Psagot Reportage In TOI, HaAretz Slanted Leftward

Saturday night in my home is about catching up with email and the news after a day’s Sabbath hiatus. Last night I was upset to learn that a nine-year-old girl from Psagot had been shot at close range through the neck. At first, it was thought she had been shot by a sniper, but later reports clarified the matter. The girl, (whose name hasn’t been reported at the time of this writing, though prayer requests have been circulating for Noam bat Michal Rachel) reported that she saw her attacker’s balaclava; that he attacked her while she was at play in her yard.

I learned the news as always, in bits and pieces. Each news story added something until I had a fairly clear picture of what had happened. I saw pieces from TLVFaces, the Jewish Press, Israel National News, Ynet, and the Jerusalem Post. Only this morning did I see the piece by the Times of Israel, which made my gut clench. The reason? The use of the word “settlement” in the title: “Israeli girl, 9, hurt in suspected terror attack at settlement.”

TOI

The title’s designation of Psagot as a settlement seemed more a political statement than an issue of delineating the location of the attack, since “Psagot” is more specific than “settlement.”

This perspective is lent strength on examination of the URL for the piece: http://www.timesofisrael.com/nine-year-old-girl-shot-in-west-bank-settlement/ As a blogger at TOI, I sometimes decide to change the title of a piece after it has been published, but the URL is immutable and remains the same, no matter how many times I update the title display.

I did a little sleuthing on Google and found that HaAretz had also used the term “settlement” in the title of its story on the Psagot attack, Nine-year-old girl hurt in settlement terror attack; IDF: suspect got away. The reporting in HaAretz is known to be firmly to the left of the Israeli political spectrum.

HaAretz

The Times of Israel is the new kid on the block. Readers have been watching to see how things play out: to see what slant this news outlet would have. This latest example of news presentation would suggest that the Times of Israel is veering in a leftward direction.

The use of the term “settlement” in the title cannot be meant to orient the reader to the location of the attack, since the name of the “settlement” is not referenced at this point in the story. A more balanced approach would have been to state that the attack happened in Psagot and within the body of the story itself, to explain that Psagot is a settlement in the “disputed territories” (the centrist term) or in “Judea and Samaria” (the right wing term). But highlighting the location of the attack as a settlement in the title, without mentioning the name of the actual settlement suggests a point of view which is this:

Noam, the nine-year-old victim of this attack, got what she deserved for illegally occupying someone else’s land.

One talkbacker got the point alright:

Matt Comment

From my admittedly right wing perspective, when a nine-year-old child is shot for being a Jew who lives in land someone covets for himself, this is a tragedy.

The terrorist who shot her (note that I have not characterized him as “suspected terrorist”) is not a “freedom fighter” whose acts are legitimate because someone stole his land.

He’s a coward who shot a little girl because she is Jewish.

All the spin in the world will not change that absolute fact.

 

27 thoughts on “Psagot Reportage In TOI, HaAretz Slanted Leftward”

  1. You mean it took you this long to determine that the the Times of Israel is not right-wing? (I mean aside from the fact that they publish on Shabbat and Chagim!)

    1. Not really, neighbor. All I had to do was follow the Jerusalem Post while David Horovitz was at the helm. But this here’s PROOF.

    2. I think the bigger problem is that they swim in a polluted stream. AP, from which they draw constantly because they don’t have the manpower to do otherwise, is a filthy sewer.

      However, yes, their style guide from the top clearly says we’re going to say “Settlement” and “West Bank” instead of “Disputed Territory” and “Town”.

      1. I disagree with you “Brian of London”

        “Tazpit News Agency” has been providing full news resources and reliable ones for the past three years , AP do not get half of what we cover, maybe TOI actually does indeed have left wing agenda ?

  2. Gee, Why can’t the Times of Israel and HaAretz be as balanced as Richard Silverstein, who, in his most recent posting (Oct 4) doesn’t rush to report on trivial matters like Arabs shooting 9-year old girlls — concentrating instead on one of his favorite themes — painting Israelis as Nazis:

    ” Bibi is a ridiculous jack-booted racist thug” who “makes the proverbial economic trains run on time. Hey, if that historical echo pains you – so be it.”

