More Palestinian Stabbings, Another NYT Headline Whitewash
Last November, when two Palestinians killed two Israelis in stabbing attacks, The New York Times took a clear, precise headline about the Palestinian violence (“Palestinian Stabs Israeli Soldier at Tel Aviv Train Station”) and carefully edited it so as to blur Palestinian culpability (“Palestinians are suspected as 2 Israelis Die in Knife Attacks”).
This weekend, two more Palestinians attacked Israeli police with knives, and once again The Times opts for a headline which whitewashes Palestinian responsibility for violence. The Times headline is “Israeli Officers Kill 2 Palestinian Men.”
Similarly, the skewed headline in today’s print edition is “Palestinian teenager killed by Israeli police.”
But, as the accompanying article by Diaa Hadid itself makes clear in the first paragraph:
Two Palestinian men were fatally shot by the Israeli police after attacking officers with knives, one at a contested shrine in the West Bank and the other at a checkpoint near East Jerusalem, a police spokeswoman said Saturday.
Why report the effect without the cause? Why continue to depict Palestinians as “just victims,” something that the paper’s own public editor has cautioned against? What has The Times accomplished in the paper’s supposed efforts to enhance its coverage if it has hired a new reporter, a native Arabic speaker (Diaa Hadid) “who can penetrate Palestinian society with understanding and solid news judgment,” as public editor Margaret Sullivan put it, when the headline accompanying that reporter’s article is so helplessly biased?
CAMERA has contacted Times’ editors, urging them to provide a more informative, complete headline such as “Palestinians stab Israeli police, shot dead.” What is so hard about that straightforward headline accurately depicting the nature and chronology of events?
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