The
Techniques of Bias
For the more than twenty years
of the current LA Times anti-Israel campaign, the
newspaper has used a wide variety of techniques to
slant the news against Israel. Here are just a few of
them:
1) Agenda Bias
The principal form of bias
is the editorial choice of subject matter which,
when viewed over time, reflects the agenda of the
editors. For sixteen years the
LA Times has controlled the agenda in favor of
the PLO. This bias is
achieved by:
(a) Focusing On
Issues That Aid The PLO/Arab Cause
The LA Times
focuses public attention on those issues that
aid the PLO cause, the key one being constant
criticism of the conduct of the IDF and
Israeli defensive measures in general. An
example of this was the allegations stemming
from the battle of Jenin. Public attention
was riveted on the conduct of Israeli
soldiers, and a torrent of criticism was
unleashed against Israel, while the more
obvious criminal actions of the PLO
terrorists, using civilians as human shields,
were ignored.
Recently public
attention has been obsessively focused on
Israel's construction of a Security Fence to
keep out suicide bombers. The ongoing
terrorist activities of the PLO, planning and
preparing more inhuman acts of violence, are
largely ignored.
Even in times
when the coverage of Israel has lessened
there has been a constant flow of articles
criticizing Israel's methods of self-defense
such as house demolitions, deportations,
curfews, even the killing of terrorists who
are armed combatants at war with Israel,
etc., and articles portraying the
Palestinians as the victims exaggerating
their suffering out of all proportions while
ignoring Israeli suffering. The subject of
so-called "Palestinian refugees"
living in Arab countries is another item on
the PLO agenda the LA Times likes to promote.
Agenda bias is
magnified by the constancy, and the often
saturation volume of coverage.
(b) Ignoring
Issues That Harm The PLO/Arab Cause
Ignoring i.e.
censoring and/or failing to undertake any
significant investigative reporting into
subjects which may cast a negative light on
the PLO such as the documentary proof of
their terror activities, the intimidation of
journalists, the personal involvement of
Arafat in terrorist activities, the misuse of
funds to buy weapons, the contrary statements
in Arabic which call for violence against
Israel, the concealment of the PLO plan to
destroy Israel, the desecration of Jewish and
Christian holy sites, the indoctrination of
Palestinian children with hatred of Israel,
the misuse of ambulances to aid terrorist
activities, the cooperation of Arab States in
terrorist activities and their financial
support of suicide bombers, the Lebanese
provocations, etc.
The effect of this biased
reporting is to increase the pressure on Israel
not to retaliate and to make concessions, while
little or no pressure is applied to Arafat and
the PLO to stop the terrorism and compromise
their demands.
2) Using Quotes as
Accusations
A reporter may choose any
quote that supports his or her political position
making this practice ripe for abuse - the PLO
propagandists of the LA Times use this method
extensively. By repeating the PLO's
unsubstantiated allegations over and over again,
the LA Times gives credence to them and is able
to say about Israel what it cannot state as fact.
This technique was used to its fullest regarding
the battle of Jenin, but is an ongoing and
pervasive form of abuse.
3) Blaming Israel
Consistently placing the
blame on Israel. For example, when Israel
retaliates against a terrorist act it is blamed
for dealing a blow to the "peace
process" or for overreacting or most
recently, for complicating America's potential
war with Iraq. This is contrary to the truth for
if the world would leave Israel alone to defeat
the terrorists there would be peace.
On the other hand, the PLO
is not held to blame. Their atrocities are
excused as the acts of "militants" or
"activists" belonging to other groups
even though the terror reaches right into
Arafat's own Fatah faction. The LA Times' failure
to hold Arafat and the PLO responsible, despite
extensive Israeli evidence of their being so,
works contrary to the interests of peace.
4) The Immoral Equation
Referring to a "cycle
of violence" or a "round of
violence" - a device to equate the PLO
terrorists who intentionally kill innocent
civilians with the Israelis who are forced to
battle armed terrorist combatants in self-defense
to prevent their horrendous acts of murder. The
comparison is morally wrong. Every civilized
country in the world recognizes the right to kill
in self-defense he or she who comes to kill you.
5) Biased Terminology
Use of biased terminology -
constant use of terms of Arab propaganda such as
"the occupation", "the occupied
territories", "assassination", and
terms carrying an opinion such as "ferocious
response", "hardliners", and
misnomers such as "militants",
"gunmen", and "activists" -
one gets the sense the LA Times justifies every
atrocity of the PLO because of "the
occupation".
The term
"occupation" as used by the Arabs is
short for "occupied Arab lands" and
anyone who uses it has already labeled themselves
a supporter of Arab claims and is therefore
biased. There is little recognition of, or
respect for, the Jewish claim to what is, our
3,700 year old heritage.
6) Biased Headlines
Slanted headlines - when
Israel retaliates it is "Israel kills"
or "Israel invades" or "Israel
defies" - when the PLO does something it is
"Bomb kills" or "Gunmen kill"
or "Israelis killed by bomb". The LA
Times cannot bring itself to blame the PLO
terrorists. This is a tacit form of justification
of PLO violence.
7) Biased Photographs
Suggestively anti-Israel
photographs - such as showing the Israelis as
persecutors or "invaders" or generally
as the guilty party.
8) Biased "Human"
Stories
Long, often multiple-paged
articles on the lives of suicide bombers -
stories and vignettes of their lives meant to
"humanize" them and explain their
actions, create sympathy for them, even glamorize
their "martyrdom" - while the victims
of their bloody massacres are largely ignored.
9) Quantitative and
Qualitative Bias
Sometimes the anti-Israel
bias is seen in the positioning of a story, or
the amount of column inches devoted to it, or an
imbalance in the number of quotes favoring the
PLO side, etc. Media watchdog groups such as
CAMERA do a good job in monitoring this more
subtle form of bias.
10) Tokenism
There are ocassional
interest stories which superficially seem to be
supportive of Jewish issues - an example was an
article on the controversy surrounding Egypt's
decision to screen a series of programs which
contained material based on the anti-semitic work
"Protocols of the Elders of Zion"
(10/30/02) though these stories often reveal
anti-Jewish flaws. We call this tokenism - a once
in a while article that gives the LA Times a
certain "plausible deniability" of bias
- it is reminiscent of a practice occurring in
country clubs across the US.
Ongoing examples of these
different forms of bias can be seen by following the Anti-Israel
Propaganda Watch.
Because of its consistent anti-Israel bias
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES IS NOT
A CREDIBLE SOURCE OF NEWS ON ISRAEL
