I think the media leads the way

Submitted by Anon. (Israel), Oct 6, 2014 at 09:50

Where the media leads, governments follow. There's a formula news stations use exclusively for Israel, magnifying and focusing on casualties. The reports are saturated with blood, pictures of mangled bodies, of ruins, cameras on standby at the entrance to hospitals, footage of people shaking their fists or crying, statements by locals or local leadership condemning Israel and more, ad nauseam.

None of these seem to apply to conflicts in which the West is involved.

The current war in Syria/Iraq doesn't lead to dramatic intonations of "there are reports that at least five people have been killed in an American attack" of the sort we heard every day coming out of Gaza.

Note that saying "five people" suggests the casualties are civilian even when they aren't.

Those who die in British, French or American attacks, civilian or otherwise, die very silently, invisibly. We haven't seen footage of people brought into hospital on stretchers, even though I'm sure the Islamic State would happily make such footage available.

If the Western media would use the same formula in reporting on the casualties it causes that it uses for Israel, their various accusations of Israel would be such a display of open hypocrisy that almost everyone would recoil from them. The hypocritical attacks on Israel are only possible so long as the media is allowed to get away with its double standards.

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