media bias

Since I've been in France, I've been reading Le Monde for my daily news. Its the equivalent of the New York Times or the Globe and Mail. I've found that its much, much better. The coverage is more in depth, and context is provided.

On some issues, I've noticed a substantial difference in coverage between the French press and the North American press. Take the recent Gaza war for example.

I read this in an article yesterday:

"Selon Amos Harel, correspondant militaire du quotidien israélien Ha'aretz, l'emploi d'une puissance de feu très lourde est le produit d'un choix délibéré de l'état-major. "A la suite du traumatisme de la guerre du Liban, en 2006, l'armée a réalisé que de fortes pertes saperaient le soutien populaire dont bénéficie la guerre et limiterait sa capacité à atteindre ses objectifs. Par conséquent, elle a décidé d'employer des tactiques agressives pour sauvegarder la vie de ses soldats." Cette option est d'autant plus facile à mettre en oeuvre que la presse étrangère, absente de Gaza, ne peut pas en décrire les ravages. "Quand nous soupçonnons qu'un combattant palestinien se cache dans une maison, nous tirons un missile, puis deux obus de tank et enfin un bulldozer abat les murs. Cela fait des dégâts, mais nous évitons des pertes", explique un officier cité par le Ha'aretz."

For those who don't read French, this is someone from the Israeli army describing their targeting tactics. They suffered losses in the Lebanese war, and to avoid a repeat they have decided to employed heavy, indiscriminate fire. This option has been made easier by the lack of foreign press in Gaza. Says the officer: "If we suspect that a Palestinian fighter is hiding in a house, we first fire a missile, the two tanks rounds, and then finally bulldoze the house. It causes damages, but this way we avoid losses".

Then this morning I looked at the New York Times:

"Israeli officials said that they were examining all the allegations, that they did not aim at civilians and that they were not certain that the source of fire that killed and wounded the United Nations drivers was Israeli."

"We do our utmost to avoid hitting civilians, and many times we don’t fire because we see civilians nearby,” said Maj. Avital Leibovich, chief army spokeswoman for the foreign media. "

Night and Day.