News breaks fast. In the rush to be the first to cover a breaking news story, the media will put up headlines on their websites without taking the time to fact check and make sure that they have the story right. Even if the article underneath the headline has all the relevant information, a bungled headline skews an entire story.
Case in point:
Two Israelis were killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City. This fact should not be difficult to sum up in a headline when it is clear exactly who were the victims and who were the perpetrators.
However, one of the first headlines to appear was this one from the Associated Press:
Why were these Palestinians killed? Were they the ones stabbed? This headline does not tell readers the basic facts of the incident.
Many other news outlets like the New York Times and Time magazine ran the AP’s headline and spread the misinformation around the world:
CNN didn’t just leave the word “Palestinians” out of their headline. While the AP and others at least identified the attackers and victims in the article, CNN apparently decided that the identity of the terrorists was not important and ran the article without mentioning “Palestinians” once. The terrorists are just identified as “attackers.” While “terrorists” may well be “attackers,” that word does not give readers any additional information.
Following outrage at the misleading and biased headline, the AP amended it and the Times and others picked up the new headline:
But if they took the time to try and bring clarity to the headline, one could only wonder why an editor decided that Palestinians were “killed” while Israelis “die.” Weren’t the Israelis actually “killed?”
Of course, it could be worse. Here is the headline from Iran’s propaganda arm, Press TV:
Press TV cannot be regarded as a credible media outlet, but seeing the headlines that ran in the mainstream press, one has to wonder if attempts to confuse victims and their assailants in this conflict are having an impact.
Joe Hyams, CEO of HonestReporting commented “It can not be that the media are consistently, and disproportionately unlucky in getting it wrong on news reporting from Israel. The Israel Govt. Press Office under the aegis of the Prime Ministers Office deserve credit for recognizing media bias as a persistent strategic concern. In an age where headlines are often the only lines given heed by news consumers, editors and journalists alike must be held to higher standards of care, accuracy and integrity.”
Hyams said further: “The media have enormous potential to mislead and misinform their paying customers, who deserve credible and consistent reporting of breaking news events. The subject of those news events – in this case Israeli victims of terror – equally deserve the due care that the AP, CNN, NYT and others seem able to muster in covering terror attacks elsewhere at this time.”
You can make your voice heard. Contact CNN, or the New York Times, or your local media to demand more accurate coverage in reporting of Israel.
