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Thursday, March 15, 2012

CNN's anti-Israel bias shines through in Arabic and English

From CNN:
Israeli aircraft targeted two "terror activity sites" in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said early Wednesday, in another round of tit-for-tat that appeared to end a shaky truce.

"Direct hits were confirmed," the Israel forces in a statement. The attack was carried out in response to rockets fired at Israel over the past day, the statement said.

...The attack came after a truce between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants appeared to have held much of Tuesday, despite reports of rockets being fired into Israel.
You get that? When terrorists fire rockets into Israel the truce is still in place; when Israel shoots back, then the truce has ended.

And the rockets into Israel on Tuesday? CNN, one of the largest news organizations on the planet, can't confirm them. They can only mention "reports" of such rockets.

Some more bias (and inaccuracies) in the same article:

Twenty-five Palestinians were killed in the fighting and hundreds of rockets were fired toward civilian population centers in southern Israel. Fourteen of the Palestinian victims belonged to the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad. At least 80 others were wounded.

First of all, 24 were killed, not 25. CNN is still counting the teenager who Gaza medical officials falsely claimed was killed by an airstrike.

But worse than that was CNN's note that 14 of those killed were Islamic Jihad members. The implication is that the "11" others were civilians, when in fact 6 of them were PRC terrorists. So in fact 20 of 24 killed were terrorists and most of the others seem to have been effectively human shields, as the airstrikes that killed them also injured militants.

Finally, this CNN article has a link to an Arabic version. But it is not a translation; rather a completely different article. And in CNN's Arabic world, the IDF is referred to as an "'occupation' army" - the word "occupation" is in scare quotes but it is not quoting any Arab; this is CNN's description of the IDF. (At only one point in the article is the term IDF used - and that is when they are quoting an Israeli official.)

Also, CNN Arabic claims 27 deaths, not 25 or the more accurate 24.

Moreover, here is how CNN English reports on an incident during a funeral:
Earlier Tuesday, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the Israeli army opened fire at a funeral east of Jabaliya, north of Gaza, wounding three people, according to witnesses.

"They said the army opened fire at the funeral procession when it reached the Jabaliya cemetery, which is close to the Gaza borders with Israel," the news agency said.

IDF said its soldiers operating along the security fence in Gaza identified approximately 50 Palestinians gathering near a security fence and, in accordance with the rules of engagement, fired warning shots to disperse the group.

Initial reports indicate that there were no injuries to the suspects, said the spokeswoman who, in line with IDF policy, would not identify herself.

But in CNN Arabic:
Palestinian sources confirmed the fall of three wounded, shot by "the Zionist occupation forces" Tuesday, during the funeral of large crowds of citizens to the bodies of "martyrs" killed in an Israeli air strike on Monday night. The spokesman for the Supreme Committee for Ambulance and Emergency services described the injuries as "moderate."

CNN Arabic does not even make an effort to quote any IDF version of events, and it continues to gratuitously refer to the IDF as "Zionist occupation forces" in scare quotes for no valid reason.

(h/t Dan)