palestinian behind the wheel.
All of the above demonstrate a responsive framing of an incident. In the case of Wednesday’s terror attack, that the AFP and BBC were unable or unwilling to move beyond their initial mindsets as the information became clearer yet again exposes these news organizations’ deep anti-Israel pathology.
UPDATE
What about The Independent’s priorities? The Jerusalem terror attack warrants a couple of sentences included seven paragraphs into a story with this headline:
The Independent acknowledges that the Palestinian boy, who has learning difficulties, was held for 15 minutes before being turned over to his father.
It’s a sad indictment on The Independent’s lack of a moral compass that the newspaper views the 15 minute detention of a Palestinian boy as more important or newsworthy than the murder of a three-month old Jewish baby in a Palestinian terror attack.
[sc:bottomsignup ]
73 Comments
I was reading the headlines today from the New York times online site and there was not one mention of the killing of the baby in Jerusalem. Such terrible bias in the news today.
Why are there any BBC, AP and AFP reporters in the Land of Israel at all? There is no excuse for the government tolerating these latter-day Nazis. Expel them all.
its NOT a fail, its deliberate, and PLEASE YOU JEWS, KEEP BUYING THE TIMES and supporting your killers and keep voting for the D’s, you have no one to blame but YOURSELVES
BBC BETTER WORRY ABOUT ITS MUSLIM POPULATION………THEY ALWAYS FIND A WAY TO DOWNPLAY INJURIES AND MURDER OD JEWISH PEOPLE CHARL
Why doesn’t Honest Reporting get real?
These papers hate Jews and by proxy their Jewish state. How long can you continue to feign surprise at these type of headlines and story-twists?
What happened in Jerusalem is likely part and parcel of the attacks that just took place in Canada. To deny that Islamism is not one global movement is to suffer the consequences forever.
How sad that WE THE PEOPLE CAN’T GET THE REAL STORY, FROM OUR MEDIA. This is the reason I look to the ISRAEL NEWS; BECAUSE WHAT IS HAPPENING IN ISRAEL WILL HAPPEN TO AMERICA.
nytimes.com website did not even report this yesterday..
We are next-in the US. Will make 9-11 look like a mere preview…Congress and the Prez better have really (really) good security. (As should we all) This is a DESPICABLE act-pure terrorism. It was MURDER — of a three-month-old baby, for Pete’s sake! The media is utterly useless reporting terrorism.
SUE THEM ALL FOR LIBEL AND INCITEMENT OF GENOCIDE AGAINST THE JEWISH PEOPLE OR SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STOP WHINING ABOUT THEIR ACTIONS. THE WORLD HATES JEWS AND THE ONLY WAY TO GET EVEN IS IN COURT OF LAW.
I don’t the a court of law is quite immediate or effective enough to get through to the NY Times. Sometimes you need a 2X4 to the head to get to a donkey’s attention.
When our president ran for office 6 years ago is when I realized how crooked and untruth full the press could be and was. They picked a side (obama) and stuck with him and to this day with all his lying and cover ups they still support him, outside of Fox news I don’t trust or watch any other news station. The same goes for the press when they cover Israel, slanted writing in support of the pal opps I meant hams same thing. hamas hiding behind women and children, hiding in schools, hospitals, mosques and the press report how Israel just bombed a school. We really have enough nincompoops in our present administration. Under our present leadership our country is spiraling out of control , remember this president has spent more money in his 6 years then all the presidents combined, from Washington to George Bush. That’s 43. In closing I am still one proud American I thank all the Military for their service and hope Fox news stays the course, Bob Figuero
Those who attack Jews are IRRATIONAL! By the same token, they are incapable of realizing their irrationality. The VA Adm. couldn’t deal with the number of patients, this is the same with the West inability of dealing with their mass of irrational people.
