On July 8, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer gave viewers the latest on the violence in the Gaza Strip–by stressing the threat to Israel:
We take you overseas now to the rockets raining down on Israel…. And here an Israeli family trying to salvage what they can, one woman standing speechless among the ruins.
Sawyer’s narration accompanied these images:
One problem: Neither of those images is an “Israeli family.” Both photos are from the Gaza Strip, and capture the aftermath of Israeli attacks.
I pointed this out to ABC World News on Twitter yesterday:
.@ABCWorldNews Your anchor misidentified a photo of people suffering in Gaza as “an Israeli family.” Correction? http://t.co/nEGygbIRHj
— Peter Hart (@peterfhart) July 9, 2014
Thankfully, many others caught the same newscast, including Yousef Munayyer of the Palestine Center, which posted a video of ABC‘s embarrassing mistake. Journalist Rania Khalek wrote a piece for the Electronic Intifada (7/9/14) as well.
Finally, ABC posted this statement (7/10/14) early this morning:
ABC News Statement: http://t.co/mrQrvwoUPO pic.twitter.com/niZYuWpQ1D
— ABC World News (@ABCWorldNews) July 10, 2014
So an honest mistake, right? That’s one way of looking at it.
But there’s a pretty well-established pattern of corporate media trying to paint the conflict as between equals, a type of false balance that treats the threats to Israeli lives and Palestinians lives as similar. But at times it’s much more than that; this ABC report, and others like it, foreground the fear that Israelis are dealing with as sirens warn of incoming rockets from Gaza. “Running in terror as sirens wail” is how ABC correspondent Alex Marquardt began the segment right after Sawyer’s introduction. He conveyed Israel’s view of the conflict before shifting to life in Gaza.
At this point, the rockets targeting Israel have done very little damage. There are no reported Israeli deaths. But the fact that dozens of Palestinians had died, including several children, by the time ABC aired its report apparently did not cause them to consider this more newsworthy than Israeli fear.
The rocket attacks on Israel are treated as being more fundamentally important than the attacks being launched on Gaza. Sawyer’s introduction at the top of the broadcast was this: “On the brink: Rockets raining down on Israel. The Israelis trying to blast them out of the sky. And our reporter is there on the front lines.”
With that kind of set up, a newscast is bound to believe that the destruction they’re showing viewers must be in Israel–even though anyone who’s actually followed this story would know that the images show a level of destruction that is only happening in Gaza.
That’s why ABC‘s error should be seen less as a simple mistake, and more as a reflection of a worldview.
Even their terror
Along with their humanity
Is taken from them.
A month ago, three kids were murdered. No one knows who did it, but Israel arrested hundreds of Palestinians all the same. That provoked these hostilities. I’m not going to wait for ABC to get that simple fact straight. It would be very unlike them.
I would say the simple fact of the matter is, the people in the media couldn’t tell a Palestinian from an Israeli if they careers depended on it (which as you at FAIR have noted, it doesn’t), though one would think the head dress on the female in the second picture should have been some kind of clue (the pattern). Coupled with that, is the fact the Lame Stream Media couldn’t care less about actual news, what they want is the ‘Excitement’ so they can sell more advertising space. If it brings in Green, it’s queen.
Israelis are the only victims (worth mentioning).
Always view the scene from behind police lines — err, the Israeli side.
BTW,
“Finally, ABC posted this statement (7/10/14) early this morning:
ABC News Statement: http://t.co/mrQrvwoUPO pic.twitter.com/niZYuWpQ1D
— ABC World News (@ABCWorldNews) July 10, 2014″
Why don’t you post the actual statement?
Such a big blunder. Almost makes me wonder if we have someone subversive in the ABC newsroom Be great, wouldn’t it?
Why don’t you post the actual statement?
Because out of the 115 charactors used to post that hashmark tag, 54 of them were used in advertising, making 46% of it a tax free commerical. and since th Charactors are all exact copies, no additonal writing is needed, and one simply cuts and pastes a link, and hopes that the link lasts long enough to read it.
So Doug Latimer
Shares one more haiku with us
No doubt what he means
ITS IS HARD T BELIEVE THAT A MAJOR NETWORK NEWS WOULD ACTUALLY MAKE A BLUNDER LIKE THIS , I AM JOURNALIST WORKING FOR AN MAJOR INTERNATIONAL TV NEWS . IT’S STANDARD PRACTICE TO GO OVER EACH VISUAL MATERIALS, SUBJECTS AND THE BACKGROUND OF THE STORY BY PLANNING SUPERVISORS , CORRESPONDENT , VIDEO EDITOR AND SO ON BEFORE AIRING SUCH IMPORTANT VIDEO STORY . THE ROOM FOR ERROR IS VERY LITTLE , IT WAS ALMOST A DELIBERATE PROJECTION , DISTORTING FACTS ON THE GROUND , NO EXCUSE FOR A MAJOR NEWS NETWORK TO MAKE SUCH MISTAKE. THERE ARE TOO MANY CHECK AND BALANCE BEFORE AIRING A MAJOR STORY ITEMS , SO THE POSSIBILITY OF ERROR IS VERY MINUTE
At this point, the rockets targeting Israel have done very little damage. Yes, ABC screwed up…royally but FAIR seems upset that there have t been no Israeli casualties yet and seems insistent on the Palestinians “right to correct that oversight.”
Gotta wonder, who in an ABC newsroom would make such a mistake … like feeding the Newsies the wrong photos. The lady in the chador should have been a dead giveaway.
This shows that the news media is on the Israeli side even if they are the aggressor, which is not fair.
At this point, the rockets targeting Israel have done very little damage. Yes, ABC screwed up…royally but FAIR seems upset that there have t been no Israeli casualties yet and seems insistent on the Palestinians “right to correct that oversight.”.
————–
No what is upsetting is that the Lame Stream media always presents this as “those Murdering Thugs” when it comes to anything the Hamas/Palestine does, yet when greater atrocities are committed by the Israeli, it’s “Just business as usual”. And currently the standard Uber-right wing screed is always in favor of the Israeli, as if they are scared of them and in an effort to not be Anti-Semitic, they are allowing them to literally commit murder.
ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer.
Think about this: We have come to trust this lady. She’s respected in “our” media. She dresses well, and is composed well. This lady looks us in the eyes at night, in our living rooms, and she gives us news we can trust.
Yet she is just reading someone else’s words off of a teleprompter. She is an actress in a studio, sitting in front of a camera lens. She is using her body language—the way she moves her hands, the way she uses her eyebrows, the way she holds her shoulders, everything—to convince us that she is reporting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. That is her job. Her job is to convince we the people that the words she is reading are hers, and that she is respectable and trustworthy. She’s good at her job. She gets paid well for indoctrinating we the people with what media owners want us to believe. Some are very good at it, and get paid very well. Last I heard, Bill O gets around $77,000 a day for his soul.
If you turn off mainstream media for an entire month, then turn it back on with this in mind, you will see it for what it is. “Our” media is protected by the US Constitution. Unfortunately, freedom of the press and freedom of speech give freedom to lie.
That was not a mistake. .. it was just a Israeli reporter
They can’t tell a terrorist from an Arab either. The MO continues to be anti Arab even if they don’t do it. We know the story by now.
On 911 they knew it was “terrorists” from Afghanistan and Iraq when they were from Saudi Arabia. Even then the FBI said the named terrorists were alive back home and not dead at all. They weren’t even on the passenger lists. The media is not just getting the facts wrong but mislead on purpose for a political goal.
i think you should all go and give your views on israeli media or algameiner instead of preaching to the choir.
The Iron Dome of Censorship: How Free Is Israel’s Media?
“Israeli journalists became religious pamphleteers, calling on people to come together in prayer. Israeli journalists became religious amphleteers, calling on people to come together in prayer. The Israeli Defense Force Radio, for example, interviewed the Chief Rabbi, David Lau, asking him which chapter of psalms people should be reading. On TV, secular presenters covered their heads with yarmulkes and called on viewers to shed their cynicism and join them in prayer. Big red headlines on the front pages referred to “the kids of us all.” Alternative opinions were hard to find and when a columnist for Haaretz dared to voice a different perspective, he was asked by a colleague to censor himself.”
Uri Blau – Israeli investigative journalist specializing in military and political affairs, corruption and transparency . Nieman Fellow for Journalism at Harvard University
http://mashable.com/2014/07/09/the-iron-dome-of-censorship-how-free-is-israels-media/
This is why I avoid watching the corporate news programming. Sawyer represents the very worst that ABC has to offer.
