As I look at the stories I covered this week, I always ask myself whether - in a normal universe - the news stories I report would be considered newsworthy to the mainstream media.
So, let's play the game:
- When the highly-paid leader of one of the world's major human rights organizations tweets hundreds of times about a war, and yet manages to ignore most of the human rights violations being done by one side - Is That Newsworthy?
- How about when the side whose violations he all-but ignores is a terrorist group?
- How about when he insists that he is even-handed?
- How about when he snidely dismisses his critics instead of honestly responding to well-documented criticism?
- When the world media parrots reports that the Gaza power plant was "destroyed" and will not be repaired for a year, and yet it is back in operation two months later - Is That Newsworthy?
- When the world's biggest NGOs, as well as the UN, explicitly reject the use of standards that would ensure that their fact-finding missions aren't biased - Is That Newsworthy?
- When a purportedly pro-American Muslim parade is held in New York, but it includes insults against America as well as realistic replicas of guns and a representation of a lynching - Is That Newsworthy?
- When terror groups who were quoted as credible during a war brag immediately afterwards about how they manipulate the media - Is That Newsworthy?
- When there are reports that a de-facto government is stealing aid meant for their people, and extorts money from people who want to leave - Is That Newsworthy?
- When a UN agency goes out of its way to traumatize hundreds of thousands of children in order to incite them to hate - Is That Newsworthy?
- How about when their spokesperson talks about a child who lost his father without mentioning that his father was a terrorist, meeting with other terrorists in military center that disguised as a mosque?
- When newspapers worldwide reported about a person who saved Jews from Nazis criticizing Israel for killing his innocent relatives, but don't do basic research to find out that there were at least two terrorists in the house - including one of his relatives - Is That Newsworthy?
- When a former MP of a Western-friendly government goes on a TV show run by a terrorist organization and says that Jews kill Muslims and Christians for Passover matzoh - Is That Newsworthy?
- When it is proven that the statistics on civilians killed in Gaza were not only wrong, but were obviously manipulated by human rights NGOs in Gaza to inflate the number of "civilians" killed, causing every single news organization to report the war completely wrong - Is That Newsworthy?
- When the leader of the Palestinian Arabs praises a woman terrorist who bragged about hiding bombs in watermelons at a circus to kill as many Jewish children as possible - Is That Newsworthy?
- What about if he was an actor or an athlete - would that make it newsworthy then?
Hey - I'm not a professional news reporter or editor or publisher. Maybe I'm missing something, and for some reason these stories don't reach the threshold of newsworthiness.
I would really, really love to have a media professional explain to me exactly why, though.