(CAMERA) One of the underlying themes of New York Times coverage of the Middle East is blaming Israel as the perennial aggressor while the Palestinians are the perennial victims. And if there happens to be no particular Palestinian grievance to play up on a given day, the Times will do so anyway: by recycling an old picture. Take as an example the front page of March 8. The above-fold, full-color picture has nothing whatsoever to do with any breaking news from the region. Instead, the Times dredged up an old photo of soldiers with balls of fire at the tips of their guns with the caption: "Israeli soldiers fired at Palestinian stone throwers in the West Bank town of al Ram, near east Jerusalem, last month." Actually, the masked Palestinians were throwing both rocks and firebombs - not exactly peaceful, and yes, this was last month. Not only did a non-news photo take front page placement, but the front page story was a manufactured one about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to the U.S. pushing news about Palestinian grievances off the front page.
2012-03-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive