Media Bias?

Fanatics often believe that any media reporting that they find incompatible with their beliefs is due to bias. It’s so prominent in relation to this topic, that it was first described as a specific phenomenon in research on perception on the Israel-Palestine conflict. It’s known as the ‘hostile media effect’.

And Aussie Dave Bigot has it bad.

He screams media bias over an article about the crazy Hebron settlers attacking a six year old boy. Dave dos the usual moaning that,

the headline and last paragraph convey what is essentially an allegation by palestinian medics as fact……. once again, the mainstream media are not reporting fairly or accurately.

Dave provides a quote from the story, but leaves out the first line that makes it quite clear where the allegation is coming from,

Jewish settlers on Saturday beat up a six-year-old Palestinian boy near the West Bank town of Hebron, and he was taken to hospital suffering from moderate head wounds, medics said.

Bias, as they say, is usually in the eye of the beholder. Or as an Australian journalist once remarked, claims of bias regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict usually tell you a lot more about the claimant than about the media coverage.