The NY Times (I never buy it…I always read it for free in the local library or a coffee shop I go to) did run a brief story about this tragedy, on an inner page. But the anti-semitic rag managed to slant the murder of 3-month-old Chaya Braun so much that its “report” was actually another one of its almost daily Israel-bashing articles. The New York Post had no article at all, surprising because that newspaper is usually fair to Israel. The New York Daily News did have an article on this terrible tragedy. I saw no mention of the murder of Chaya Braun on any television news broadcasts, but I was unable to watch all the NYC channels.
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(1 Tim 4:1-3 NKJV) “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, {2} speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, {3} forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” http://icons.iconarchive.com/icons/greg-barnes/vampire-hunter/128/Bible-icon.png
IL democratic principles are abused by the West to destroy Israel. That is what NYT, Guardian, LAT, Huff, BBC, Le Monde and many other are about. They behave like the USSR of the 30ties, 40ties, 50ties, 60ties, 70ties when the goal was to undermine western democracies from inside until the WALL collapsed.
The antisemitic Mass media vested in a campaign of systematic anti-Israel propaganda which includes keeping under silence extensive Israel pro-Humanity accomplishments. Orientalists have infected the US, GB and Fr with a Ebola-type of virus.
This is clear-headed analysis of media bias rather than the normal emotional hand-wringing which does little good. Thank you
Christians need to begin rising up in journalism schools and shifting the philosophies of newspapers, or starting new new papers that operate on GODLY PRINCIPLES . Networks like CNN, and FOX can either be spiritualy influenced or replaced by new alternatives that GOD will RAISE UP . HE will release many creative ideas for the internet, broadcoast and print media to those who are willing to indentify media as their mountain and actually go for the top . And by the way ,there is no simple strategy for taking this mountain. One just needs to know that he or she is called to this mountain, and GOD will begin to give wisdom and further strategy . Some will have grace to do one thing and others the grace to do something else. We need a multi-pronged attack. And there is a difference between seeing yourself as a journalist who happens to be a christian ,and son or daughter of the KING ON A SPECIFIC MISSION> ISAIAH 2,2, nations will exitedly run to these new manifestations of heaven on earth. So pray for it , the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but MIGHTY IN GOD, for PULLING DOWN Strongholds ,see 2 cor 10,4 and look to Honest reporting ,they do a well good job to take this mountain back !
It’s really sickening in seeing major media bias! The common question is; Why and who’s in charge of allowing so brutal cold war propaganda? Why there’s, at least, no malpractice insurance where policy shall prohibit those Skunks from doing not what they want but what common sense required? Isn’t when those suckers will lose money they would think twice what and how to write? Why governmental institution don’t provide business license, with rules and regulations, which prohibit same? Why doctors, contractors and other industries regulated but media don’t…? Isn’t it scary, and it’s not in Russia but in the West…
I have just read Reuters guidelines and the article that quotes members of the family who’s son murdered an Israeli infant. There is an aura of denial and we experience it here in the USA. The denial is inherent in the notion that terrorist acts should not be connected to Islam. In the USa, Fort hood, the Boston Bombing and most recently the Islamic State inspired murder in Oklahoma, which the Muslim Johnson and President Obama have declared work place violence. With that simple enfilade of fact that these terrorist acts were committed by Muslims inspired by religious belief based on their faith in Islam and their membership in the Ummah which they define as a global entity, do not expect that Reuters which clearly eliminates the notion of connecting terrorism with Islam, they have a defining guideline that leads reporters away from that fact when applicable.
The family of the car terrorist that murdered the infant claims their son was not guided by any nationalist fervor he simply lost control of his vehicle. yet he had a long record of attacking Israelis and the Israeli police. Maybe his family is right he wasn;t guided by nationalist principles or a cause, maybe it was Islamic radicalism that guided him. But can we even consider that on the front page of the AP, Reuters, or the rest? Once a denial is vetted it will spiral out of control until any explanation can seem to be made make sense.
No matter what a persons stance is on the conflict in Gaza and concerning Israel and the Palestinians , it is appalling for a journalist to make gains and headlines on such a terrible tragedy. It should be about a baby who died when the Subway was attacked and not ” Jerusalem Driver Shot After, Ramming Pedestrians :Police .