Harriet Sherwood’s biased reporting on the terrorist attack in Itamar (By the numbers)

Adam Levick
CiF Watch
13 March '11

http://cifwatch.com/2011/03/13/harriet-sherwoods-biased-reporting-on-the-terrorist-attack-in-itamar-by-the-numbers/

Harriet Sherwood has written three articles relating to the brutal terrorist attack in the Israeli town of Itamar, two for the Guardian (here and here) and another in the Observer.

Medusa commented on the first entry, noting Sherwood’s flagrant use of highly biased language – failing to characterize the assailants as “terrorists” and using the pejorative (“hard-line settlers”) when describing the community where the horrendous crime took place.

Here’s a quick tally of the rhetoric Sherwood employed in the 2064 words she’s posted so far about the attacks in Itamar.

- Number of times Sherwood used the word “terrorism” or “terrorist”: 0 (*The word was used once, but only when directly quoting an Israeli official)

- Number of times Sherwood used the word “settler(s)” or “settlements”: 29

- Number of times Sherwood referred to “settlers” in the pejorative, or were vilified in some manner: 2

“But there has been continued tension between Palestinian villagers and hardline settlers, with regular skirmishes over the destruction of olive trees.”


“Itamar, home to around 100 families, is an intensely nationalist-religious isolated settlement deep inside the West Bank. Nationalist-religious Jews believe they have a divine right to the land irrespective of legal ownership.”

- Number of references to widely reported scenes in Rafah, of Gaza residents celebrating the murder of five Israelis by handing out candy: 0


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