Forward's Goldberg: "Why is the Israeli side getting equal time?"

[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?

[stepnw1f]

1. Good Question

anyone want to answer?

[Igel]

12. Why guess, when Goldberg provides his own.

It's undoubtedly what he had in mind when he asked the question, and is just a click away.

[BurtWorm]

15. Goldberg is excellent at summarizing the nature of this beast

This beast being bias in favor of Israel in the US media. He's also excellent at explaining the bias toward the Paelstinians and Arabs on the European left.

[QuestionAll...]

17. It's always been this way with US media.

which partly explains why things are still the way they are in Israel/Palestine. ignorance.

sunlight is not allowed on this topic. Not even on these forums, unfortunately.
There was an informative post of the history of I/P on GD yesterday. Contributors included Chomsky, Said, etc., etc., a real eye opener of the chronology, quotes, etc.

It was thrown into the I/P forum, then locked because it didn't conform to I/P forum rules (but orginated in GD when at the time Israel topic names were allowed without using a media headline.

you just gotta wonder.

[BurtWorm]

18. I printed out the booklet and have been reading it the past couple of days

Tariq Ali's "The Clash of Fundamentalisms" also has an excellent honest history of the region in the 20th Century.

Welcome to DU. :toast:

[warrens]

2. Because they're the "good guys"

Unlike those shifty towelheads.

[cigsandcoffee]

3. Should wars really be fought with matched casualties?

Isn't that a recipe for endless attrition? In a battle of attrition, Israel will lose.

[BuyingThyme]

4. God forbid Israel lose a war of terrorist aggression.

[BurtWorm]

5. So the US should be having a lot more deaths in Iraq?

:wtf:

[cigsandcoffee]

6. Indeed. WTF?

I don't understand this idea that each side should suffer equal casualties in order for a war to be fair.

Are they saying that if Hezbollah fires a rocket at Israel, Israel should only fire one back at that position?

[BurtWorm]

7. Is Israel at war with Hezbollah or Lebanon?

[MADem]

9. They are at war with the former, who operate as a militia within the state

of the latter.

[cigsandcoffee]

10. They're at war with militants in Lebanon.

I'd say that puts Lebanon in the direct line of fire, wouldn't you?

[BurtWorm]

14. The amount of casualties Lebanon has suffered is disproportionate

to the amount Israel has suffered--and it isn't even Lebanon that is at war with Israel. It's as though the US were killing scores and scores of Canadians trying to hit Qaeda cells in Quebec.

[lastliberalintexas]

11. Ah, but don't you know that the terms are interchangeable?

Lebanon or Lebanese equals Hezbollah for far too many people, even some posters here. :eyes:

[lastliberalintexas]

8. Because the death of an innocent is the death of an innocent, period

It matters not what side of an artificial geo-political boundary one person resided, their death is just as much a tragedy as any other. Though personally I'd like to see less emphasis on artifical things such as nationality and more emphasis on the fact that a human being's life was taken. Someone's mother, father, brother, sister, or child died. Period.

Sorry, but the article cited in the OP is just as obnoxious as the posters here who decry lamentations of Lebanese deaths with reminders that Isaraelis are being killed too.

[bemildred]

13. Let's give Mr. Goldberg some credit here.

:applause:

[gula]

16. Credit for what ?

You might want to read post 53 here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2412331

[bemildred]

19. Why? I am familiar with all that.

Goldberg gives a reasoned and dispassionate analysis, something sadly lacking most of the time.