Introduction

This project, an ongoing cooperative project begun on January 6, 2005 and chronicled at The Most Important Blog... Ever, tracks the coverage of the Israeli Palestinian conflict on mainstream US newsmedia websites.

Full Details

On January 6, 2005, The Most Important Blog... Ever featured a post about US media coverage of the conflict in Israel and Palestine.  I've been watching the news media -- from the US, from Britain, and from Israel/Palestine -- report on this for about five solid years now.  I'm a junkie, and I've noticed a few things about the US media that stick out like a sore thumb.

One of the things I've noticed is how the Palestinians are nearly always pictured with guns and masks, while Israelis are often pictured crying and rarely pictured looking menacing -- again, in major US media outlets.

Another thing I've noticed is that story headlines rarely attribute blame for Palestinian deaths to the Israeli army or to Israeli militants.  In fact, Palestinian violent deaths rarely make major headlines in the US.  But if Israelis are killed by Palestinians, the headline -- nearly always a top story -- often will attribute their deaths to Palestinians.

I was challenged in this post by one of our astute readers.  He or she presented a counterexample and said that one headline doesn't prove bias.  This reader is right.

So, starting today, we're going to make this an ongoing project here at The Most Important Blog... Ever.

Starting today, January 12, 2005, whenever I see an example of this bias that I perceive, I'll post a link to the story right here (on the blog).  I'll keep a tally.  If I see a counterexample that proves me wrong, I'll post that , too.  Moreover, I pledge to post any link that you (my amazing readers) find that either supports or refutes my argument about bias in the US media.  In other words, it's me against all of you.

Here's hoping that there are NO MORE stories about violence in this region, so that this project can be over before it even starts.

A few ground rules.  The story must be from one of the major national US news media outlets.  Specifically, let's keep it manageable by using the front page (only) of these major US newsmedia internet sites only:

cnn.com
msnbc.com
abcnews.com
cbsnews.com
foxnews.com
nytimes.com

The story must refer to violence in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that results in deaths.  Hopefully, we'll never have to post on this ever again, but sadly I think that we'll have a lot of stories to work with.

One side-project  -- if I notice violence reported in a major non-US media outlet with global reach (eg, BBC, AFP, Sky, etc) that never appears on the front page of any of our target sources above, I'll report that information separately.

The headline and the photos on the story page are the only things I'm interested in.  Talking about article content will get overwhelming very quickly, but headlines and photos (including captions) is manageable.  I'll post the original headline and any photos, and an opinion on why I think they either help or hurt my case.

We'll keep score, too.  For the latest score, check this page.  The first number listed counts the number of headlines which attribute Israeli deaths to actions taken by Palestinians.  The second number shows the converse.  For photos, the first number counts images seen that feature Palestinians with guns and/or in a violent/angry procession.  The second number counts Israelis seen in a similar fashion.

How will we decide who wins? We'll take a poll at the end of the year.

Sound good?  Then let's get started.

If you have a headline or photo to contribute, feel free to email it to me at blog@eriklove.com, or post a comment.  If you email it to me, your headline will make it to the front page of the blog with your comments, if you request that.

An important note, just to be very clear.  When I talk about 'Israel' and 'Israelis', I'm using the term in the same way as if I were referencing any other nation-state -- Canada and Canadians, for example. I refer to the government of the State of Israel, and never do I refer to the whole of the Jewish people (which is one definition of the word 'Israel'). If I said "Canada sent troops," I would mean that the Canadian government ordered troops... you see what I mean. When I say 'Israel sends troops," I'm using the term 'Israel' in the same way. The Israeli people -- by which I mean citizens of the State of Israel -- are in fact very diverse in terms of political opinion and in terms of ethnicity and race -- and there is no way to consider Israelis nor Jews as a homogenous, unified bloc.  So, I use the construction 'the Israelis did such and such' to mean only that the Israeli government took such and such action.  Let me know if there are any questions about this.

Questions?  I'm looking forward to this project, but again, I sincerely hope we have no stories to report on because of an amazing peace accord that makes all of this moot.  Here's to hope.

RUNNING TALLIES

Since January 6, 2005

I: LACK OF COVERAGE

A. Incidents involving Palestinian deaths caused by Israelis for which a headline does not appear on US newsmedia website homepages: 30

B. Incidents involving Israeli deaths caused by Palestinians for which a headline does not appear on US newsmedia website homepages: 2

II: HEADLINE PHRASING AND ATTRIBUTING BLAME

(Headlines to stories that report deaths)

A. Headlines that attribute Israeli deaths directly to Palestinians: 4

B. Headlines that report Israeli deaths caused by Palestinians without attributing deaths to Palestinians: 9

C. Headlines that attribute Palestinian deaths directly to Israelis: 12

D. Headlines that report Palestinian deaths caused by Israelis without attributing deaths to Israelis: 3

III: IMAGES SHOWING GRIEVING OR SUFFERING

(only images from articles tallied above in II)

A. Images that show Palestinians grieving or suffering as the result of Israeli violence:  14

B. Images that show Israelis grieving or suffering as the result of Palestinian violence: 14

IV: IMAGES SHOWING GUNS

(only images from articles tallied above in II)

Chronological List of all Project Installments

1: January 6

2: January 12

3: January 12

4: January 13

5: January 15

6: January 18

7: January 20

8: January 26

9: January 27

10: January 29

11: January 31

12: February 15

13: February 25

14: March 10

15: April 9

16: April 26

17: May 2

18: May 17

19: May 20

20: May 29

21: June 7

22: July 7

23: July 12

24: July 14

25: July 15

27: July 27

28: August 4

29: August 8

30: Coming Soon

31: August 24

32: September 6

33: September 8

34: September 22

35: September 26

36: September 29

37: October 4

38: October 10

39: October 16

40: October 22

41: October 24