Forward's Goldberg: "Why is the Israeli side getting equal time?" [View All]

[BurtWorm]

JJ Goldberg, editor of the Jewish Forward, on WNYC's On the Media:

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_072106_a.html

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So let's talk about the American coverage. In general, how would you characterize it?

J.J. GOLDBERG: I think at the moment, the American press is attempting to be scrupulously balanced — X number of bombs here, X number of rockets there, a story about a family that suffered losses in Lebanon, a story about a family that suffered losses in Israel. But when you look at the death tolls, you have to ask why is the balance so scrupulous?

As we're speaking today — it's Thursday — there were about 300 deaths on the Lebanese side. Almost all of them, except for a dozen or so, were civilians. On the Israeli side, you had about 26 or 28 deaths, just over half were civilians, so that there's an imbalance in the number of losses.

And if you're simply looking at victimization and the human casualties, you would have to ask why is the Israeli side getting equal time?