There may be many legitimate reasons to criticize the Israeli Cabinet decisions. But there are also legitimate reasons to support those decisions – reasons media outlets like CNN and the New York Times omitted. Media consumers deserve the facts and the context, not journalists deciding for them what to think.
CNN’s coverage of the disputed West Bank territory, also known as Judea and Samaria, is demonstrably biased against Israelis. One need only contrast how the network covered two recent attacks carried out there – one perpetrated by Israelis and the other by Palestinians.
A CNN feature on an alleged “famine” in Gaza offers a case study in what happens when journalists let their storylines lead the facts instead of the other way around. The article’s central premise—that famine has taken hold in Gaza and that Israel is solely to blame—collapses upon examination of CNN’s own reporting.
CNN clearly understands that bad journalism not only does a disservice to its audience, but it also puts innocent civilians in danger. So, what are we to make of the fact that these reporters are knowingly repeating the same mistakes?
CNN’s coverage portrays three separate standards in the law of armed conflict: a unique, higher standard applied to the Jewish state; the standard applied to the rest of the world; and no standard to Palestinian terrorists who seek to wipe the Jewish state from the face of the earth.
CNN’s obsessive and slanted reporting continues to leave its audience without important information necessary to understand events. Notably, the omissions all work to downplay and omit the terrorism and violence being waged against Israel, instead highlighting only the decontextualized responses of the Israeli Defense Forces.
