Updated: Headline Shows NY Times Predilection for Downplaying Palestinian Violence
The opening paragraph of today’s New York Times story about recent violence in the Middle East explains,
A Palestinian man was killed in an Israeli missile strike in Gaza on Tuesday hours after an Israeli civilian was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in the West Bank. The two attacks, coming against a backdrop of growing tensions, were the first such killings in months and raised the specter of further confrontation.
Imagine you are an experienced and impartial headline writer at one of the most prominent newspapers in the world. What’s your headline?
Surely something more impartial than the one the Times is currently going with: “Israeli Airstrike Kills Palestinian in Gaza.”
In our monograph about New York Times bias in coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we point out that, during a 6-month study period, “the newspaper’s coverage of violence was marked by a double standard that highlighted Israeli attacks and de-emphasized Palestinian ones.” Today’s choice of headline language is case in point.
Update: The Times has updated its online headline so that it fairly reflects the content of the story. It now reads, “Gazan Killed After Israeli Is Stabbed to Death in the West Bank.”
More from SNAPSHOTS
Revealed: Palestinian ‘Journalist’ Killed at Gaza Border was a Terrorist
May 1, 2018
PFLP operatives A Palestinian journalist who died from wounds received during the Hamas-led “Great Return March” has been identified as a terrorist. Ahmed Abu Hussein, a journalist who worked with Bisann News and Voice of [...]
Poll: Majority of Palestinians Fear Their Own Government
April 23, 2018
PA President Mahmoud Abbas and European Union Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini A majority of Palestinians living in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) fear the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to a poll by the Palestinian [...]
LA Times Replaces Solid AP Headline With Biased Headline
April 23, 2018
"Hamas vows revenge for key member killed in Malaysia," was the perfectly accurate and straightforward Associated Press headline (reproduced here in The Washington Post) about the killing Saturday of key Hamas member Fadi Batsh in [...]
Iran Has Sleeper Cells in the U.S.—And the Media is Fast Asleep
April 20, 2018
Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah The Islamic Republic of Iran has proxies serving as “sleeper cells” in the U.S., according to sworn congressional testimony. Yet, U.S. news outlets have largely neglected the story. Several “intelligence officials [...]
Where’s the Coverage? Iranian Drone Shot Down by Israel Was Armed
April 19, 2018
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei Israeli officials have recently disclosed that an Iranian drone shot down by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) on Feb. 10, 2018 was armed. However, many major U.S. news outlets have [...]