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Thursday, 18 August 2011 13:43

Media Bias Overview

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U.S. media coverage of Israel-Palestine is consistently Israel-centric. Palestinian deaths – which in virtually all cycles of violence occur first and in far greater numbers – are reported at far lower rates than Israeli deaths. Most are not reported at all.

Coverage of the Israel Lobby is so minimal that many well-informed Americans are unaware of such entities as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), even though it is one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in the U.S.

Significant legislation is frequently not covered, major junkets to Israel go unreported, incidents are covered with considerable pro-Israel spin.

Newspapers publish a disproportionate number of pro-Israel opinion pieces; frequently they will refuse to publish articles containing negative facts that about Israel or that describe the plight of Palestinians.

Israeli assaults on Americans, such as the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty and torture of American citizens, receive inordinately small or inaccurate coverage

Control bureaus for the region are located in Israel and are frequently populated by people with personal and family ties to the Israeli military.

Since the press is arguably the most powerful institution in the United States, this pattern of distorted news coverage plays a major role in policy formation.

Additional Studies, Articles, and Resources

Alison Weir

Alison Weir is the president of the Council for the National Interest, a former journalist and the founder of If Americans Knew, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the Israel-Palestine conflict, specializing in statistical analysis. Weir writes and speaks widely about Israel-Palestine, with particular focus on media coverage. Her articles on the subject have been published in anthologies both in the U.S. and abroad and in diverse online and print publications.

Ms. Weir has given talks at numerous universities, including Harvard Law School, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Yale, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Naval Postgraduate Institute; four times at the Asia Media Summit in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, and has twice given briefings on Capitol Hill.

Former U.S. Congressman Tom Campbell (R-CA) said of her presentation: “Ms. Weir presents a powerful, well documented view of the Middle East today. She is intelligent, careful, and critical. American policy makers would benefit greatly from hearing her first-hand observations and attempting to answer the questions she poses.”

The New York Times reported of her lecture in Greenwich, Connecticut: “When the speech ended, Ms. Weir was met with thunderous applause, and across the room there was a widespread sense of satisfaction that someone was saying what needed to be said.”

In 2004 she was inducted into honorary membership of Phi Alpha Literary Society, founded in 1845 at Illinois College. The award cited her as a: “Courageous journalist-lecturer on behalf of human rights. The first woman to receive an honorary membership in Phi Alpha history.”

Website: www.alisonweir.org

National Summit to Reassess the US-Israel "Special Relationship"

The public is invited to a nonpartisan symposium Nov. 8-9 that will examine the impact of the US-Israel relationship on Americans. Panels will include top military, diplomatic, intelligence, academic, governmental, and economic experts, as well as former Congressional representatives. Read more

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