    Now that’s journalistic balance and integrity.

    Not.

    1. only cuz he didnt want to be topped by his butt buddies, max and sheeny

      who i now believe are a couple and the real reason that joey left town for the gay mecca of turkey

  3. im sorry, but you israelis and your government, have only yourselves to blame

    you coined the term settlement, when discussing neighborhoods

    the term and the word settler, should never have been used

    it is now used by the jew haters to dehumanize the jews who live in judea and samaria

    which should have been annexed immediately in 67, and the arabs living there, expelled on the same basis that ethnic germans were expelled from all across europe post ww2….enemies cannot be expected to reside together

    dummies

  4. Varda, while I agree with your general point, I don’t think it’s fair to blame the headline or URL for the vile Jew-hatred of “Matt Giwer.”

    As I’m sure you know, he can take any story, even one about Israel saving Syrian lives (at Israeli tax-payer expense), and twist it into yet another reason excuse to hate Jews Israel.

  5. Toby Klein Greenwald

    I have to put in a good word here about DH. When he was at the JPost, he published my op-eds that were clearly right wing.

    1. . . . as he is publishing and often featuring my blogs on TOI. He’s a great guy. Nonetheless. the reportage is slanted to the left.

  6. Toby Klein Greenwald

    Everything is relative. Years before that, when David Landau was the editor of the JPost, it was left wing in the extreme. I mean extreme. David Horovitz does not come within a million miles of the left wing slant that the JPost had in the Landau years, nor does TOI today.

  7. Toby Klein Greenwald

    Having said that, it’s possible that the news has been so abused over the years by outlets like Haaretz, etc., that when we read a news vehicle that is less extreme left wing than those, they suddenly seem balanced in comparison.

    1. Yes. Certain words have become accepted into the journalistic lexicon. “West Bank” for instance is inaccurate, but accepted. We don’t even blink at that anymore. But we should. We should note the use and we should be more accurate in our own words.

  8. Very good points Varda.

    I am also extremely irritated (to put it mildly) by calling the attack a “suspected” terror attack. What the hell else could it be?

    Also, although the JPost coverage was a bit more balanced, their URL says “Nine year old girl shot in West Bank”. The headline itself was OK though.

  9. I must be the only person who earth who thinks there should be a red line on the murder of individual Jews.

    Israel’s government has no right to demand action on Iran when it tolerates the attempted murder of Jewish children! That is the bottom line.

  10. They should have headlined it like Mickey Rosenfeld tweeted

    Micky Rosenfeld @MickyRosenfeld

    Strong possibility of terrorist attack in Binyamin area after 9 yrs old girl was shot while playing outside. Security units searching area

    1. First of all, Joseph, “West Bank” is an inaccurate description of this territory. That describes these lands as being on the West Bank of the Jordan River from the perspective of Transjordan.

      Jordan occupied this area, which had been promised to the Jews by the British Mandate, the promise having been ratified by the League of Nations, in 1948. In 1967, during a defensive war, Israel regained this territory, which was largely uninhabited by Arabs.

      In Israel, if people leave a place, Arabs come and take it. If one were to listen to you, all Jews would leave Israel for good. But then, where would they live that would NOT be dangerous for them?

      There is no such place.

      This area is not the “West Bank” of the Jordan River for someone inside of Transjordan, it is the biblical Judea and Samaria that was and always will be a part of the holy land of the Jews. Jews have a right to live and settle there. The settlers are brave for living their lives peacefully there to carry out the religious imperative of “settling the Land.”

      The Arabs are cowards for shooting children and stoning family cars.

    2. I would add to Varda’s excellent reply above and ask you where in Israel do you consider it is safe and not “high-crime” for Jews to live? After all, terrorists have carried out more bombings and killed more people withing the pre-1967 lines than in Judea and Samaria. Remember the bus bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and Hadera and Afula? Remember the mall bombings in Netanya and Petach Tikva? The restaurant bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv? The club bombings in Rishon leZion and Tel Aviv? The barmitzvah and Seder night bombings in Netanya and Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and…

      Do you suggest Israelis leave all of these places? Where should we go to? Why should we leave anyway? Let the criminals and terrorists leave! They should be jailed or deported if not executed.

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