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bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
How The US Mainstream Media Propaganda Fabricated News : Zionist vs Palestine
Off the Charts :
Accuracy in Reporting of Israel/Palestine -
ABC World News Tonight - CBS Evening News - NBC Nightly News
Study Periods:
September 29, 2000 - September 28, 2001
January 1, 2004 - December 31, 2004
<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/net-report.html#rt>
Figure 16
In 2004, ABC, CBS, and NBC news reporting on
Palestinian childrens deaths followed virtually
the same line as Israeli childrens deaths, in
stark contradiction to the reality, in which
Palestinian children were being killed at a rate
22 times greater than Israeli children.
<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/download/networks.pdf>Download Report
<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/net-pr.html>Press Release
Abstract
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, childrens 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 childrens
deaths was even more skewed. In the first year of
the current uprising, ABC, CBS, and NBC reported
Israeli childrens deaths at 13.8, 6.4, and 12.4
times the rate of Palestinian childrens 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.
Introduction
Beginning in 2003, If Americans
Knew<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/net-report.html#end>1
began issuing report cards to media across the
country on their coverage of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This study of ABC
World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC
Nightly News (we will call them, collectively,
the networks) covers the first year of the
current uprising (September 29, 2000 through
September 28, 2001). This period was selected for
study because it set the context within which all
subsequent reporting on the conflict is viewed.
We also studied these networks coverage for 2004
to discover whether the patterns we found for the
first year had continued, diminished, or increased.
Given that the media have a desire and a
responsibility to cover this topic accurately, we
provide these reports in the hope that our
analyses can assist them in achieving this goal.
In addition, we are making these reports public,
as a way to help viewers evaluate for themselves
the reliability of their sources of information on this issue.
The goal of this report is to
* Establish clear standards for assessing accuracy in reporting.
* Provide, in a consistent format, an
assessment of the medias accuracy in reporting
on the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Findings:I. Coverage of All Deaths: First Year of the Uprising
During the first year of the current uprising,
165 Israelis were killed by Palestinians and at
least 549 Palestinians were killed by
Israelis.<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/net-report.html#end>3
The majority of those killed among both populations were civilians.
165 Israelis and 549 Palestinians were killed during the first
Examining this first year of news coverage, we
found a significant disparity in the likelihood
of a death being reported based on the ethnicity of the person killed.
This disparity was compounded by the fact that
while the networks periodically reported on
deaths more than once, through follow-up stories
and mentions in later news reports, such
repetitions were found to be more frequent in
reporting on Israeli deaths than in reporting on
Palestinian deaths. In fact, such repetitions
caused the networks in some cases to report on
Israeli deaths in greater rates than they had
actually occurred. Palestinian deaths, on the
other hand, were significantly under-reported by all three networks.
In its first year of coverage, we found that ABC
reported on 305 Israeli deaths and 327
Palestinian deaths 185% of Israeli deaths and 60% of Palestinian deaths.
CBS reported on 334 Israeli deaths and 296
Palestinian deaths 202% of Israeli deaths and 54% of Palestinian deaths.
NBC reported on 227 Israeli deaths and 190
Palestinian deaths 138% of Israeli deaths and 35% of Palestinian deaths.
Figure 2
In other words, ABC reported Israeli deaths at a
rate 3.1 times greater than Palestinian deaths,
CBS reported Israeli deaths at a rate 3.8 times
greater than Palestinian deaths, and NBC reported
Israeli deaths at a rate 4.0 times greater than Palestinian deaths.
On average, the networks reported Israeli deaths
at a rate 3.5 times greater than Palestinian
deaths (175% of Israeli deaths and 49% of Palestinian deaths).
II. Coverage of Childrens Deaths: First Year of the Uprising
In the first year of the current uprising, 28
Israeli children and at least 131 Palestinian
children were
killed.<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/net-report.html#end>4
(Children are defined by international law as those who are 17 and younger.)
Thus, Palestinian children were killed at a rate
4.7 times greater than Israeli children.
82<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/net-report.html#end>5
of these Palestinian children were killed in the
first three-and-a-half months of the conflict,
before any Israeli children had been killed.
Figure 3
During the conflict Palestinian children have
consistently made up a disproportionately large
number of Palestinian deaths. In this first year
childrens deaths accounted for 24% of the
Palestinians killed, while childrens deaths
accounted for 17% of Israelis killed.
During this time, ABC reported on 56 Israeli
childrens deaths (including repetitions in later
newscasts) and 19 Palestinian childrens deaths
200% of Israeli children and 15% of Palestinian children, a ratio of 13.8 to 1.
CBS reported on 37 Israeli childrens deaths
(including repetitions) and 27 Palestinian
childrens deaths 132% of Israeli childrens
deaths and 21% of Palestinian childrens deaths, a ratio of 6.4 to 1.
NBC reported on 45 Israeli childrens deaths
(including repetitions) and 17 Palestinian
childrens deaths 161% of Israeli children and
13% of Palestinian childrens deaths, a ratio of 12.4 to 1.
Figure 4
Collectively, the networks reported on an average
of 46 Israeli childrens deaths 164% of the
Israeli children killed and 21 Palestinian
childrens deaths 16% of the Palestinian
children killed. In other words, the networks
reported on Israeli childrens deaths at a rate
10.2 times greater than Palestinian childrens deaths.
To understand the pattern of network news
coverage of childrens deaths, it is useful to
compare the number of deaths reported to the
actual number that took place. While repeated
coverage of Israeli childrens deaths creates an
impression of a higher number of Israeli victims
than there actually were, omissions of the
majority of Palestinian childrens deaths
considerably under-represents the number of Palestinian child victims.
Figure 5
Comparing the day-by-day reporting of childrens
deaths to the actual daily death toll reveals an
additional dimension of the distortion. In this
comparison, we discover that the reports on
Palestinian childrens deaths followed the curve
for Israeli childrens deaths, rather than the
much steeper curve of their actual death count.
This finding underscores the tendency by all
three networks to report a fictional situation in
which Israeli and Palestinian deaths occur at
more or less the same rate, and illustrates the
substantial gap between the reality of
Palestinian fatalities and the coverage of them.
It suggests that the desire to appear balanced
is too often prioritized above the need for accuracy.
Conclusions
It is sometimes said that the only
uncontroversial aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is that it is controversial. Indeed,
many news sources are simultaneously accused of
displaying diametrically opposed biases. If
Americans Knew has undertaken this study with the
aim of providing objective, verifiable analysis of coverage.
The Middle East is currently among the most
volatile regions in the world. The
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the
central issues of this region, and intimately
related to the escalating regional violence we
see today. American forces are presently deployed
in one country in the region, and it is uncertain
when they will be withdrawn. More US tax money
goes to Israel than to any other nation; and more
American money is sent to the Middle East than to
the rest of the world combined. For all these
reasons and more, it is essential that Americans
receive full and accurate news coverage on Israel/Palestine.
Unfortunately, our findings indicate that this is
not occurring. Our analysis reveals troubling
patterns of omission and disparities in emphasis
that, we feel, profoundly hamper the ability of
viewers to understand this conflict.
In the first year of the current uprising, when
there were four times more Palestinians being
killed than Israelis, two out of three networks
reported on more Israeli deaths than Palestinian
deaths. This gives the viewer an essentially
inverted view of the violence, which persists in
following years. Such distortion also creates a
chronological reversal, in which Israeli forces
are seen as retaliating, when in reality many
Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and
Gaza before any Jewish Israelis were killed inside Israel.
Reporting on childrens deaths was even more flawed.
In 2004, when 22 times more Palestinian children
were being killed than Israeli children, we found
that ABC, CBS, and NBC were reporting Israeli
childrens deaths at rates 9 to 12.8 times higher
than Palestinian childrens deaths. By omitting
the killings of a great number of Palestinian
children, ABC, CBS, and NBC were failing to
perform their function as new agencies the
reporting of the news. In the course of
completing this study we found that there was no
lack of newscasts on the subject during many
periods there were daily reports from the area
there was simply a pattern of omitting violence
against Palestinians while emphasizing violence against Israelis.
Finally, we found that the networks virtually
never reported the total number of deaths among
both populations in this conflict. This is a
bizarre and highly perplexing omission. Such
numbers are easily available and immensely
significant. At the same time, we found the
networks tendency in 2004 to report on the fact
that hundreds of Israelis have been killed
without at the same time mentioning the number of
Palestinians killed (several times greater)
inexplicable. Such reporting can only mislead. We
hope that by alerting the networks to this lapse, they will correct it.
We are deeply disturbed at the findings contained
in this report. We hope that ABC, CBS, and NBC
will be as concerned about these patterns as we
are, and will undertake whatever actions are
necessary to rectify the flaws in their coverage.
End Notes
* If Americans Knew is dedicated to providing
full and accurate information to the American
public on topics of importance that are
underreported or misreported in the American
media. Our primary area of focus at this time is
Israel/Palestine. For more information contact
202-543-2044, [EMAIL PROTECTED], PO Box
75845, Washington, DC 20013-5845.
* For more information about this
organization, visit their website at
<http://www.btselem.org/>www.btselem.org. Because
of conditions in the Palestinian Territories,
confirmation of deaths often lags behind their
occurrence. Thus, BTselems statistics for
Palestinian deaths tend to increase over time.
For this reason the numbers on Palestinian deaths
in this study slightly exceed the numbers noted in our previous studies.
* These numbers do not include Palestinians
civilians who died as a result of inability to
reach medical care due to Israeli road closures,
curfews, etc. The figure for Palestinian deaths
is extremely conservative, since it is difficult
for BTselem to report on deaths in the
Palestinian territories. Palestinian medical
organizations report a higher number for this
period. For example, the Palestine Red Crescent
Society
(<http://www.palestinercs.org/>www.palestinercs.org),
internationally respected for its statistical
rigor, reports that 693 Palestinians were killed during this time.
* For a number of reasons explained above,
the Palestinian figure is extremely conservative.
* In addition, two others died when Israeli
forces blocked access to medical care.
* For a number of reasons explained above,
the Palestinian figure is extremely conservative.
Palestinian medical organizations report a higher
number for this period. For example, the
Palestine Red Crescent Society
(<http://www.palestinercs.org/>www.palestinercs.org)
reports that 881 Palestinians were killed during this time.
* Percentages are only listed to the closest
whole number; ratios are calculated to one
decimal place. In this case, the percentage of
Palestinian childrens deaths covered is actually
closer to 10.23%. Percentages are listed to one
decimal place in the summary at the end of this report.
* Again, percentages are only listed to the
closest whole number; ratios are calculated to
one decimal place. In this case, the percentage
of Palestinian childrens deaths covered is
actually closer to 10.23%. Percentages are listed
to one decimal place in the summary at the end of this report.
* Remember These Children
(<http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/>www.rememberthesechildren.org)
* BTselem, Palestine Monitor
source:
<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/net-report.html>http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/net-report.html
===
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