A post I wrote the other day got picked up and went around the block a few times, surprising me no end. It was reprinted in a discussion group and someone had this response:
Well, dear, the reason for that is very simple. You see, the Israeli perspective has been quite adequately covered by other people, for example the people at ABC, CBS and NBC news.
Do you watch people get drunk and let them drive off in a car? Do you give drug addicts access to drugs? Do you give into a child throwing a temper tantrum? No. That's called enabling, and it's a sign of weakness. When we love people, people in general, people as human beings no matter what their religion, nationality or race, we actually hold them to some standards of human decency. But you have to consider yourself part of the human family first. I think this is where some people get tripped up, thinking themselves superior to the rest of us.
I hold the Israelis to the same expectations as everyone else, and they are failing my expectations of human decency, so I'm calling them out on it. If I didn't care, I wouldn't say anything, and that would be much, much easier for me. Furthermore, if our national and international corporate media discourse had a shred of integrity, it wouldn't be necessary for people like me to point out these atrocities because they would not have taken place! A great many people had to do a great deal of enabling for a very long time to bring us to this moment.
So, anyone truly concerned about starting a 'meaningful dialogue' that discusses 'both sides' should direct his or her outrage to the corporate media shills who have enabled Israel to become what she has become. You're barking up the wrong tree, mister.
why don't you discuss the suicide bombings done by the Palestinians againstWhy don't I make this 'gentleman's' arguments?
the Israelis?why don't you condemn the practice of some Palestinian mothers who
knowlingly allow their underage children both male and female to become
suicide bombers and then venerate their memories?why don't you discuss such suicide bombers and what the Koran says about
when you begin to discuss both sides, then maybe a meaningful dialogue could
killing innocent women and children?
begin!
Well, dear, the reason for that is very simple. You see, the Israeli perspective has been quite adequately covered by other people, for example the people at ABC, CBS and NBC news.
This study consists of a statistical examination of ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News coverage of the first year of the current Palestinian uprising, and of their coverage of that uprising in 2004. The categories examined are coverage of conflict deaths and, as a subcategory, children’s deaths. Our findings indicate significantly distorted coverage by all of these network news shows. In the first study period ABC, CBS, and NBC reported Israeli deaths at rates 3.1, 3.8, and 4.0 times higher than Palestinian deaths, respectively. In 2004 these rates increased or stayed constant, to 4.0, 3.8, and 4.4, widening still further, in the case of ABC and NBC, the disparity in coverage. An additional sub-study of deaths reported in introductions revealed a similar but even larger disparity. The networks’ coverage of children’s deaths was even more skewed. In the first year of the current uprising, ABC, CBS, and NBC reported Israeli children’s deaths at 13.8, 6.4, and 12.4 times the rate of Palestinian children’s deaths. In 2004 these large differentials were also present, although they decreased in two cases, with deaths of Israeli children covered at rates 9.0, 12.8, and 9.9 times greater than the deaths of Palestinian children by ABC, CBS, and NBC, respectively. Given that in 2004 22 times more Palestinian children were killed than Israeli children, this category holds particular importance. We could find no basis on which to justify this inequality in coverage.Due to the Conspiracy FACT that our corporate media outlets do not provide honest coverage of the situation in Israel, other people have taken it upon themselves to round out the picture. Many of us are private citizens, and to be perfectly frank, I'm nobody's monkey. This is still a free country, and I will speak the truth no matter how upsetting some people find it.
Do you watch people get drunk and let them drive off in a car? Do you give drug addicts access to drugs? Do you give into a child throwing a temper tantrum? No. That's called enabling, and it's a sign of weakness. When we love people, people in general, people as human beings no matter what their religion, nationality or race, we actually hold them to some standards of human decency. But you have to consider yourself part of the human family first. I think this is where some people get tripped up, thinking themselves superior to the rest of us.
I hold the Israelis to the same expectations as everyone else, and they are failing my expectations of human decency, so I'm calling them out on it. If I didn't care, I wouldn't say anything, and that would be much, much easier for me. Furthermore, if our national and international corporate media discourse had a shred of integrity, it wouldn't be necessary for people like me to point out these atrocities because they would not have taken place! A great many people had to do a great deal of enabling for a very long time to bring us to this moment.
So, anyone truly concerned about starting a 'meaningful dialogue' that discusses 'both sides' should direct his or her outrage to the corporate media shills who have enabled Israel to become what she has become. You're barking up the wrong tree, mister.
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