;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
;.l2,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,15,0,
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l1
MEDIA BIAS
TO:    David bar-Ilan, Eye on Media, Jlem Post
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Kibbutz Haon, Jordan Valley, 15170 Israel.
       Telephone:  972-6-757572; FAX:  972-6-757554
OCB E-Mail (to 4/96):  100310.15116@compuserve.com 
DATE:  2/14/96
RE:
REF:   JP 2/14/96 (U.S. Congressman Morgan (Dem.--Va.))
       JP Editorial 2/13/96
CC:    David Bedein, Israel Resource, Bet Agron, 37 Hillel, Jlem
       Tel: 02-236368; (TOP): 02-257303, 03-395-6868
       FAX: 02-993-1893
------------------------------------------------------------------
                           
Cong. Morgan's article doesn't ring true.  
Here are a few points:
l2
(1)	It is surprising that so dramatic an incident, at the JaffaGate Post Office, on a day of maximum press coverage, was notphotographed.

(2)	"my frail grandmother having a metal detector probe rubbedacross her body parts as the price for casting her firstvote"
l3
COMMENT:  Is that American or Palestinian rhetoric?
l2
	I don't think that's precisely how a metal detector is used.
	Nor is it a "probe" (as, eg, a proctologist's probe).
	And not all Palestinians look like your grandmother. 
l3
Little Red Riding Hood excepted
l2

(3)	"Then another policeman hit him, and another, and another./The people I was with counted 40 policemen all told ...
	The writer does not claim that 40 policeman hit the arrestee,but the rhetoric leaves the causual reader with thatimpression.  
l3
Intentionally leaving as an impression a possible stateof-affairs that one does not allege occurred, is atechnique of media bias.
l2

(4)	"police officers armed with guns and clubs climbed over eachother's backs to land their own blows on his body"
l3
COMMENT:  One doesn't usually see police doing that,especially not in Jaffa Square on a media-circus day.
Isn't "climbing over each other's backs" a TV image fromsoccer games, after a winning goal? 
And also, how many blows of a baton would be needed?
l4
Incidentally, most policemen are "armed with gunsand clubs".
l2
(5)	"Most of the witnesses to this scene said it happens all thetime.  Where Israeli police and Palestinians are concernedthere is no justice or fair play."
l3
COMMENT:  This is not the sort of statement that thePost usually takes at face value, much less endorseseditorially.
l4
One might start by asking:  who precisely werethose witnesses?

One might also note that to date the Post has notreported corroberation of Cong. Moran's story, norreported a Police / Border Police response.

l2
(6)	"One observer said, "You have to treat these people that way,they're all potential terrorists."
l3
COMMENT:  Which observer?  The Phantom Taxi Driver?
"potential terrorists"  - a curious turn of phrase, butit doesn't quite sound Israeli.

l2
(7)	The sequence of events is puzzling: 
	(a) 	"the man on the scene of the beating...said he knew theyouth, and that he had tried to vote at the Damascus Gate andhad been prevented from doing so."
	QUESTION: Prevented by whom, and for what reason?

	(b) "a Jewish individual, allegedly without provocation, hadsprayed the Palestinian youth with tear gas"
	QUESTION:  Where? At Damascus Gate? 

	(c) "The youth then brought his Jewish attacker to the policestation"
	QUESTION:  By what route?  Outside the city walls, or throughthe shuk?

	COMMENT:  It's rather a long walk.  Did the attacker comealong docilely?  The Palestinian had supposedly been sprayedwith tear gas (mace?) but one must assume was still able tophysically command his attacker.  If, as the reader is led tosuppose at casual reading (which is all I ever do, unless Igo back to analyze an article), the attacker was an ablebodied Jewish extremist, he would presumably have beencarrying a firearm, and was probably not have walked along tobe arrested.
    
	QUESTION:  Was the attacker maybe an elderly ultra-orthodoxman?  They do walk every day from the Mea She'arim area viaDamascus Gate to and from the Western Wall.

	(d) "The police refused to arrest the Jew"
	COMMENT:  'Jewish attacker' would be a nicer way to phrase it
	QUESTION;  Why did they refuse to arrest him?  Did anyone askthem?  

	(e) "The youth then asked the policeman his name, which iswhat caused him to be savagely beaten"
l3

QUESTION;  Ok, what are the possible sources for thatbit of information.  Possibilities are the police on thescene, and the victim.  Cong. Moran seems to imply, withrather loose rhetoric, that this is part of what he wastold on Feb. 4 by "the Israeli Embassy" [in WashingtonD.C., I presume.] Ok, who told them?  
l4
It's not precisely the sort of thing policecustomarily confess to government officials, exceptperhaps at a Men's Consciousness-Raising Seminar. 
l3
Did the Embassy question the Palestinian victim?  

l2
(8)	"The youth has been taken from jail and hopsitalized, and thedoctors are confident he'll survive."
l3
QUESTION:  How was his condition classified when he wasadmitted?  Critical?
l2

(9)	"This was clearly a minor incident.  The more tellingobservations [sic] were the right-wing posters on the frontof the polling building ..."

	COMMENT:  One suspects that it was in fact a minor incident,and that the writer knows it was.  But what he has describedto this point is, at the Post noted in its 2/13 editorial, anoutrageous and rather major incident of police brutality.

The writer then turns to other points; which is reasonable if hisconcern is less with human rights than with a politicalagenda.

(10)	"The fact that only 5000 Palestinians were allowed to voteout of the 74,000 living in Jerusalem may have been necessaryto make a point, but the overwhelming presence of armed [sic-- as distinct from London Bobbies] Israeli police at theentrance to the Jerusalem polls was undoubtedly the principalreason was less than 5000 even got up the courage to exercisetheir right."
l3

COMMENT:  It is not obvious how often nor carefullyCongressman Moran reads the daily Jerusalem Post.  Norhow thoroughly he studied voting regulations beforecoming here as an election observer.
l2
(11)	"On the flight back to the states, Mayor Olmert, who was onhis way to Palm Beach 
l3
COMMENT;  Obviously for a junket in the February sun
l2 
	"expressed his anger to my Congressional colleague [whopresumably reported that to the writer] over the termity [myemphasis added, to highlight the ironic tone] of PresidentCarter, who headed the international observation team, andwas critical of the Jerusalem government's attempts toundermine the electoral process."
l3
COMMENT:  Olmert's a law unto himself; Shahal's a wimpwith blow-dried hair.
COMMENT:  This does seem to be putting quite aconspiracy theory in Carter's mouth.
l2
(12)	"A former Congressional colleague who now devotes his careerto peace for Israel"

	QUESTION:  Anyone we've heard of?  What's his present job?

	"told me of visitng a hospital in the West Bank and seeingfive different Palestinian mothers grieving over their sons,all of whom had been rendered dead by rubber bullets."

	QUESTION;  When and at which hospital?  
	This ought not be that hard to confirm; it was obviously aday on which at least 5 Palestinian demonstrators werekilled; most likely at the height of the intifada; the PostCD-ROM should note that.

	QUESTION:  Under what circumstances can a rubber bullet causeirreversible and total brain damage?

(13) "Since the intifada began in 1987 and up to July 1995 297Israelis have been killed and 1418 Palestinians, including206 children."

	QUESTION;  What is the age-definition of 'children'?
	QUESTION;  What is the original source of these figures?




