Posts tagged gaza
You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are - E. Albee
Two of these are political cartoons, while the Steve Bell piece from The Guardian is apparently a 24-carat piece of anti-semitic propaganda … which “implies that the jews run the world” … I thank the Telegraph for the clarification even if it kind of ruins a joke when you slobber over it with patronising goo. At these times of open conflict the US media likes to portray that country as a neutral bystander: pull the other one, writes Glenn Greenwald. Or in the words of Seamus Milne: “It isn’t Palestinian rockets that stop Israel lifting the blockade, dismantling its illegal settlements or withdrawing from the West Bank and Gaza – it’s unconditional US and western support that gives Israel impunity.”
![News from the Front: Today’s war reporting looks like this. An IDF text message warns residents of Gaza that phase two of its assault is about to commence [ @ranagaza ]. Meanwhile, a Haaretz reporter has just posted on Twitter that 75 000 reservists are set to be mobilised in Israel. A resident of the territory tweets a new death toll. Inside Israel, people have been asked not to tweet, Instagram or Facebook any reference to a rocket strike or any explosion, for fear Hamas might use the geotag data of their social media posts to confirm strikes and amend targeting.
* Seven more weeks? [ Ynet ]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdled5CJ8e1qh6iluo1_500.jpg)
News from the Front: Today’s war reporting looks like this. An IDF text message warns residents of Gaza that phase two of its assault is about to commence [ @ranagaza ]. Meanwhile, a Haaretz reporter has just posted on Twitter that 75 000 reservists are set to be mobilised in Israel. A resident of the territory tweets a new death toll. Inside Israel, people have been asked not to tweet, Instagram or Facebook any reference to a rocket strike or any explosion, for fear Hamas might use the geotag data of their social media posts to confirm strikes and amend targeting.
* Seven more weeks? [ Ynet ]
… “There is no other choice, Israel must carry out
a formatting action in Gaza, actually
format the system and clean it out” …
Why can’t the BBC see?
Alt timeline #1 | Alt timeline #2 | Alt timeline #3
Even a novice blogger can tell you that posting headlines based on momentary snapshots of a fast-changing narrative are likely to mislead. Twitter is the stuff of unfettered news streams. Websites should be edited.
So what is a reader to make of the headline above: “Gaza rocket fire kills Israelis”? What instinctive conclusions does such a snapshot invite us to arrive at? And is this a fair way of covering this story? [ BBC website screenshot taken at 10am today ].
We all have bias but the BBC clings to the figleaf of old news organisations that maintains objectivity is possible and can be protected no matter what. Its strategy here seems to be to suffocate whatever bias might exist behind the avalanche of changing data such a fast-changing story offers. It is a way of avoiding the responsibility to contextualise for fear of being obliged to tell a version of truth some will disagree with. And the results make its website appear either glib or biased. In my view, the latter.
Activestills.org : images from Gaza 14/11
… with a bang and a tweet
Is this the first declaration of war via Twitter?
The end of the truce came with a bang and a tweet. The Israeli Defence Force’s formal declaration of war on Gaza — Operation Pillar of Defence — came via Twitter. A recurring bloody nightmare for Palestinians, and possibly a first for social media. Minutes later came the update that its forces had killed a senior Hamas representative in the territory, Ahmad Jaabari. As more and more residents of Twitter Mansions began to wake and report on the deed, the IDF feed switched communication style, from news & information to rhetoric & propaganda. In the meantime, its shells were beginning to strike with all the murderous will that military people often translate as “surgical precision”. French photographer Anne Paq updated her own feed an hour or so later …
