Is the media biased in the Hezbollah vs. Israel conflict?

Question

Over recent weeks the media seem to be continually painting Israel as the big ememy who has overeacted in this conflict. Yet the fact is that both sides continue to up the ante as Hezbollah launch more and more missiles randomly at Israeli civilians. Is it just me or is the media undereporting the Hezbollah attrocities in this conflict? Everybody seems to be critical of US munitions sent to Israel through the UK, but nobody's even asked where all these bloody Hezbollah missiles keep coming from. It's almost as if they were expecting the attacks ??

Isn't Israel just fighting to save its homeland and Hezbollah is only fighting because it wants to wipe it out?

Answer 1

heard a guy interviewing some journos on the radio today, talking about everything from Fox and NBC to Al Jazeerah and even Hezbollah's own TV channel, which I forgot the name of.

Everyone seems to be guilty of some kind of underreporting of one side or other. Until recently the US networks carried very little of the civilian carnage in Lebanon, and concentrated only on the effects of the Hezbollah rockets. The Arab networks, on the other hand, carried little else other than Lebanese civilians suffering.

Guilty all round I'd say. Truth is the first casualty of war.

Answer 2

Truth is the first casualty of war.

If you only listen to the Stop The War camp then you might believe all these rockets and missiles Hezbollah keep firing into Israel fell out of the "rocket tree". No mention of Iran supplying the oxygen that fuels this war.

Anyone see the Newsnight report showing Hezbollah have been deliberately 'doctoring' photographs of Qana and other so called atrocities? Please also see http://www.HonestReporting.com/

The Arab and Muslim media have a terrible record of bias. They routinely demonise Jews in cartoons with "hook noses". They publish and extol that favorite Nazi forgery The Protocols of The Elders of Zion. They have even taken to racistly caricaturing Condi Rice.

Mo mosh said in an earlier question, in 1977, PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein stated:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism."

The Anti-Zionist media brigade wouldn't believe it. But do some research and check this out.

Evening Standard 2 August 2006
Hezbollah has said "Israel is Useful because it is Easier to KILL ALL JEWS if they are in ONE place".

"But the hysterical Anti-Israeli media and naive Protestors here Miss the point that, for Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, Jews are the personification of the West and Enlightenment - they are Us and We (The West) are Next".

Aljazeera.Net: 3 August 2006
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President, has said the solution to end the conflict in Lebanon was the "elimination of the Zionist regime."

Yours

The Hebrew Hammer a.k.a. Mordechai Jefferson Carver

Fighting For Peace and Justice

"I'd Rather be a Hammer than a Nail" -- Simon & Garfunkel

Answer 3

speaking as a neutral observer i feel that the media is indeed emphasising the 'over reaction' of the israelis when the arabs are doing exactly the same
i do not know whether israel should be there in the first place and it does seem strange that they should return after so long;whenever it is debated on radio or television you get reams of proof from both sides
i dont see what else israel can do under the circumstances but they seem very uncomfortable wiht the idea that they have been forced into atrocities of their own and would distinguish between their use of force and brutality and that dont to them;my own view is that when things get that dirty the rules go out the window and a war crimes tribunal years later does kinda miss the boat
my real feeling is this as an irishman;whenever you try to deal wiht any of these people on eihter side they are very hostile cold and intransigent and my feeling is that this is what you get when nobody is prepared to give ground and that they deserve each other;i am sick to death of both sides and i think everyone should wihtdraw and let them get all that religious nonsense out of their systems
the sheer hypocrisy of the us in playing chess wiht these people's lives is a contributery factor and things will not get better until britain and the us admit that they did bad things and apologise;yes they are doing the right thing now but it does not change what they did in the past
the israelis are reasonable and willing to talk a deal but the araba are crazed and wiill never rest until they murder every last jew;in my view the israelis are justified in everything they do and i think the media should fairly report that israel is doing less that it is entilled to do
bearing in mind that the irish thing has seemingly been solved by some sort of half assed power sharing agreement which has ended centuries of aggravation and that the irish republic dropped its sovereign claim to hte territory for the sake of peace and given that the middle east palestinian thing is a contrived thing to spite israel-as they could be housed many times over in arab lands-let us have no more truck wiht the arab cause
the nonsense can stop now

Answer 4

Your question is 100% correct. Without a doubt, the media is critical of Israel and really pro Israel (Especially in the UK).
I don't watch BBC anymore as I like to know what's going on is Isarel too. I prefer FOX.

Answer 5

They have reported several times (CNN) that Hezbollah gets most of its weapons from Iran, which also wants to see the downfall of Israel. However, they do seem to spend more time reporting which site Israel is attacking than Hezbollah, but I think they have adequately painted the picture that Israel is just defending itself from terrorists.

Answer 6

It seems that the British media are happy to follow the story Hezbollah wants to tell.

Check out these sites for proof of the BBC's insidious behaviour.

http://www.biased-bbc.blogspot.com/

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=4&x_outlet=12

Answer 7

Yes. In favour of Hezbollah

Answer 8

the proportion of Israelis killed to Lebanese is something like one to fifteen so yes, the media is biased, but towards Israel, because it doesn't make this clear.

Answer 9

It is slowly starting to shift from a very pro-lebanese report to pro Irsaelie.

The BBC are the worst culprits in my mind, I stopped watching and switched to CNN and Sky

Answer 10

I don't think it much matters. When all is said and done, Israel will do what she must and damn the international opinion. Afterall it is her survival at stake and she don't mess around.