Israel bombed a Palestinian militant camp in Lebanon near Beirut yesterday. Big news, right? What? You didn't hear about it?
That's because the American media either buried or ignored the story altogether. If you were watching the US version of CNN, it wasn't there. It wasn't even on cnn.com. But it was the top story on CNN International. Don't you think a foreign attack by one nation on another would merit at least a small world news headline in the US? The headline is gone one day later on foxnews.com, only a search of "Israel Lebanon" picks up the story. The New York Times featured it...as the second to last article in today's paper, found online under International News>>More International News, because, as we all know, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs scrounging for good press is much more important. Try finding the headline on www.thewashingtonpost.com in International News>>Middle East; I couldn't. The only way I found it was in a search, again, for "Israel Lebanon," but let us remember that I had to have previous knowledge of the article to find it.
Now, let's take a world tour, shall we? BBC still has the article, a full day later, on its Middle East News section, not hidden. The International Herald Tribune (edited in Paris) still carries it in its Middle East Section. Of course the Lebanese Daily Star has it on the front page, but Canada?
I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but this one was a little suspicious. People laugh at Chomsky when he makes reference to some massive American media conspiracy in favor of Israel. I'm not saying he's right, of course, just presenting the facts. Can we trust our news services? Sure, you can easily say use BBC or other international news services, but the majority of the country does not. So what's a country to do?
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Comments
December 29, 2005 by Stephen Wertheim,
I'm glad Omar has pointed out the attack, which indeed I had not noticed in media coverage. I wonder, however, how big a story this really is--and whether US media outlets gave it the prominence it deserved.
Israeli attacks like these are not uncommon. In November 2005, for example, Israel bombed southern Lebanon , targeting Hezbollah, which Israel accused of attacking Israelis the day before. Likewise, this latest Israeli attack is said to respond to the previous day's Lebanon-based rocketing of a northern Israeli town. Only two guerillas were "lightly wounded." To me the incident seems neither unusual in character, remarkable in scope nor clear-cut in aggressor.
That said, the Israeli attack is more newsworthy than the New York Times's preference, US General Peter Pace's short-of-shocking "Thanks to the Troops." And it's particularly interesting that the same organization, CNN, featured the attacks prominently on its international edition while not at all on its US edition.
January 4, 2006 by Mohindra Rupram,
I would also like to point out that the more important story right now, arguably, is the clash between the various wings of Fatach, rather than Israeli incursions. A top story on NYTIMES and BBC World today is the blocking of the Rafah crossing by anti-Abbas factions. I would be interested to hear Chomsky's input here, considering the now delayed Palestinian elections.