AP Media Bias: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
There are certain things in life that are certain. You know, things like death, taxes…AP photographers showing their bias against Israel.
Case in point: here’s AP photographer Muhammed Muheisen on today’s terror attack.
The body of a Palestinian is seen, following a knife incident in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, near Nablus, Monday, March 31, 2008. In West Bank violence Monday, a Palestinian who tried to stab Israeli hitchhikers near a Jewish settlement was shot and killed by an armed Israeli civilian, Israeli police said. One of the hitchhikers opened fire after the Palestinian pulled a knife, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, calling the shooting self-defense. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Leaving aside the fact that he has seen fit to take a picture of the terrorist’s lifeless body, allow me to translate key parts of the caption:
Knife “incident” = terror attack perpetrated with a knife
“West Bank violence” = terror attack perpetrated by a palestinian
“Pulled a knife” = pulled out a knife to kill
And the cherry on top is the last part of the caption when Muheisen mentions the police spokesman “calling the shooting self-defense.” As if it was something else.
Update: Besides being an AP photographer/propagandist, Muheisen also dabbles in blog commenting.
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: Uncategorized
Never bring a knife to a gun fight…..
Jeffrey Nihart
That’s not the first interaction I had with Muhammed—Check out his original introduction to Snapped Shot over here, and enjoy some other random input from a handful of photographers here.
Muhammed’s actually a really nice guy, compared to some of the others I’ve heard from. Great for photography advice, to boot!
And, in all fairness, the photographers are only partially responsible for the captions sent across the AP wire. From what I’ve gathered, the editorial desk does more caption-writing than anybody. (I may be wrong about this, of course. I’ve sent a note to Mr. Muheissen to verify.)
Regards,
Brian/snapped shot
Most of the media treatment of ANY Israeli self-defense action is the best argument I’ve found AGAINST a free press. There is NOTHING Israel can do except disappear that will make the arab apologists and appeasers, happy. This reminds me of the movie “Independence Day” when they ask the alien “what do you want us to do” and the answer is “die”. That’s goes for the BBC, CNN, Reuters, AP and all the rest of the leftist arab sycophants. Israel can do no right, to these little traitors. That’s why I think Israelis should get rid of their traitorous government, throw all arabs out, regain all the land given away in exchange for nothing and nuke the hell out of any foreign threat.
Hey Brian,
He may be a “really nice guy”, but I’m sure he doesn’t lose sleep over Israelis being killed.
I’ve always wondered about the captions, and assumed it was the photographer. Please let me know what Mo’ has to say.
[...] AP Media Bias: The Gift That Keeps on Giving: ” [...]
But he got his 72 raisins!!!
And a seat next to that child molester Arafat!!!
Jeffrey Nihart
Okay, after conversing with Muhammed, what I’ve gathered is that he did write the original caption, but is directed to match the language used in the related AP story. The copy was appended to the end of this story, for instance:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jD4YSkDPlclqd9dHvg2f0Ij18zEgD8VOGDUO0
For the most part, I tend to blame the editorial staff for this kind of thing. It is they, after all, who set down the guidelines as to what the journalists and photographers who work under them are to write, and it’s they that make the ultimate decisions as to what content goes across the wire.
Of course, the photographers who cover middle eastern affairs tend to be biased towards the “Palestinians,” and there are plenty of possible explanations for that as well. Most journalism schools are dominated by anti-Israeli and other anti-Western (think “diversity”) thought. Those of us who are sitting here taking Israel’s side of things tend to not be involved in journalism. And, of course, the wire staff that are so heavily biased towards this line of politically-correct thinking do all of the hiring for their agencies.
It is, however, ultimately the responsibility of the editors to “edit” this bias out of their news service.
A job that they are failing miserably at, in my total outsider’s opinion.
For what it’s worth, Muhammed says that he does care about Israelis as well, that he was born in Israel, has family, friends, and associates there, and considers himself to be an Israeli citizen.
And did I mention that he gives terrific photography advice?
Regards,
Brian
Other captions from this same series weren’t quite as bad, by the way:
It’d be interesting to know if the Israeli hitchhikers were still on the scene, though. If they were still there, I would’ve expected someone to take a picture of them, considering that they were a direct part of the story…
Regards,
Brian