72 virgins or 72 Qassam rockets?
"A Palestinian man reacts after learning that his brother was killed by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip March 1, 2008."
Reading the news of the developing conflict between Israel and Hamas, one, without a good basis of knowledge, would start to conclude that 'those crazy Jews are killing everyone'.
'Half of our headlines are fabricated'
Indeed the catch cry of the recent Lebanon war was the totally unverifiable claim more than half the deaths were civilians'. Which was really quite amazing.
For most it might have seemed the majority of Hezbolah guerrillas didn't seem to wear a recognizable uniform. They tended to dress like civilians. This seemed to develop further and further as Israels incursions into the south of Lebanon became more intensive.
One did wonder how Journalist and sub editors sitting half way across the world safely behind their desks managed to decree that more than half of deaths were civilians.
Reuters published an article today which stated:
Israel kills 31 Palestinians in Gaza raidIt does not matter than many of these are disputed deaths, One case involving a Gazan family who by most accounts, fate was sealed by a Palestinian Qassam which fell well short of its intended Israeli civilian targets.
In fact considering the ploy of Palestinian terrorist to hide and fire rockets amongst the civilian population, the number of terrorist which have been dealt their just desserts without corresponding civilian deaths has been quite noteworthy.
'Faux Journalism'With many of these deaths murky to say the least, and with the propensity of Gazan Hamas hospital officials to have appallingly bad mathematical skills, this still does not stop Reuters and other agencies from running Faux death 'score boards'.
It might very well pander to their readership who desperately wants to cast the Palestinians in a role of victim hood and the Israeli's as cruel aggressors, but journalism it is not.
Reading the Reuters article
Israel kills 31 Palestinians in Gaza raid I notice the main displayed photo titled "A Palestinian man reacts after learning that his brother was killed by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip March 1, 2008." was taken none other than by Mohammed Salem.
A name I was sure I had previously discovered was nothing more than a rabid anti Israeli photographer.
Of course into google the name is placed and quickly his name pops up in several articles by Snapped Shot. A blog specialising in critique of photojournalism.
I click on the said link only to find AP's lawyers have started their nasty intimidation already.
Brian from Snapped Shot received a scary letter from The Associated Press 3 days ago because of his "frequent and systematic use of their copyrighted property"... Err I think that might be covered under 'review' exemptions of copyright law??
Now one might wonder as Brian does just how successful a Photojournalist review blog might fair not actually showing the photos being reviewed.
A minor detail for AP, accuracy is nothing, profit is everything.
Oh the article concerning Mohammed Salem? None other than a 'disturbing report' that he had been shot by the IDF .
Seems the IDF has no doubt whose side he is really on. Unfortunately Reuters has taken Snapped Shot of the web through legal threats. You can read about the 'alleged incident' in a google cached copy here:Becoming Part of the Story http://www.snappedshot.com/archives/1212-Becoming-a-Part-of-the-Story.html
Brian is needing some legal advice on his rights and responsibilities with regards this matter. If you can help him gratis then its a very worthy cause.
Make sure you cross link this example of the Associated Press trying to censor criticism!
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