Israel vs. Palestine in the Media Part 1

For some years, the conflict in the Middle East has been one of the most regularly covered topics in the media. While the majority of the coverage has been negative, related to suicide bombers or other violent attacks, there have also been some interesting human interest stories that have accompanied the negative coverage. Personal opinions aside, the U.S. has generally taken a position that is more supportive of Israel as opposed to Palestine, which has transferred in to the media's coverage of the events. 

 For instance, from the Israeli side, the most recent news is Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to submit his resignation in light of the charges he is facing for corruption related to financial dealings. An election was held last week to determine who would be Olmert's successor.  The CNN article includes a quote from the President Shimon explaining how he plans to proceed and what his role in the upcoming phase will be.  It also touches on the importance of the next six weeks because whoever successfully forms the cabinet will ultimately be the main negotiator with Palestinian officials in an effort to end the conflict as peacefully as possible.  The BBC article gives a straight forward synopsis of the election , outlining exactly what will happen over the next six weeks and what will happen in the event the requirements are not met within the alloted time period. The expert analysis in the article is from a BBC reporter who is based in Jerusalem. 

This difference in coverage is in support of the idea that American media does maintain it's bias (see below) while still reporting the facts.  For the uninformed, the BBC piece accompanied by the background section offers a clear cut explanation of this election process giving them the necessary facts.  The CNN piece gives more of a context to the magnitude of the issue without sensationalizing the story.  For the reader, having the President of a country comment on an issue shows that the issue is prominent and of great importance to the political process of that country. 

Does this article support the idea that American media (specifically CNN) is more biased than it's international counterpart BBC? Or does it show that the BBC gives its audience the news objectively, without the subtle bias?

In the next installment, I will examine the Palestinian point of view with an article directly related to the conflict. I will also take a look at the media outlets on each side of the conflict.

For the remainder of this semester, I will examine media coverage for each human rights issue discussed. I will primarily look at two major sources, CNN and BBC World, as I am particularly interested in mainstream media outlet's coverage of international conflicts.  Earlier this year, BBC World released a report supporting their claim that American media outlets are extremely biased in their coverage of news. In the summer of 2007, BBC World launched a guerilla marketing campaign to support their claims and encourage the American public to demand the addition of BBC World to local cable offerings across the country.  At the time, I was a part of the team who conducted the media outreach in support of the guerilla marketing campaign and found this topic very interesting. I will also look at the media outlets available in the particular country to analyze any biases that may exist.