If you’re dumb enough to watch ABC “news” then you’re dumb enough to believe anything.
This is, without question, a blunder. Be it someone’s agenda or otherwise, is not for me to speculate. However, a couple of points:
(1) While it’s true that the casualties and destruction are of a much smaller scale on the Israeli side, it’s not for lack of trying on the Gazan militants’ side. Their rocket attacks are incessant and, were Israel less capable in defending its population, would wreck a sizable havoc. Aggression is aggression, be it effective or not.
(2) Extending from that… “But the fact that dozens of Palestinians had died, including several children, by the time ABC aired its report apparently did not cause them to consider this more newsworthy than Israeli fear.”
Because it’s not. It is, however, equally newsworthy. This paragraph’s wording implies (to me) that balanced reporting requires equal death and destruction on both sides. Which is, I hope, not the case.
For your consideration.
Off course! A sad day on which we have lost more 295 lives lost on the auspices of our fellow Human Intentions/ Errors/ Mistakes/ Misconceptions/ Motives/Game plans blaa….blaaa……and blaaa of whatsoever the reasons are attributed for this tragedy. But, the US is really cashing out of this tragedy, and it has left no pages and points and interviews left out in which it directly blames Russia for the tragedy and off sure the US wanted such a good Opportunity not to get missed out of its hands. The world leaders were very spontaneous in expressing their emotions and shock for the loss of these 300 lives.
But the fact which more surprises is that there is the continues Cruel massacre of hundreds of people in Palestine on a daily basis scheme, without exempting the smallest of kids & children’s, the hospitalized Patients, the women and aged old elders with such impunity and Impartiality with the fancied whimsical, ruthless and never ever care attitude of these blood thirsty ISRAEL’is. A Kidnap story it had written and directed so as to justify its actions with the SLOGAN – WE NEED TO PROTECT ISRAEL! WE WANT TO SEE PALESTINE FLATTENED! and.. and.. the dialogues just continues…..
The UN is not shocked! The World leaders are not at all aware about these killings! The Human Rights groups are very busy in their business, and above all the people who have been and being killed in Palestine are not human beings at all….. If! one wonders and gets amused to know what the hell is going on in this part of the world. This is the simplest answer, those who are killed and being killed are just an another breed of cattle who can be slaughtered under the supervision of the U.N, the U.S, the Human Rights watchdog, and many more.
Really A SHAME ON THE HUMAN COMMUNITY!
Rachel Corrie, US citizen, and with the International Solidarity Movement, even at 10 years old, knew what life was about, Israeli bulldozer driver ran over her and killed her as the observer she was and as she stood blocking demolition of a Palestinian home, she was 23, and died March 2003. How much reporting was done about her, and since her death the Israeli occupation goes on as the world sits back and allows it, silently, or laying blame at either/or for the deaths of Palestinian kids mostly, hearts the size of walnuts. The Palestinians are real people, and are shown to be the bravest on earth as Israel unleashes its violence and murder at the drop of a hat, claiming they have a right to defend themselves…and Palestinians don’t?Israel defends its illegal occupation and war crimes, Hamas defends its people as a resistance force. Those rockets are mostly noisemakers, since 2001 less than 30 people have died from those “1000’s of rockets raining down on Israel. The Holocaust a tragedy…yes, but not long after that event Zionists expelled over 700,000 of people in Palestine through Nazi tactics of murder and intimidation. Deir Yassin and more since 1948,1937 just depends where you want to mark Zionist invasion and ethnic cleansing of Palestine, still going on,over 60 years of Zionist oppression and aggression. Palestinians have lived under other ruling factions, but only the Zionists forced them off their land, with the permission of the world, apparently. Rachel Corrie accepted her part in causing hardship for Palestinians through her tax dollars to Israel that keeps the occupation going on, as US citizens, we must as well. Just as the racial problems in the US will continue until white people do a deep introspection and vow to root out their racial bias, see it for what it is whether hidden or overt, to not do so, is to go along with the injustice in the world, whether in Gaza, or Ferguson, MO USA
Death to Jews, That God Forsaken religion will cease to exist.. Palestine will once again prevail.. If only Hitler was still alive those vermin wont invade the fucking world.. BURN!!!