More Press distortions onthe Mideast -- AP Beirut photo faces questions

Concerned Citizen: Thanks to Joel Seidemann for this one.

This story, link below, focusses on two news photos, taken two weeks apart at different locations, showing the same woman supposedly mourning the destruction of her different homes. As one blog noted, "Either this woman is the unluckiest multiple home owner in Beirut, or something isn't quite right".

While you can't necessarily blame editors in London for getting bamboozled like this in an isolated incident, it is clear that in these news organizations are in a competitive thirst for copy, blood and vivid storytelling that support a "narrative" (often an inflammatory, anti-Israeli one). Last year a senior correspondent from a major US news magazine spoke to a group of which I was a member in Jerusalem. In response to a question the objectivity and balance of news presentation regarding Israel, he unapologetically told us that the public is interested in hearing a narrative, and often that narrative calls for the media to "take a view" to properly tell that story. Interesting --when I received journalism training in high school, I was taught that storytelling and opinions were the province of the editorial page and Hollywood, not news organizations.

I support an organization called Honestreporting (www.honestreporting.com) that focusses its efforts on calling out media organizations and holding them to a level of responsibility against such biased behavior. HR started during the Intifada, have close to 150,000 subscribers, and their watchdog activity has changed the way news organizations such as the BBC react to issues like this one. I urge you to support them.


AP Beirut photo faces questions - News from Israel, Ynetnews