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Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Misleading Headline about Israel from Florida's St. Pete Times

From PRIMER:

Another misleading and outrageous headline from the biased St. Petersburg Times


We have been monitoring headlines from The St. Petersburg Times since July of 2002 that report violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Above is just another example in headline writing that would cause a reader who only glances at the headline to conclude that Israel is causing the problems in the Middle East and that the Palestinians are the innocent victims.
When dealing with Israeli military attacks, Israel is always identified by name, while the Palestinian perpetrators of violence are rarely identified as Palestinians. Furthermore, Israelis are usually never identified as the victims, while Palestinians are almost always identified as those being killed.
Headlines are meant to capture the reader's attention and often determine whether people choose to read an article at all. In many instances, the headline is the only information readers derive about a story. Moreover, since the headline precedes other details, it greatly influences the reader’s interpretation of information that follows in the story.

Check out the next headline about violence in the Middle East..... you will see a distinct bias in the way the headline describes the event

And Who Were the 7 Palestinians That Were Killed?
Were the 7 Palestinians who were killed children on a bus going to school? A pregnant mother and her daughter driving to the market? An elderly man going to be with friends for the day?

No, one was a terrorist who planned bus bombings killing innocent civilians, two were transporting explosives, two were armed Palestinians, and a sixth was the victim of road rage by an Israeli citizen who felt his life threatened.

Sadly, I doubt very much the St Pete Times is the only newspaper guilty of this.

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