How "News" of Israel-Palestinian Coverage is Really Created

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
18 January '11

How incredibly bad is media coverage of Israel-Palestinian issues and of the Middle East in general? Here’s an example.

CNN has just run a report on how wonderfully moderate the Palestinian Authority (PA) is. They are firing imams of West Bank mosques who are spewing out incitement against Israel!

Well, first of all this claim began five months ago, when the PA started peddling it, and I wrote about it almost three months ago, after liberal American Jews began citing it as another demonstration of the PA's moderation. It is not a new story at all.

Second, unlike what news reports are supposed to do, this doesn’t name actual imams who have been fired, numbers, or places where these people have been kicked out. Thus, it is impossible to tell whether a single imam has been ousted.

Third, we constantly hear West Bank sermons and they are by no means becoming more moderate. The same goes, of course, with the West Bank newspapers, leaders' speeches, and television. (See examples at the end of this article).

In fact, though, it is quite possible that imams have been fired, but not for being inciteful but for being Hamas supporters, or at least not sufficiently loyal to the PA.

And if the CNN reporter cannot cite examples, how does he know this happened? I’d bet you large amounts of Euros against small quantities of high-quality, low-fat yogurt (chocolate, thank you) that it is because (ta-da!) PA officials told him that this was so. It might have gone through an additional stage, with the PA official passing it on to a Palestinian pro-Fatah stringer, and then to the reporter.

(Read full "How "News" of Israel-Palestinian Coverage is Really Created")

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.