Class 23: The Issue of spin and press bias - in Israel, too!

• go to class resources
• @ Alison Weir, "The Coverage - and Non-Coverage - of Israel-Palestine," The Link 38:3 (July-August 2005), 1-13
  • disproportionate reporting of Israeli over Palestinian deaths
  • deceptive balance of NPR
  • Weir's www.ifamericansknew.com vs. New York Times

Choice of words: Gilo, for instance, must be described as a Jerusalem "neighborhood" not a settlement on occupied territory, which might have offered readers a better context for understanding shootings between Palestinian militia in Bethlehem and Jewish settlers in Gilo.

See "Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land: US Media and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," video produced by Robert Jensen, UT, for the Media Education Foundation and prepare critically to analyze it in class.

• press filters?
  • ownership
  • political elites
  • Israeli consulates
  • pro Israeli lobbies
• self censorship and fear
• objectivity? Whose?