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Yahoo's Changing Headline: The Netanya Bombing
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Comments
1
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Gene
said:
I tend to think this was a slanted Editor at AP, however - there is one other possible explanation:
At this point having Israeli bomber is like saying London Bomber - both convey location, but both assume that it was an Islamist barbarian. Certainly no civilized person would blow themselves, and civilians, up regardless of where they liver.
Posted by: Gene on December 7, 2005 03:00 AM
2
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BobW
said:
Shalom Daled,
It's not a minor point. It's a MAJOR point.
We are dealing with world opinion molding. Two aspects of this are propaganda and disinformation. Key fields used in this molding are forensic psychiatry and psychology.
I wasted a photocopier ink cartridge sending some of this material to the IDF's Spokesman's Unit (now Spokesperson's Unit).
Needless to say, as of 7 December 05 - Pearl Harbor Rememberance Day in the US - Israel lost the world opinion war. The only saving grace is Israel's pending diplomatic relations with Pakistan and membership in the Red Crescent Society.
Kol tuv,
Bob
Posted by: BobW on December 7, 2005 05:03 AM
3
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Daled Amos
said:
Gene,
The thing is, "London bomber" is more an indication of location, though perhaps of the people who live there--but "Israeli" bomber seems to clearly point to the person, not the location.
Secondly, the fact that the headline went through a number of changes--that seems to me to be more something that would be on the Yahoo end, not AP.
I'm not sure what bothers me more--the fact the headline was used, or that it was never changed to something less offensive. The editor found a provocative headline and kept it.
Posted by: Daled Amos on December 7, 2005 09:08 AM
4
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Daled Amos
said:
BobW,
The only thing I meant that was minor was that only the second paragraph pointed to where the terrorist came from, and even then only indirectly.
I don't think that, in and of itself, is a point that I would emphasize.
Posted by: Daled Amos on December 7, 2005 09:11 AM
5
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J
said:
Daled, that is exactly the point. The equivalent would have been a foreign bomber being called a "British Suicide Bomber".
Posted by: J on December 7, 2005 02:04 PM
Yahoo's Changing Headline: The Netanya Bombing
The way things are worded are important. If you ask someone a loaded question about whether they still beat their wife, both a 'no' and 'yes' answer still constitutes an admission. Both a Jewish citizen and Arab citizen of Israel are Israelis--but if you say that an Israeli committed a crime, people automatically assume you are talking about a Jew.
The way something is worded in an article can imply something about those who wrote the article as well as about the subject.
Media bias is a tricky thing. Is it a result of an agenda, lack of sensitivity, or just plain carelessness? After the latest terrorist bombing in Netanya, AP--via Yahoo--regales us with the following headline:
Israeli Suicide Bomber Kills Five at Mall?
The odd thing is, the article itself is not all that slanted. The journalist who wrote it is unlikely to have had anything to do with the headline--an editor at AP probably takes care of that. Among other things, the reporter who wrote the article has a degree from Tel Aviv University and served in the IDF. Personally, I've seen too many clearly slanted articles matched with journalists whose names do reassure me of their impartiality.
It's a minor point, but it seems a bit odd that the short piece does not bother to directly identify that the terrorist was a Palestinian Arab.Justify This! also noticed this headline, and found another one at Scotsman.com: Five Killed in Israeli Suicide Bomber Attack:
Most issues of media bias when it comes to Israel are more blatant and biased--not an issue of a sloppily written headline, as in this case. But just how sloppy is the headline?
Yahoo stories are odd. You can trace back the development of the story because the URL contains what appears to be the version of the story.
For instance, go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051205/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_explosion_3 and you get this:
Go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051205/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_explosion_10 and you get this:
And go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051205/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_explosion_14 and you get this:
Whatever the numbers at the end of the URL indicate, one thing is clear--there were a number of different headlines that were used before settling on the current one.
All the more reason to ask why.
UPDATE:
I received the following email from Aron Heller, who wrote the AP article:
Crossposted at Daled Amos
Technorati Tags: Israel and Media Bias.
Posted by Daled Amos at December 7, 2005 12:03 AM