Here’s an iron dumb photo caption in the Times of London (paywall) beyond belief:
Wrong. The Iron Dome intercepts Palestinian rockets approaching Israeli population centers like Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva, etc.
Moreover, the Times can’t blame this on the European Press Agency’s original caption. The EPA got it right.
Where’s the quality control?
105 Comments
The Dutch caption is actually correct: “An Israeli Iron Dome rocket is fired to intercept an incoming rocket from the Gaza strip.”
I can report exactly the same from Switzerland:
Newsnet, the biggest news network in Switzerland, which feeds the online platforms of
the Swiss German newspapers Tages-Anzeiger, Basler Zeitung, Der Bund and Berner
Zeitung (the newspapers of the biggest cities in Switzerland Zurich, Bern and
Basel) wrote in the caption of a picture of Iron Dome: Neue Gewalteskalation:
Raketenabschuss in Ashdod. New escalation of violence: Firing rockets in
Ashdod.
This suggests, that Israel is firing rockets to kill palestines. Instead of writing
that Iron Dome protects Israel from murderous Rockets coming from Gaza to kill
Israelis.
And even though several people including myself wrote to the newspaper that they are
lying, they didn’t correct the caption.
By the way: The also call dead terrorist «victims» and «at the beginning of the new
escalation of violence stands» – of course – «Israel».
http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/ausland/naher-osten-und-afrika/Raketenangriffe-in-Nahost/story/30143410
I have to agree with Kate. She correctly translated the Dutch caption!!! The newspaper is called De Volkskrant.”
What often happens are printing captions like “Israël fires Iron Dome rockets into Gaza” leaving out the “to intercept incoming rockter being fired from Gaza.” Hatefull and dumb people only read such a caption and it infuriates them. Never reading the actual truth.
Hermen van Loon, The Hague, The Netherlands.
The dutch picture is ready the corrected version
The caption on the Volkskrant was only changed late Sunday night after several readers (including myself) contacted the internet reporting team of the newspaper and complained. The original caption was most definitely about Issrael shooting rockets into Gaza.
BTW mr. Hermen van Loon, Iron-dome rockets intercept incoming fire over Israeli territory and within its boundaries, never even getting close to Gaza to begin with so even the phrase “Israël fires Iron Dome rockets into Gaza” would already be terribly misinformed and uneducated .
Here you can find the uncorrected version:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/03/dutch-newspaper-captions-iron-dome-as.html
What I am interested in is how is such a mistake possible? Do newspapers in Holland only hire people who know nothing about the world? It is difficult to be so ignorant as not to know what the Iron Dome is for. I am impressed at the levels of ignorance the Volkskrant has been able to achieve.
Of course I do not know if Dutch newspapers select their personal based on a complete and utter lack of knowledge. It could also be that they have either Islamic or traditional Dutch antisemites on their staff who willingly twist the truth in order to influence the public. That could also be the case, but I prefer the stupidity defense.
Exchange the Gaza Arabs with the Christians Copts in Egypt.
A news agency in Israel was criticized because it was claimed they did not have enough Israeli’s on the desk and the policy was to have one “Arab” and one Israeli on each story. It turned out the company (MSNBC?) had more Israeli’s than Arabs. what was never discussed in the article was who determined which journalists stories were selected for publication? And what sort of fact checks are imposed to not simply be fair but professional. It is obvious we are getting Islamic imperial jingoist journalism from main stream media sources, and with “Higher Education” centers like Harvard enabling anti Israel hatefests for Palestinian one state advocates where is crediblity going to come from? Certainly not the academic apostles of Chomsky who are so one-dimensional education rarely rises above the level of indoctrination and propaganda. The result? Occupiers instead of scholars.
Ironic that Israel’s attempt to stop Palestinian attempts to target civilians is misinterpreted as Israeli attempts to target Palestinian civilians. Isn’t this the microcosm of the entire Israel-Palestinian worldview?
All things considered and with Palestinians firing 140 rockets into Israel, Israel needs to give them a little bit of there own medicine and start ground firing rockets into Gaza. Just maybe that is what would get them to stop.
Thanks for pointing out the mistranslation of the de Volksrant caption. We removed references to the Dutch paper and the original AFP caption from this post.
Pesach Benson
HonestReporting
Why remove? The original Volkskrant caption definitely WAS outrageously wrong and only got corrected after some readers phoned an emailed the newspaper! The Image and caption you showed here were after the edit. The wrong text was visible until 21:00 yesterdayevening.
‘Botch’ is very definitely the wrong word. It’s deliberately construing an accusation against Israel. These days everything has to be said correctly the first time and using the very best adjective to portray the matter accurately. One must really think before speaking or putting things on paper!
The Times caption reads:
Israeli troops launch a barrage of missiles against incoming grads. Not as you say.
The article following is a fair reporting of what’s been happening in the last few days on the ground.
You’re not being fair to the TIMES
You are all certified crazy and I am not going to react to this stupid stuff anymore. Both Volkskrant and Times initially had the 180 degrees wrong caption and corrected only after readers complaints.
Stating that the captions are now correct or that the initial report is unfair, wrong etc. etc. is truly ridiculous as well as ignorant and it shows nobody is actually READING what it says here.
Maybe MB is the only sane one. I live quite close to the battle ground and for all I know, perhaps he does too. I read the the Jerusalem Post daily as well as the Times so I do keep up to date. To slam the Guardian or the Independent for its stance is fair game as they are both violently anti-Israel. But the “Times”?
London’s Time please read this:
1) “What is the Iron Dome?”
on Israel Hayom site:
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=3468
2) review of the Israel’s Iron Dome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASMRWrHRdLo&feature=player_embedded