STAR TRIBUNE DISCOVERS TERROR (Media bias at its worst)

Honest Reporting ^ | February 3, 2004 | Unknown

[TrueKnightGalahad]

For the past three years, no matter how monstrous the Palestinian attack on Israeli civilians, the Minneapolis Star Tribune has consistently refused to apply the word 'terrorism.' One of the paper's editors explained their 'evenhanded' position in February, 2002:

"In the case of the term 'terrorist,' other words -- 'gunman,' 'separatist' and 'rebel,' for example -- may be more precise and less likely to be viewed as judgmental. We also take extra care to avoid the term 'terrorist' in articles about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of the emotional and heated nature of that dispute."

Now, suddenly, the largest paper in Minnesota has discovered 'terrorism' in the Mideast.

No, it wasn't the horrific murder of 11 men, women and children on a Jerusalem bus on Jan. 29. That was described yet again in Star Tribune wire reports as the work of a 'militant group'.

Here were the rule-breakers:

1) On Jan. 31, the Star Tribune ran a profile of a local priest, Michael Ovikian, who grew up in Jerusalem. The reporter describes Ovikian surviving the 1946 Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel (emphasis added):

"It was midday July 22, 1946. Ovikian was eating in the basement of the King David Hotel when Zionist terrorists struck... The Brits had fortified the hotel's eight-story southern wing with barbed wire and tanks. But the terrorists sneaked in the northern end dressed as delivery people, their milk cans filled with TNT."

So the Star Tribune, which has maintained a 'non-judgmental' refusal to call Palestinian terror by name, determined that the King David bombing was, in fact, 'Zionist terror'. This, despite the fact that (unlike any Palestinian terror) the Irgun issued specific warnings of the impending strike against the British command at the hotel, and that civilians were not intentionally targeted.

2) The Jan. 21 edition of the Star Tribune carried an AP article on IDF anti-Hezbollah actions, accompanied by a photo of the IDF dismantling a West Bank outpost and synagogue. The photo caption was careful to point out that the "synagogue was dedicated to the memory and teachings of American-Israeli Meir Kahane, whose anti-Arab Kach movement is on the U.S. State Department list of terror organizations," but the article describes Hezbollah (which is on that same State Department list) as mere "guerrillas." Moreover, the Star Tribune edited out the following passage from the original AP article, which described American support for the Israeli reprisal:

"The United States blamed Hezbollah guerrillas for the escalation and cautioned Syria against giving support to the Lebanese militant group."

It seems that all the talk by the Star Tribune of sophisticated editorial policy was just a lot of hot air -- masking what is genuinely an anti-Israel double-standard.

A further indication of the double standard: The Star Tribune has a special section of its online edition devoted to world terrorism, which includes archived articles on terror threats and attacks in the US, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan - even Nigeria. But blowing up a Jerusalem commuter bus didn't qualify.

These latest blunders extend the Star Tribune's history of distorting the conflict. In 2002, after being caught red-handed, Star Tribune editors publicly admitted that the newspaper re-wrote wire service stories in a manner which radically distorted the meaning of a Human Rights Watch report on casualties in the Jenin refugee camp. The Star Tribune's own ombudsman called this an "embarrassing wart."

In response to the latest events, Minnesotans Against Terrorism clarified to HonestReporting that the issue is not whether Kach or the Irgun committed terrorist acts: MAT's primary concern is that when innocent civilians are specifically targeted for death and terror, that conduct and its perpetrators be accurately and objectively referred to as "terrorism" regardless of the cause, and regardless of the nationality of the victims. The Star Tribune should be honest with its readers and call all attacks specifically targeted against innocent men, women and children by its proper name, "terrorism", and not play favorites with specific groups or causes.

HonestReporting encourages subscribers to send comments to Star Tribune through their online form, by clicking here.

More information on this important topic is online at one of HonestReporting's ongoing projects, TerrorPetition.com.

Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.

HonestReporting.com

[TrueKnightGalahad]

Is anyone truly surprised by this outrageous double standard, worthy of Der Sturmer??? BTW, this is my first posted article (simply replying to threads is so much easier!) -- I hope I did everything right, but if not, please forgive my inexperience...I'll do better next time. ;-)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The Strib's a write-off.

[okie01]

Well done. And thanks for the post.

Nothing about the (Red) Star-Tribune surprises me anymore...

[gcruse]

Is anyone truly surprised by this outrageous double standard, worthy of Der Sturmer???

Why would anyone be surprised when the Bush State Department has the same take on the matter?

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher explains why blowing up Israelis different than blowing up Americans

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

Richard Boucher, Spokesman

Washington, DC; September 27, 2001

...

QUESTION: To what extent does this campaign -- as you constantly review your Middle East policy, what -- how much influence does this campaign against terrorism have in that? What's the input? How does it weigh in here? See what I mean?

MR. BOUCHER: No, I don't.

QUESTION: It's obviously a factor --

MR. BOUCHER: We have talked about this on and off over the last few days. We recognize that there is an influence. Some have said it affects the atmosphere, the Palestinian/Israeli issues affect the atmosphere of cooperation. But, essentially, there are, on some planes, two different things. One is that there are violent people trying to destroy societies, ours, many others in the world. The world recognizes that and we are going to stop those people.

On the other hand, there are issues and violence and political issues that need to be resolved in the Middle East, Israelis and Palestinians. But we all recognize that the path to solve those is through negotiation and that we have devoted enormous efforts to getting back to that path of negotiation.

And we have called on the parties to do everything they can, particularly in the present circumstance, to make that possible.

I guess that's about as close as I can come to the kind of sophisticated analysis I'm sure you will want to do on your own. But they are clearly issues that are different, not only in geography but also, to some extent, in their nature.

[TrueKnightGalahad]

Hmmmm -- that stung (I'd not seen those comments before). But they were made 2-1/2 years ago, when the promise of pursuing the "roadmap" was still fresh; I can only hope being slapped by (Pali) reality may have altered the behind-the-scenes thinking.

[WorkingClassFilth]

The Red Star sucks. I always tell their phone subscription solicitors that I have no use for their lie sheet since my dog has been house trained for years and I wouldn't use their rag to wrap fish for fear of tainting the meat. Only the paper delivery people and the janitorial staff have honest jobs - all other positions at the Red Star require kneepads.

[justrepublican]

Let's not disparage the red star and sickle without pointing out the fine job it does starting the wood stove.

[stylin_geek]

I once met Patrick Reusse up close and personal at Kieran's Irish Bar. He may come across as an okay person on Garage Logic, but in reality he is somewhat condescending and arrogant.

[okie01]

"I can only hope being slapped by (Pali) reality may have altered the behind-the-scenes thinking."

In the Bush Administration, to be sure. But in the State Department, never.

They are two different things, you understand...