Civilians Hit By Rockets that Won't Get Sobbing, Sympathetic New York Times Articles
As Israel begins to go to what is a sadly familiar war footing, journalists everywhere are feverishly working through their own pre-conflict routines. Indeed, in newsrooms throughout the world this morning, journalists are steeling themselves toward their usual task of mindlessly parroting trumped up civilian casualty figures provided by Arab militias and terrorists. Sure, they could write about the civilians hit by a Hezbollah rocket...
One rocket scored a direct hit on a house in Shtula. Magen David Adom said they had treated six people so far. Both soldiers and civilians have been wounded. The wounded were being evacuated to Nahariya hospital.
...but that's not the way the words usually fit into their paragraphs (in fact, we're quite sure that these victims will come nowhere close to a soppy, hand-wringing New York Times leds about how scared their children are and how much they want peace?)
So if not stories accurately passing on information about Hezbollah's vicious rocket attack on Israeli homes, what kind of stories are we likely to see today? Remember that you read it on Mere Rhetoric first: journalists will try to present both the Israeli and the Hezbollah sides of the conflict as if these were two equal disputants. Already we imagine that the word processors are warming up and the faux sophisticates are finishing their last cups of coffee. Soon we will all be treated to what we're always treated to: "Hezbollah said this totally absurd untrue thing. Israel denied it. Oh well, there are two sides to every story". Hezbollah kidnaps Israelis, Israel tries to recover them - see, it's a cycle of violence!
These stock media descriptions will of course be chosen over descriptions that could fairly be called, err, accurate: one side keeps attacking and the other side keeps getting attacked.
One rocket scored a direct hit on a house in Shtula. Magen David Adom said they had treated six people so far. Both soldiers and civilians have been wounded. The wounded were being evacuated to Nahariya hospital.
...but that's not the way the words usually fit into their paragraphs (in fact, we're quite sure that these victims will come nowhere close to a soppy, hand-wringing New York Times leds about how scared their children are and how much they want peace?)
So if not stories accurately passing on information about Hezbollah's vicious rocket attack on Israeli homes, what kind of stories are we likely to see today? Remember that you read it on Mere Rhetoric first: journalists will try to present both the Israeli and the Hezbollah sides of the conflict as if these were two equal disputants. Already we imagine that the word processors are warming up and the faux sophisticates are finishing their last cups of coffee. Soon we will all be treated to what we're always treated to: "Hezbollah said this totally absurd untrue thing. Israel denied it. Oh well, there are two sides to every story". Hezbollah kidnaps Israelis, Israel tries to recover them - see, it's a cycle of violence!
These stock media descriptions will of course be chosen over descriptions that could fairly be called, err, accurate: one side keeps attacking and the other side keeps getting attacked.
