Monday, September 22, 2008

Biased Headline of the Day (BHOTD)

I should start off by pointing out that by the time I got around to writing this blog entry, it has lost some of its punch.
But its main point still remains:
Today, a Palestinian woman through acid in a soldiers face. When Haaretz first reported the story, they did it in a very strange fashion: (Now here is where I lose my punch since they have already changed the headline. But, the original headline went something like this):
"Near Nablus, Woman Throws Acid in Soldiers Face"
(Again my wording may be a bit off a bit but the main point is accurate)
Note what is written there - a very vanilla, adjective free - Woman. True if you drill down through the link and read the article there was mention that said Woman was a Palestenian Woman. But just by reading the headline there is no mention of that.
For all we know or can tell, (and I am sure Haaretz is hoping you will think that) it might have been a Settler Woman who threw the acid.
Of course, you can be sure that if it was an actual Settler Woman who threw the acid (not that they would have done that) but if one had - it would have been clearly spelled out in the headline and left no doubt in your mind that it was the evil, violent, extreme right wing, Settler who threw the acid.

As mentioned above, Haaretz has actually changed the headline - it now calls the perpetrator as a Palestinian Woman - but I think my main point remains.
In fact, if you read the article, you can see how Haaretz takes every opportunity to attack the Settlers - and takes advantage of the situation to again make mention of the supposed "Settler Rampage".

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