Pie in the Sky News
The Jerusalem Post‘s David Horovitz details the falsehoods broadcast by Al Scardino of Sky News, and expounds on the dangers in general of superficial reporting:
Al Scardino firmly and confidently informed viewers that the Israeli targets coming under rocket attack were situated beyond Israel’s sovereign borders. These were areas that the international community did not consider part of Israel, he said, but that Israel claimed nonetheless. In so staggeringly misdescribing the rocketed areas, he essentially denied Israel part of its legitimacy in hitting back against the attacks. For while he did not dispute that Israeli citizens were being targeted, he depicted them as being located in, at best, contested territory.
Al Scardino also confidently asserted that at least 100 Palestinians civilians had been killed in the Israeli fire, and did not give figures for how many, if any, Palestinian gunmen and rocket-firing crew members had been killed. In so doing, he denied Israel still more legitimacy for its response to the rocket attacks, since he created the misconception among his viewers that the primary victims of Israel’s response, indeed quite possibly the only victims, were civilians. . .
. . . . this grievous miscomprehension persists precisely when thorough understanding is so vital a precondition for grappling effectively with the bloody reality, distinguishing victimizers from victims, and enabling world opinion-leaders to formulate and support policies that thwart those victimizers and protect those victims.
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