CNNi: Unfair & Unbalanced

Yaakov Lappin has written something that documents CNN International's unfair and unbalanced reporting that I recommend to everyone.
Scant attention is paid to Israeli civilians while a long report featuring images and interviews of Lebanese civilians followed. The report's startling lack of representation of the suffering experienced by so many Israeli civilians stood in stark contrast to the interviews and video footage taken of Lebanese children and scenes of wreckage shown from across Lebanon.

The report began with an account of Haifa by a CNN female correspondent. During the report, there is a single, brief image of Israeli civilians, sitting at a cafe in Haifa. The picture remains on the screen for a number of seconds, before the journalist is seen being interviewed by the CNN anchor.
That CNN International isn't fair and balanced isn't news. It's just alarming. Alarming because they don't have any pretense of reporting 'the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth' in equal portions. It just isn't interested in that. They have an agenda and that agenda is on full display in this article.
Other than a momentary statistic appearing on the screen, there is no mention of the large number of Israelis who have become displaced from their homes in the north, and the journey home which awaits them to homes possible destroyed by Hizbullah rockets, although on the Lebanese side of the border, the report takes a long look at the return of Lebanese refugees to their homes in southern Lebanon.
Let's compare this report with the report filed from Lebanon:
The second half of the report, by CNN's Ben Wiederman, was dramatically different. The report was saturated with images of Lebanese children playing in ruins, blood stains, destroyed buildings, and personal accounts of Lebanese families attempting to head back to south Lebanon. It was introduced by CNN's anchor, who said: "Nasrallah also acknowledged the deaths and the destruction of the Lebanese homes, but he said Hizbullah would be ready to help rebuild."

"It was a morning like so many other recent mornings in Tyre. And then there was silence. The ceasefire went into effect at 8 AM local time. And with the prospect of calm, it didn't take long for many of Lebanon's refugees, estimated at more than a million, to pack their belongings, and head south towards home," Wiederman said. "Beirut's Sinara park has become a temporary refuge. But Monday morning some decided it was to go back. To what, they weren't sure," he added.
Nothing like reporting with the same objective, fair-minded tone, huh? Based on this reporting, it's difficult, if not impossible, to see this as anything but an intentional hatchet job by CNNi. The picture painted is that of Israel as though life just goes on while the Lebanese have had their lives ripped to shreds. Nothing is further from the truth.

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Posted Tuesday, August 15, 2006 5:24 AM

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